What atrocities have been committed in the name of Christianity?

Question

I was hoping to get a list, I remember the Crusades which I guess you can say the xtians lost. Also wasn't there some tortures committed by the catholic church? What about the Salem witch trials? I would like a list I have an xtian living with me now, and I would like to bang out a nice list if he starts up with preaching to me again.

Thank you,

Answer 1

The Crusades, the Witch trials, the Inquisition

Answer 2

+ The Crusades +



Muslim armies had conquered much of northern Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Spain, which had been some of the most heavily Christian areas in the world.



Thousands, and possibly millions, of Christians died during this drive to eventually bring the entire world under Islam.



The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II to check the advance of the Muslims and regain control of the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land.



If this defensive war was not fought then we would probably all be Muslim today.



I am sure that some atrocities were committed by individuals of both sides during this war but by most people's judgment this was a just war.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade





+ The Inquisition +



Modern historians have long known that the popular view of the Inquisition is a myth. The Inquisition was actually an attempt by the Catholic Church to stop unjust executions.



Heresy was a capital offense against the state. Rulers of the state, whose authority was believed to come from God, had no patience for heretics. Neither did common people, who saw heretics as dangerous outsiders who would bring down divine wrath.



When someone was accused of heresy in the early Middle Ages, they were brought to the local lord for judgment, just as if they had stolen a pig. It was not easy to discern whether the accused was really a heretic. The lord needed some basic theological training, very few did. The sad result is that uncounted thousands across Europe were executed by secular authorities without fair trials or a competent judge of the crime.



The Catholic Church's response to this problem was the Inquisition, an attempt to provide fair trials for accused heretics using laws of evidence and presided over by knowledgeable judges.



From the perspective of secular authorities, heretics were traitors to God and the king and therefore deserved death. From the perspective of the Church, however, heretics were lost sheep who had strayed from the flock. As shepherds, the pope and bishops had a duty to bring them back into the fold, just as the Good Shepherd had commanded them. So, while medieval secular leaders were trying to safeguard their kingdoms, the Church was trying to save souls. The Inquisition provided a means for heretics to escape death and return to the community.



Most people tried for heresy by the Inquisition were either acquitted or had their sentences suspended. Those found guilty of grave error were allowed to confess their sin, do penance, and be restored to the Body of Christ. The underlying assumption of the Inquisition was that, like lost sheep, heretics had simply strayed.



If, however, an inquisitor determined that a particular sheep had purposely left the flock, there was nothing more that could be done. Unrepentant or obstinate heretics were excommunicated and given over to secular authorities. Despite popular myth, the Inquisition did not burn heretics. It was the secular authorities that held heresy to be a capital offense, not the Church. The simple fact is that the medieval Inquisition saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.



Where did this myth come from? After 1530, the Inquisition began to turn its attention to the new heresy of Lutheranism. It was the Protestant Reformation and the rivalries it spawned that would give birth to the myth. Innumerable books and pamphlets poured from the printing presses of Protestant countries at war with Spain accusing the Spanish Inquisition of inhuman depravity and horrible atrocities in the New World.



For more information, see:

The Real Inquisition, By Thomas F. Madden, National Review (2004) http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/madden200406181026.asp

Inquisition by Edward Peters (1988)

The Spanish Inquisition by Henry Kamen (1997)

The Spanish Inquisition: Fact Versus Fiction, By Marvin R. O'Connell (1996): http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0026.html



With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Add the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda to the list. True, it's a perversion of Christianity. They're trying to bring about strict adherence to the ten commandments.



January, 1997, over 400 people are killed, 100,000 displaced in Northern Uganda.



May, 2002, 450 people were killed in Sudan. Some villagers were forced to walk off a cliff.



December 25, 2008, 189 people killed, 120 children abducted in Democratic Republic of Congo.



December 26, 75 people killed in a church north of Dungu, and the church burned; 48 people killed in Bangadi, and 213 people in Gurba.



December, 2009, 321 hacked or beaten to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo.



