Christianity and violence!

[Gotterdammerung.2]

America in the 20th century has suffered from many violent incidents which can be traced back to Christianity. Some have been organized, others not so organized, but all the result of specifically violent or dangerous doctrines promoted in Christian churches. Often the hatred and violence circles around particular issues, like homosexuality or abortion



Is Christianity only a religion of Peace and Love? I do not think that anyone can honestly and objectively examine these situations in American society and answer "yes" to that question. Christianity can encourage Peace and Love - but it certainly need not, and it quite often has done just the opposite.



Although the people responsible for violence might have found a way to express their hatred without Christianity, it cannot be ignored that Christianity offers a convenient divine mandate for hatred and violent acts against a wide range of people in our diverse country. Christians are going to have to seriously rethink and revamp their faith if they are going to join in building a prosperous, pluralistic America of the future.

[Gotterdammerung.2]

Christianity's war against abortion...

Abortion clinics, providers and workers often live in fear of Christian activists. Only recently captured, Eric Rudolph has been charged with a deadly bombing at the Olympics and with two other blasts in Atlanta at abortion clinics. Although the choice of the Olympics as a target may sound strange, it must be remembered that many far-right Christians regard anything which smacks of internationalism - the UN, the IMF, and the Olympics - as tools of Satan. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms regards the other recent attempted bombings and attempted arson attacks at Alabama abortion clinics to represent a heightened threat to life and property.



Government officials in both Canada and the United States have issued warnings to abortion doctors to take extra precautions. Anti-abortion extremists in Britain have warned the public that there "will be casualties" in the coming war, and that they did not intend to "turn the other cheek." As the anti-abortion rhetoric has increased over the years, so has the anti-abortion violence - property is destroyed, people are killed, and women are denied access to medical care.



When Muslim extremists place a bomb at a bus station in Israel, it is justifiably regarded as an act committed by "Muslim Terrorists." When are we going to wake up and recognize that similar acts here are being committed by "Christian Terrorists?"
Unfortunately, that label won't be used by anyone prominent any time soon. Conservative Christian groups are very quick to jump all over anyone who even so much as hints that Christians, as Christians, are responsible for any act of violence. It's one massive attempt at clinical denial, and the media and government rarely disturbs the fantasy.



Two recent examples show how dangerous such a disturbance can be. In one case the FBI and the Justice Department suggested that Eric Rudolph might be receiving aid or even a hiding place from any one of a number of anti-abortion groups in America. The reaction to this suggestion was swift and brutal as it was labeled "irresponsible, biased, and scurrilous."



Anti-abortion activists are quick to take offense at the idea that their movement might have anything whatsoever to do with helping an accused murderer - of course, this is the same movement which has produced "hit lists" of abortion doctors. We have also seen the widespread use of violent, war-like language on the part of major figures in the anti-abortion movement, and anyone who thinks that such rhetoric cannot have a negative impact is themselves in serious denial.



In another example, Katie Couric of the Today Show questioned whether or not the murder of Matthew Shepard might be linked with the increasingly hostile displays of intolerance on the part of various right-wing Christian groups like Focus on the Family. The reaction from members of such organizations was quick and massive - so massive, in fact, that NBC had to ask Focus on the Family to cease and desist with the phone calls. James Dobson, president of the organization, has also asked for an official apology from NBC.



Apparently, he is free to accuse homosexuals of whatever he wants - linking them to crime and drug use, if that is his whim - but any suggestion that his rhetoric encourages a climate of hate and violence is to be considered libelous. Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center considers it "one of the most insidious and bigoted attacks against Christians ever seen" for someone to suggest that Christians bear any responsibility for the Matthew Shepard's death. Somehow, I doubt he takes the suggestion that Christians are exhibiting any bigotry towards homosexuality very seriously.



Christianity & Abortion in America: Violence, Murder, Fear

[Gotterdammerung.2]

Christianity's war against itself...



The terrible combination of nationalism, politics and religion has had deadly consequences for the people living in Northern Ireland. Catholics and Protestants have been vilifying, attacking, torturing and killing each other in a seemingly endless cycle which has only recently begun to show hopeful signs of finally ending. Ulster, the focal point of most of the violence, is an amazingly beautiful province.
But it's also a city where Catholics and Protestant live in walled-off, self-created ghettos for mutual protection. The sniper bullets are usually blocked, but stones and bottles make it over the top.
The origins of Ireland's "troubles" lie in the distant past of English imperialism. The creation of an Anglican Protestant church also created a fundamental religious conflict with an Irish population having little interest in converting with their neighbors. It wasn't until the reign of Elizabeth I that Ireland was finally "conquered," but she was never able to halt regular Catholic uprisings



Ulster was drawn forever into the conflict when James I seized Catholic lands in and around the city in order to give them to loyal Protestants from England and Scotland. Evicted Catholics starved in the surrounding hills until a few crawled back and begged for menial jobs on their former farms. Unsurprisingly, revolts among Catholics continued across Ireland. When Puritan Oliver Cromwell took control of England, his reprisals against Catholics were amazing in their brutality.



Under 1700's Penal Laws, Catholicism was outlawed and priests were banished. Catholics who tried to continue their faith in secret were hunted with dogs and regularly killed outright. Although Catholicism regained legal status in the 1800's, Catholics had to pay tithes to the Anglican church. When this led to the "Tithe War," both sides perpetrated cruelties in the name of the same God .



