Never happens in my country, it's not really allowed. You'd be detained immediately. You are right, my use of the word common was wrong. I meant to say it happens in all religious institutions, and I've witnessed this on a few occasions in mosques and I've even seen this once in the mere 4 times I've been to a church. It has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with politics. While I can't cite the examples most familiar to me, I understand that in Russia once upon a time preachers at religious institutions were employees of the state. Would you consider it inappropriate or just for someone to stand up and call those preachers hypocrites? Just because someone stands up and calls the preacher a hypocrite does not, by any means, make him a terrorist. Not even wrong. Personally, I think these institutions are precisely the place where you call out hypocrisy. Particularly saying that no holidays should be celebrated in Islam - is 100% benign. It is a commonly held belief which has no specific relevance to Christianity or violence. Point stands: calling out preachers is not inappropriate, and certainly not unheard of. If your argument is that church culture is more obedient and restrained, well I don't have as much experience as you do to make that judgment, but I certainly don't find that to be a good or more civilized type of behavior.
I am not sure why there is a comparison between Christianity and Islam. Sure, there are similarities, but what a few choose to ignore is that Muslims often try to rule government. There is a HUGE difference between influencing politics versus outright controlling it. There are many difference sects of Islam. While a very small fraction cry for "death to the infidels" and incite war on the general population, there is a much larger sect that abides by Sharia Law, which in itself, is a breeding ground for the extreme radical Muslims. While there is plenty of hypocrisy in Christianity, it simply doesn't have the foundation to breed violence. Christianity encourages peace and love and never suggests violence. A violent person's religion has little to do with his actions verses one who does it in the name of his religion. So whether Timothy McVeigh or Hitler believe in Christ is irrelevant. The did not carry out their deeds in the name of Christ.
You are only looking at current historical events. There is a reason why our forefathers specially wanted a separation between state and religion. They have seen this happened in the past with Christian nations. I agree with you that Christianity preaches love but I am sure that a lot of Muslims can make that claim too and point you exactly where in the Quran states that.
I agree with you 100%. I also don't agree with the idea that just because he was getting conservative in his belief system or that he was against the use of drones (allegedly?) means his family and friends should have thought him a potential terrorist. I know Christians who are very conservative in their ideas of morality and modesty that also think the government is terrible for the use of drones and thinks the wars are an abomination. Should I call the FBI?
Christianity preaches love and that's why you have self proclaimed Christians rooting for the 19 year old to get to hell as soon as possible, or "alleged" Christian leaders like Obama and Bush dropping bombs and finding ways to make the Constitution bend to make it easier for them to kill people. Christianity preaches love and that's why you have a group called Westboro that claims to be Christian that insults and defames. Christianity preaches love and that's why you had a member of the faith execute the abortion doctor IN A CHURCH SERVICE. Christianity preaches love and that's why Christian preachers wouldn't marry interracial couples for years in this country. A "good" Christian might dismiss the above examples of people who misconstrued the faith or weren't acting the way their faith truly teaches. You'd be right. Most Muslims feel the same way about those who use the Muslim faith to kill innocents as well though. The truth is this is a broken world full of broken people and some of those people do really bad things. It just so happens that American Christianity is ultra sheltered now because of the high quality of life and insulation we have in America.
* Note that you still choose to pick on the Catholic Church, never mind that there were many Catholics and clergymen that fought against Hitler and the persecution of Jews. Last, Hitler was NOT a Christian, he was NOT a believer that the meek will inherit the earth.
Riddle me this. If someone at your Church had an outburst would you call the FBI? I didn't think so. An outburst that a non member of the religion of the practitioners does not equate to building bombs and killing people.
Repped. The history of Christianity, just like the history of mankind, is full of brutality, blood, guts, and death.
So is our armies deliberate training of how to kill people any different than theirs? They have more crude tactics because they don't have the resources. You are so blind. Can you not see from their perspective, the people in Iraq and Afghanistan, that we are causing terror to their society? People talk about the fear of a police state from our own government, now imagine that from a government half the way around the world. Guess what all we did with the war on terror was make it more present in our minds, effectively making it more terrorizing.
Yeah those crusades, Spanish Inquisition and Western Expansion (Manifest destiny) weren’t violent at all.
THEY HATE, THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDUMBS! AND THAT THERE'S WHY WE NEED TER SMOKE 'EM OUT DERR CAVES!
Sensitive much? I never claimed that every catholic was a bad guy or anything. It's just the most obvious, flamboyant example of the church's general administrative failure during the Nazi regime. Like it or not, Hitler was confirmed in the catholic faith but never excommunicated - heck, there was a specific konkordat with the vatican. Similarly, like it or not, many protestant clergymen embraced Nazi ideology. Etc. ...I'm gonna just stop here. This (what constitutes christian beliefs) is an interesting topic, but this thread is a bad place to discuss it. This thread is pretty bad, period.
Yes -- their training focuses on killing innocent, unsuspecting civilians. That's kind of a big difference.
There's no denying that the world, at any given point in its history, is full of pretty awful people. Those people will use whatever tools they can to get what they want and religion has historically worked really well. It's harder to use Christianity now than it used to be, but that's mainly because the bases of Christianity tend to be in the wealthy nations that have settled into functioning, stable democracies. That said, there are still plenty of "Christians" in Africa that use the religion to murder, rape and use racism against others. Focusing on Islam as the source of terrorism is so shallow and is equally stupid as blaming "Christianity" for the Crusades. Instead of blaming religion we should be blaming the circumstances of that part of the world and the people there that produce the terrorism. I guarantee that if Christianity were the predominant religion of the Middle East it wouldn't stop terrorism.
