Suggested reading.
After one of my many presentations following my return from Rwanda, a Canadian Forces padre asked me how, after all I had seen and experienced, I could still believe in God. I answered that I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists, and therefore I know there is a God. -- Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire, Canadian commeander of the ill-fated UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, writing in Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.
I am not a multi-culturalist, nor am I a moral relativist. I am a professed, if somewhat flawed, Christian. However, it struck me the other day in all the denunciations of the unrestrained violence being done in the name of the Muslim religion that some of the folks doing the denouncing had an imperfect understanding of their own religion's dark and bloody history. As a remedy to that, I would like to suggest a quick read of William Manchester's slim volume A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance.
Here is a pdf of the book available online.
Religions are sets of beliefs as practiced by man. That I am a believing Christian does not cause me to ignore the fact that professed Christians before me acted wholly contrary to the teaching of Christ. Sin is sin, murder is murder, rape is rape, evil is evil, regardless of which banner the Devil's disciples of the moment may fly. The fact also is that in the recent centuries, godless collectivism as practiced by governments of various stripes made murder on an industrial scale that dwarfs in size at least anything done over all of time in the name of God.
Still, Manchester reminds us that the Christian religion was perverted by men to do very anti-Christian evils in its name. And in some quarters it still is. Such knowledge should engender humility, and caution, for those of us who may be tempted to let our anger at evil suck us in to acting like the evil-doers we profess to fight.
6 comments:
True, in the past bad things were done under the banner of Christianity.
The question is whether the NT scriptures specifically say to do those things or 'Christianity' took it upon itself to do them.
islam actually commands the atrocities done in its name. mohammed is islam's idea of the perfect man and so different from Christianity's idea of the Perfect Man.
Peaceful muslims are like the Christians who go to church only on Easter and Christmas. Those muslims aren't committed and don't believe their koran but you never know when they will be hit with sudden instant jihad syndrome.
A believing muslim is a murdering psychopathic pervert bent on world domination. They have been so for 1400yrs.
Making Christianity and islam morally equivalent is a serious mistake.
We don't know whether or not anyone spoke out against the Xian slaughter of Muslims during the Crusades, but it may have happened. What we do know is that there is no one in today's Muslim community speaking out against ISIS.
As we reject the ancient treatment of Muslims, we now reject the current behavior OF Muslims.
Say boss, I have never committed those crimes, in any ones name, and it has been a very long time since that stuff happened. This is beginning to sound like that old slavery rap, something neither I or my ancestors did. I'm not going to pit one religion against another in any case, but I am absolutely fed up to the teeth with the guilt trip about things other people did, or way back when in the bad old days people I have no connection with did. I don't give a good GD about Moslems and their crap, and I am not going to start making excuses and apologies for my faith and every bowel movement I ever had, ad nauseum. I'll beat my breast over MY sins, and no one elses', and I've known what humility is enough to live that way. What was that you said, many times, about current lawful gun owners being painted with the same broad bloody brush as the mass murderers and other killers by the media and anti-gun groups? What's that smell? Good G*d, why should they mock poor fellows thus?
We are commanded to love our enemies, even to forgive them. The incredible challenge we face is seeing other men in the light of Christ, seeing them as He sees them. Loving them as He loves them.
This does not excuse murder and violence, the revolution against civility and virtue. We will defend our families and our civilization with our lives and honor.
Yesterday I finished 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis which was a well needed reminder of God's love for all sinners, especially for me. Still the law of consequences and the law of the harvest hold true.
-FSHB
Remember that Jesus stated in Matthew 5:17-20 that the Law would not cease until the Heaven and Earth pass away. Now some heritics claim that the Law was done away with when Jesus was resurrected buth that is NOT what Jesus said. Jesus did put away the "Traditions of Men" the twisted interpretation of the Law that the attorneys of the day inforced upon the people but would not live up to themselves some 1500 pages of BS called the Mirash. If you WIKI it up the information specifically ststes that it is the writing of the Pharisees comments on the law, same thing Jesus called them vipers and hypocrites for. They still can't not oppress the stranger for ye yourselves were oppressed in Egypt. The ADL is harping on us covservatives all the time and they are major anti-gunners and look up Felix Frankfurter and Louis Brandeis who were Supereme Court Justsices and devout Communists. They perverted our Constitution with all the liberal BS clearly not constitutional. Jesus cursed the attorneys for their part in the perversion of the Jewish Law. They are here doing the sam right now with our Constitution. I would offer one little finger of assistance for anything. The ADL is a bunch of hypocrites.
The Quran says that the Jews perverted the "true science". It also says that Jesus was born of an immaculate birth, he was a gift to the world and he was resurrected alive.
Let's now observe the Catholic Carninal in Georga politicing on illegal aliens and amnesty. We see the hypocracy here as their Doctine says to obey the civil authority when they violate the law by encouraging illegal aliens to stay in the country, it is a felony punishable by 5 years. Don't forget most illegals are Roman Catholic. We don't see IRS revoking their non profit for this activity now do we???
With that in mind how have we all come short???? Jesus said let no man deceive you. I suppose that if we all put ourselves to study as the Bible specificallly states to do this would not happen. The Muslims would not killing Christians, except maybe the Catholics who prey to saints and Mary-they really hate that because the Quran says it is a sin and the Ten Commandments say that Thou shalt have no other God.... The QUran also says that the Jews and Christians are not to be even taxed because they are People of the Book. Read it I did....
Seems like that we would have a lot less hate and murder if we would live by what the Books actually say. Too bad we are too damned lazy to do as instructed and we subject ourselves to subversive ideas of designing men and spiritual wickedness in high places....
Anon at 7:16am....don't worry...we'll start again soon, much to Yeshua's dismay as we do not honor the second most important commandment; to "love one another".
We will soon see a time when so-called Christians (Christo-pagans is more accurate for most main stream "Christians" today)....will advocate the killing of other sects of followers of Yeshua who don't prescribe to their line of thought.
And much of it will be due to a marriage of Islam and Christianity and a "unknown, foreign or alien god".
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