Finally, in this century, the southern counties of Ireland were finally liberated from English rule - and became a 90% Catholic country where even today divorce is outlawed and women have to travel to England to obtain abortions. But the descendants of King James' colonists voted to remain united with England - they feared how they would be treated in a predominantly Catholic nation.
Later events indicate that such a fear may have been justified. In the 1950's, the Irish Republican Army was formed and began a terrorist campaign in and around Ulster to force reunification with the south. Protestants formed their own paramilitary organizations to retaliate. When British troops arrived to enforce peace, their heavy-handed and inexperienced tactics ended up alienating both sides, making British soldiers targets for both Catholic and Protestant terrorists.



Violence was perhaps worst during the 1970's when hundreds of terrorist acts were recorded year after year. Eventually, things settled down to the intensity of a small scale war. As James A. Haught has reported:

...in 1985, a relatively quiet year, authorities recorded fifty-four assassinations, 148 bombings, 237 shootings, 916 woundings, 522 arrests on terrorism charges, 31 kneecappings (shooting out a person's kneecaps) and 3.3 tons of explosives and weapons seized. All this in a tiny country with a population of 1.5 million people.

August 15, 2002, will be the fourth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in over 30 years. In Omagh, 500 pounds of explosives shattered the downtown, killing 29 people and injuring over 100, including children and tourists. Even today, no one has been arrested. The anniversary was marked by riots in Londonderry as Catholic protestors hurled Molotov cocktails at police to express anger at the fact that Protestants had been granted permission to march in memorial of some ancient and forgettable battle.


Chrstianity and Violence: Northern Ireland

[Anydowro]

and Jesus said: instead of following what I did, people worshiped me instead... lol

[grovestreet]

mao ni ako ikasulti...

YouTube - Terence McKenna: What's to be done?

[jamesmusslewhite]

Gotterdammerung.2

True followers of Christ will not murder, lie, cheat, convent, steal, or purposely commit sins. There are a lot of people who claim to be Christians with their mouths and are evil in their hearts. People are inherently evil by nature. The problem is some people are too stupid to be able to make that distinction. Yes evil people use religion as an excuse to commit evil acts, but that does not make the religions evil. Few religions in the world preach religion, it is the misinterpretations of foolish or evil followers that are the problem. To say it is only Christianity that makes them do evel acts, is delusional hog dribble.

I am a Christian and I believe even those that work for abortion clinics and the parents that allow their babies to be aborted have the right to live. Even if 1.5 million little American citizen are aborted in US every year. That is more than one child for every 300 people presently living in the US every year, are brutally executed without consideration of their civil rights, or their rights to their pursuit of happiness. You take a living being, role it over cut the spine behind the infant's neck just below it's skull. Then a vacuum tube is inserted into that incision so the brain can be sucked of or the skull before it is crushed and the baby fetus is discarded into a trash receptacle. Yes what an honorable profession abortionist are.

I can call myself a Martian and kill in the name of Martian supremacy, but it will not make me a Martian. I will only be a delusional evil man. I can but my hand on a thousand Bibles and call myself Christian, but if I do not live be the teachings of Christ, that I am not a Christian. I will only be a delusional man. An if I think the book allows me to kill another man, than I am a delusional evil man...NOT CHRISTIAN.

Maybe the problem with this world is they are aborting the wrong babies. If I were to say that Atheism make men evil is equally wrong. Atheism is not a justification or reason Lenin, Stalin, Mao, or Saloth Sar killed 70 million of their own countrymen. No more than Christianity or Islam caused the massacres in South Mindanao. Evil men, who desire power, prestige, fame, wealth, and evil lusts causes the woes of the world. Religion is not evil, man is evil. Religion does not kill, men kill. Call evil what it is, EVIL.

[Traditz]

America in the 20th century has suffered from many violent incidents which can be traced back to Christianity. Some have been organized, others not so organized, but all the result of specifically violent or dangerous doctrines promoted in Christian churches. Often the hatred and violence circles around particular issues, like homosexuality or abortion

Sir, kinsa ang author sa article?

Unsa nga mga doctrines for example nga dangerous, sir?

Is Christianity only a religion of Peace and Love? I do not think that anyone can honestly and objectively examine these situations in American society and answer "yes" to that question. Christianity can encourage Peace and Love - but it certainly need not, and it quite often has done just the opposite.



Although the people responsible for violence might have found a way to express their hatred without Christianity, it cannot be ignored that Christianity offers a convenient divine mandate for hatred and violent acts against a wide range of people in our diverse country. Christians are going to have to seriously rethink and revamp their faith if they are going to join in building a prosperous, pluralistic America of the future.

What do you think about the article?

[Traditz]

Medyo taas2x man ang articles. Mas maayo siguro if we can discuss the issues na lang. Christianity and violence, unsa ang pasabot ani?

[chad_tukes]

Gotterdammerung.2True followers of Christ will not murder, lie, cheat, convent, steal, or purposely commit sins.

you sure about this? true followers of Christs like priests, bishops, etc... were the same people who perpetrated the Spanish Inquisition. heretics burned alive, killed publicly, because they turned their backs on their so-called "GOD".

[Traditz]

you sure about this? true followers of Christs like priests, bishops, etc... were the same people who perpetrated the Spanish Inquisition. heretics burned alive, killed publicly, because they turned their backs on their so-called "GOD".

Sir, nganu naka-ingun ka nga true followers to sila kato'ng ni-perpetrate sa Inquisition?