---



Let's review some words of Hitler:



"I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work." - 1936 speech, Reichstag



"I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator." - Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 2



There's numerous references in Mein Kampf.



---

So Jesus said something about love thy neighbor. Jesus also said, "But those my enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring here, and slay them before me." Luke 19:27

Answer 4

Since your roommate may respond the way a couple of posters here already have I want to address the following:



@HTacianas_II: "Christianity ended the practice of feeding condemned criminals to animals in the arenas as public entertainment, built the first public hospitals, and established the largest charitable institution in the history of mankind." Actually people did those things, and religion is not needed to motivate such actions. If it does not provide some profound good that is otherwise unattainable, the evil it brings as well makes the religious institution not worth fostering.



@Philoso pher: "Every conceivable group in society in has committed atrocities in its name. Atrocities are not particular to Christianity. Atrocities happen because the people who compose them are human. Those Christians committing atrocities were not following the beliefs of Christianity.

Just as an abusive parent reneges on his or her duty as a parent. You ignore the good done by Christa ins and talk as if they just do evil."



Yes, we should examine the religion itself. Here is what Jesus says: Matthew 10:34-36, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." And in Luke 19:27, "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."



But wait, Jesus is god, right? So everything in the Old Testament comes from him too. That includes this gem from Psalm 137:9, "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."



@revealer: "Perhaps you would like to note that all of those are Catholics. I am not Catholic, and so those would not and do not work on me. Find something done in the name of a certain denomination, and I can tell you this, the Catholics are the ones you usually find problems with on those scales." Let me emphasize your own words, 'ON THOSE SCALES.' Other denominations have not committed atrocities on those scales only because they have never been on those scales of political, financial, and military power. Even so, they make do with what they have.

Answer 5

George W Bush started FIVE wars in less than eight years stating each time that it was his "God Given Duty” and in 2001 even called it a Crusade!!



Not his duty to the electors!!



Not his duty to America!!



Just his duty to keep slaughtering heathens for his god!!



Remember Timothy McVEY? Corish and his militia?



The doctor gunned down in cold blood in his own church?



Homeland Security is having to put more and more time and resources into tracking christians who seek to tear up the constitution, destroy democracy and foment a second civil war to install a christian dictatorship!!



A chilling warning was issued to US police forces last year about the threat of a rise in violent right wing and christian extremist groups fueled by recession and hostility over the election of the first black president!!



In March federal agents arrested and charged nine members of a Christian militia based in Michigan, calling itself the Hutaree with plotting to murder local police. The FBI has also made arrests in Seattle and San Francisco.



Seems these people are not just a bigger threat to American freedoms than external terrorists but completely anti American!!!

Answer 6

Basically the dark ages in general. Just bring that up. "There once was a time when Christians ruled the known world. All bowed down before the image of the cross and life was horrific. So horrific that we call it the DARK ages. I would like to avoid a repeat so I think I'll remain on THIS side of the sanity line so I can keep an eye on you people."

Answer 7

The Spanish Inquisition



'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition'

Answer 8

Christian Atrocities

Answer 9

Oral Roberts University may not be an atrocity but it's definitely a travesty.



Catholics are Christians no matter how much Baptists, Pentecosts, etc deny it.



Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre/mass suicide.

Answer 10

Do not forget Spain's destruction of the Aztecs and Maya civilizations. Many murders today of abortion doctors and the bombings of clinics. All tho these where not always sponsored directly by a church.

Answer 11

The Spanish Inquisition, the destruction of Native / aboriginal people's culture. The witch hunt in the medieval times. these are some i can think of now.

Answer 12

Belfast Ireland has a pretty good history of that. Also, look into the the Saxon wars and the Christianization of Norway.



In addition to the Crusades to the "Holy Land" people normally think of, there were the Northern Crusades like the Wendish Crusade, Livonian Crusade, Baltic Crusades, etc.



