Religious violence: Illegitimate claims of Christian aggression

I agree that Jesus did not sanction violence, and his "commandment" is the Golden Rule. Christianity has been hijacked many times though, co-opted to assist in colonization, used as a political tool, including the slaughter of whole civilisations, and inflicted cruel tortures, ie the Inquisition. Fascist religious fundamentalism is nothing new, militant Islam is only the latest version, but wildly anachronistic, even unreal in this day and age. Christianity not only is complicit in terrible crimes from long ago - the Churches have a lot of work to do to get their houses in order even today. Christianity practiced according to Jesus would be as simple as applying the Golden Rule at all times. But how many Christians do that?

As the person who brought it up, I will say I honestly don't believe Jesus would advocate such punishment. These people who killed in the name of Christianity are NOT true Christians.

There is plenty of justification for agression and violence in the Bible, including the fact that Jesus is only the Son, and the God the Father is in charge and has advocated violence many times in the Bible, enough so that the Catholic and Protestant churches never had any problem torturing and burning unbelievers ("sinners") or declaring war on other countries, or wiping out the primitive natives of many distant lands, and thinking it was what God would want. The Son is obviously a nice kind boy, but he is a wimp. God the Father is in charge, and he'd make his boy shape up and kill too, so as not to be an embarrassment to him. I'm sure that's how a lot of the Church leaders have felt about that Son Jesus. And he did show some gumption when he said "I came not to bring peace but a sword." That's bound to put a proud gleam in their eye. That boy's gonna be alright, yeah.

Amen.

1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Many Muslims say the same thing...that the violence is not Islam.

My answer to both..yeah right....

It wasn't so many years ago that "Christians" were doing things similar to what the Muslims are doing now. Think of the Inqusition. Torture and slaughter of thousands of innocents.

To say that they weren't following Jesus is ..duh.. They were self professed Christians.. the Church its self.

Christianity is not just the teachings of Jesus.. it is the whole mishmash of Judaesim, Paul/Saul, "tradition", and massive borrowing from earlier religions.

A poor reading of scripture raises hell. Christ no more meant a literal sword than he literally meant some ought to cut off their hand or pluck out their eye.

As I said, Christ never taught violence, which is really the crux of the point. I suppose however that anyone with an agenda or an axe to grind could protest much, and they often do.

"blow them all away in the name of the lord" - Jerry Falwell, CNN 2005 (Jerry falwell has an estimated 20 million christian followers)

jerry Falwell. - now there is a true Christian.

Who will be happier when Armageddon happens? Jesus or God?