Great Moments in Christian History

I’m a bit of a history addict now. I didn’t care for it much in school (reflected in my grades), but I find as I get older - and subsequently become more “history” myself - the subject is entirely more fascinating than ever before.

The beauty of history is its ability to teach us lessons. Sadly, as has been stated many times before, history is doomed to repeat itself. This holds true with Christianity itself. It’s amazing how early we started with the bickering amongst ourselves. Heck, even Peter and Paul didn’t particularly like one another (or each other’s philosophies, to be more exact).

The thing is, for a “religion” that should be teaching tolerance and love, we sure do have a history that flies in the face of those tenets.

Take for example, the Crusades. Going on for almost 200 years, the Christian Crusades were an exercise in religious massacre. In an effort to spread Christendom, the Pope authorized these crusades so that the Holy Land of Jerusalem could be reclaimed. Unfortunately, that effort resulted in the brutal killing of many people, especially Jews. For more information about the lovely period of the Crusades, visit the Wiki entry.

Then there’s slavery. There’s another real bright spot. During the civil war, and before it, slave owners in the South justified the owning of slaves by using…you guessed it…the Bible. Oy vay. Wonderful. Some went so far as saying African Americans were direct descendants of Cain (ignoring the whole flood thing) and were thus the very incarnation of sin and evil. These same people also memorized the Bible and religiously attended church as well. After all, they were in the “Bible belt.”

The stories go on and on but the trend is apparent. Christians really know how to foul things up. Frankly, HUMANS really know how to foul things up. Religion corrupts. It controls. It justifies murder and genocide. Religion straps dynamite to a child in “the name of God” and religion convinces us to hate someone because of their skin/thoughts/birth place/you-name-it. Religion has brought no good to history and never will.

Religion is mind-control and unfortunately, there are still many, many Christians who subject themselves to this marvel of human failure. As long as people continue to find themselves ensnared by the idiocy of religion, our history will be riddled with moments of great regret.

Christianity should only ever be a way of life, not a way of thought. Christianity should be a wonderful example of love and compassion, not a crutch for judgment and condemnation. It should be a unifying philosophy, not a war-mongering divider.

It should be responsible for great moments in the history of man, not the source of some of its darkest.

This entry was posted on August 22, 2007 at 8:57 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.