Also, a few that have been in the news in the past couple of years:



Andrea Yates, Houston Texas, 2001. Drowned her 5 children. The reason she gave was that her children weren’t righteous and were doomed to Hell.

Dena Schlosser, Plano Texas, 2004. Amputated her baby's arms with a knife and offered her to God, as she believed God had commanded her to do.

Blaine Milam & Jessica Carson, Rusk County Texas, 2008. Told police Carson’s 13 month old daughter was possessed and they tried to exorcize the demons out of her by beating her with a hammer and biting her. It may have been successful, as the autopsy did not reveal any demons.

Jan David Clark, Odessa Texas, 2008. Said he was holding his 59 year-old wife face-down on the floor during an exorcism when the devil entered his body and caused her to die.

Otty Sanchez, San Antonio Texas, 2009. Said the devil made her kill and mutilate her 3 ½ week old son. She reportedly decapitated the baby, ate part of his brain, and chewed 3 of his toes off.

March 2008, Weston Wisconsin. Leilani Neumann’s daughter was sick. She and her family prayed and prayed for the girl to get better, but she didn’t. They thought their God was testing their faith. They didn’t want to show their lack of faith by going to a doctor. So the child died of untreated diabetes on Easter Sunday, 2008. According to a police chief who spoke with Leilani Neumann, the mother believed that her daughter could be resurrected.

April 5, 2009. Marie Moore and her son, Mitchell, were shooting targets at a gun range when without any warning she shot her son in the head and then turned the gun on herself. She said in tapes and notes left before the murder/suicide that God made her the Antichrist, and that she must die to save her boyfriend, son and the world from violence, and her mother, father and brother from hell. Among the things she said was "Hopefully when I die, there will 1,000 years of peace."

February 2009. LaGrange, Missouri. Christopher Piersee murdered his 21 year old wife and 5 month old son then painted crosses on them with their own blood. Later, he told deputies he was the archangel Michael and he had killed Lucifer (his wife) and the Antichrist (his son) with a knife because bullets wouldn't work. He also painted "Michael" and "Lucifer" on the wall with blood.

Clackamas County, Oregon, March 2, 2008. As 15-month-old Ava Worthington struggled to breathe, church members anointed her with oil and pleaded with God to provide a cure. But Ava died March 2, 2008, of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection. Antibiotics could have saved her life, the state medical examiner's office said. Four months after Ava died, her 16-year-old uncle, Neil Beagley, died from heart failure due to complications from a urinary tract blockage. Beagley's death could have been easily prevented by a urologist placing a catheter to remove the blockage. He was instead taken to his grandmother's where members of the family's church attempted to cure him through "faith healing."

Answer 13

Read about the Lord's Resistance Army.

Answer 14

Many of them ... But actually it would be good to use the very most effective tool of them all ..... the bible itself ... here is a site that will help you to understand the murder and atrocities carried out even in the bible itself... Carried out by the mythological God and the evil Christian leaders themselves... http://www.evilbible.com/

Answer 15

These astrocities were the illogical outworking of people that claim to know Christ. But if you will study the life of Jesus Christ He said love your neighbour as you love yourself.



If you look at the massacre made by atheist like stallin and hitler and many more, you will see that it was motivated by anger and hatred and the desire to be above the rest. They made it because that is the core of what they believed unlike those christians who did not follow the teaching of Christ and did the opposite of what CHRIST was teaching.



So BETH better study first what you are asking. and one more thing try to get a spelling lesson so that you can spell correctly because christians are not spelled as xtians it is--- C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N-S.

Answer 16

Ever heard of a pleasant chap known as Torquemada?

Answer 17

Perhaps you would like to note that all of those are Catholics. I am not Catholic, and so those would not and do not work on me. Find something done in the name of a certain denomination, and I can tell you this, the Catholics are the ones you usually find problems with on those scales.

Answer 18

Every conceivable group in society in has committed atrocities in its name.



Atrocities are not particular to Christianity. Atrocities happen because the people who compose them are human.



Those Christians committing atrocities were not following the beliefs of Christianity.



