30 Dec '06 17:47>2 edits
Originally posted by ahosyneyI fully conceede that "Christians" have killed in the name of God. However, why were they calling themselves "Christians" if they were ignoring the mandate of Christ to love your enemies? That is the question. I think what you had back in the time of the Crusades was a Christian population who were largely illiterate and uneducated and who relied on the church and clery to tell them what the Bible says and how they should believe. However, today the general populace is literate and educated thus they do not rely as heavily on what other men say that God has said in this holy word. Do you percieve that this is part of the problem in some sects withing the world of Islam? Perhaps they too have a populace that is largely illiterate and uneducated, unlike yourself, and who rely on Imams to tell them what the Quran is saying or how it should be interpreted and are thus decieved into believing that if they send their child to blow themselves up in the streets of Israel they will wind up in candy land with 70 some virgins.
[b]But don't we see those in the Muslim world today who do interpret killing the "infidel" as justifiable when a perceived "persecution" arises? Do some of them not connect such verses together like a puzzle?
If I told you that at a period of time, Christians formed what is called crusades, and they invaded Muslim countries, killed them in millions ...[text shortened]... eir flag was the cross.
Will you say they didn't connect the puzzle from the Bible as will?
I say that we can either live in the past or learn from the mistakes from the past such as the travesty of the Crusaders. Today, however, do we have Crusades? You may lump the "West" or the united States and all of Christiandom into one great big group and argue that the world of Chrsitiandom is now on a Crusade in Iraq. I know because I have heard many attempt to make such accusations, but is this accurate? The United States and the Western powers are all secular nations. It is only in the world of Islam today that we seem to have men condoning killing in the name of God. This is what troubles me. Theocracies, therefore, are problematic in that they attempt to mingle the unholy affairs of men with the holy affairs of God. It is an unholy union to say the least. Unfortunatly, the Muslim world seems to insist that the two must be joined, however, by insisting upon theocracies existing in the Muslim world to a large degree.