Is Christianity to be judged based on those who murder suspected abortionists? I believe Islam is not the Truth, but generalizing about a religion based on what a minority of adherents say or do is fallacious.
kgp, It is far easier for a Muslim who is bent on violence to find sanction within the religious establishment than it is for a Christian who is bent on violence to find sanction within the religious establishment. I won't argue that Christianity hasn't had its missteps over the last two thousand years, but it's pretty clear that, at least in today's world, followers of Islam have a much higher propensity to commit violence in the name of their faith than Christians do. There's a difference between the sorts of "minorities" that you mention, when in one case the minority is < 1% of a faith community, and on the other hand the minority is somewhere, I would venture, well north of 1%.
Or, if you want to suggest that there have been times in Christianity's past when, in practice, it was not a religion of peace, then I would probably agree with you. And I would further say that we shouldn't rationalize those periods of Christian error such as the inquisition just because, at the same time, Aztec priests were sacrificing children and ripping out the living hearts of human beings in religious ceremonies. Nor is it healthy for us to rationalize Islamic terror now simply because people did violence in the name of Christianity 600 years ago? Or even if, in rare and isolated cases, they do so today? The Islamic violence that is being done is a threat to the world in a way that the doctor-killing pro-life soloists are not.
Teddy Roosevelt lived 600 years ago? Part of our white man's duty in the Phillipines was to christianize them. They were already catholic, but so effing what? The Klan is a christian organization dedicated to maintaining white supremacy and christian society against the jungle cancer. Are all the rest of us to be pitched in with them? The whole Religion of Peace mantra was to try to suggest to non violent muslims that we weren't out to get them all and to educate fools over here that they aint all psychos. This effort has met with mixed results.
Do you suppose, Coel, that demographic and geopolitical factors which differ among Muslim-dense populations and Christian- (or atheist-) dense ones could be part of the reason that the minority of Muslims willing to countenance violence might be higher? The greatest concentrations of mineral wealth are in the Muslim world and in Venezuela. Both places are targets for economic imperialism and reactions thereto. What were the American domestic versus imported Muslim terrorist threat problems here before we facilitated the perception of Americans as occupying imperialists by fighting Gulf I? I don't argue that we deserve to be targeted or that violence is as popular among Judeo-Christian subpopulations as among Muslim ones. A reading of the old Testament and an examination of the totality of the "terror war" however, should serve to show that Islam is not the only religion with war in its holy manual nor is it competing on a level playing field for contemporary peaceful reputation. Mormons, Anglicans, Catholics, Stalinists, tribes; we all have skeletons somewhere. Wars don't come from God or from religion. They come from men. Men have been known to claim all manner of justifications and even to believe many themselves.
'Tis better to be like _______________* than like a ___________________**. (insert your choice into the blanks) a. Christ, Christian b. David, Jew c. Buddha, Buddhist d. Rama, Hindu e. Allah, Muslim d. All the above and those not listed Religion has made hypocrites of us all. Humanity has much to hang its head low about. If we could only learn the true meaning of unconditional love. Peace!
During my lifetime the white christian society of the old south terrorized and murdered blacks who tried to vote or declined to step off the pavement when white women walked down the street. NOt all the white christians did it or supported it, but enough did that it took US Army troops to stop it. Here is hoping for a similar level of success in the ME. In the meantime, let's all continue to dump them all in the same stew and act like they are all out to get us. It makes it easier to justify when we blow up one of their wedding parties by mistake. They aren't like us. Therefore, whatever.
"I won't argue that Christianity hasn't had its missteps over the last two thousand years" Missteps?? Really, "missteps"???? oh. my. god.
With respect to economic imperialism, I am more interested in those places with resources heavily sought on a large scale contemporaneous to the violence at hand. An interesting historical comparison might be possible were one to suggest a period, locale, people, and resource analogous to present day middle easterners and their oil. Perhaps Rome's dependence on grain imports would offer an analogy to our thirst for oil.