Just as an abusive parent reneges on his or her duty as a parent.



You ignore the good done by Christa ins and talk as if they just do evil.







---

Answer 19

Providing Osama Bin Laden with the weapons he is now killing them with.

Answer 20

The list is...long...to say the least.



As soon as Christianity was legal, more and more pagan temples were destroyed by Christian mob. Pagan priests were killed.



Between 315 and 6th century thousands of pagan believers were slain.



Examples of destroyed Temples the Sanctuary of Aesculap in Aegaea, the Temple of Aphrodite in Golgatha, Aphaka in Lebanon, the Heliopolis.



Christian priests such as Mark of Arethusa or Cyrill of Heliopolis were famous as "temple destroyer."



Pagan services became punishable by death in 356.



Christian Emperor Theodosius (408-450) even had children executed, because they had been playing with remains of pagan statues.



According to Christian chroniclers he "followed meticulously all Christian teachings..."



In 6th century pagans were declared void of all rights.



In the early fourth century the philosopher Sopatros was executed on demand of Christian authorities.



The world famous female philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria was torn to pieces with glass fragments by a hysterical Christian mob led by a Christian minister named Peter, in a church, in 415.



Emperor Karl (Charlemagne) in 782 had 4500 Saxons, unwilling to convert to Christianity, beheaded.



Peasants of Steding (Germany) unwilling to pay suffocating church taxes between 5,000 and 11,000 men, women and children slain 5/27/1234 near Altenesch/Germany.



Battle of Belgrad 1456 80,000 Turks slaughtered.



15th century Poland 1019 churches and 17987 villages plundered by Knights of the Order. Victims unknown.



16th and 17th century Ireland. English troops "pacified and

civilized" Ireland, where only Gaelic "wild Irish", "unreasonable beasts lived without any knowledge of God or good manners, in common of their goods, cattle, women, children and every other thing." One of the more successful soldiers, a certain Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, ordered that "the heddes of all those (of what

sort soever thei were) which were killed in the daie, should be cutte off from their bodies... and should bee laied on the ground by eche side of the waie", which effort to civilize the Irish indeed caused "greate terrour to the people when thei sawe the heddes of their dedde fathers, brothers, children, kinsfolke, and freinds on the grounde".



Tens of thousands of Gaelic Irish fell victim to the carnage.



First Crusade 1095 on command of pope Urban II.



Until Jan 1098 a total of 40 capital cities and 200 castles conquered (number of slain unknown)



After 6/3/98 Antiochia (then turkish) conquered, between 10,000 and 60,000 slain. 6/28/98 100,000 Turks (incl. women & children) killed.



Here the Christians "did no other harm to the women found in [the enemy's] tents - save that they ran their lances through their bellies," according to Christian chronicler Fulcher of Chartres.



Marra (Maraat an-numan) 12/11/98 thousands killed. Because of the subsequent famine "the already stinking corpses of the enemies were eaten by the Christians" said chronicler Albert Aquensis.



Jerusalem conquered 7/15/1099 more than 60,000 victims (jewish, muslim, men, women, children).



(In the words of one witness "there [in front of Solomon's temple] was such a carnage that our people were wading ankle-deep in the blood of our foes", and after that "happily and crying for joy our people marched to our Saviour's tomb, to honour it and to pay off our debt of gratitude")

Answer 21

This will be a very long list. Consider extending your question answering period, to allow for this please.

Answer 22

Christianity ended the practice of feeding condemned criminals to animals in the arenas as public entertainment, built the first public hospitals, and established the largest charitable institution in the history of mankind.

Answer 23

http://notachristian.org/christianatrocities.html

Answer 24

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/murderers.htm

Answer 25

well first off, the religion spread by threats of murder.

Answer 26

i n q u i s i t i o n

Answer 27

http://notachristian.org/christianatrocities.html



http://originalblessing.ning.com/profiles/blogs/christian-atrocities-committed



http://www.coolove.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=147