140 Million Dead? So What! Christianity's STILL A RELIGION OF PEACE!

Ring In The New Year With A Spanking New Phobia!!

It is unfortunate that although not all Muslims are terrorists,
all terrorists are Muslim. - Anonymous

WARNING: Today's climate is not good for defending Muslims. And while the article does not defend acts by Muslim terrorists, the fact is that anyone in line with prejudiced voices within the Christian Right will think me extremely anti-Christian and totally un-American.

There are many, many wonderful Christians in this world. They go about doing and fostering good works and do not think it necessary to proselytize. They just do the work that's needed, then go to the next group in need. To these people, I say a sincere "thank you". You are worthy of praise and not condemnation.

There are also some people who have distorted basic Christian beliefs and have pushed their own agenda while saying that it is God's. To these people I say "Go ahead, be insulted" for if only a small fraction of what I'm writing about is true, then you deserve to own up to your sins. And those sins involve avarice, pride, arrogance, maliciousness and yes, murder.

Islamophobia: the fashionable phobia for right-wingers this year.

From Right Wing Watch

"While Christianity is a religion of peace, founded by the Prince of Peace, Islam is a religion of war and violence, founded by a man who routinely chopped the heads off his enemies, had sex with nine-year old girls, and made his wealth plundering merchant caravans."

- Bryan Fischer, the one-time head of the Idaho Values Alliance who got called up to the big leagues earlier this year when he became the American Family Association's Director of Issue Analysis.

"Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you"

- Former Attorney General John Ashcroft

"Islam is a very evil religion. All the values that we as a nation hold dear, they don't share those same values at all ... these countries that have the majority of Muslims."

- Franklin Graham

"This man [Muhammad] was an absolute wild-eyed fanatic, he was a robber and a brigand. And to say that these terrorists distort Islam ... they are carrying out Islam. I mean: This man [Muhammed] was a killer and to think that this is a peaceful religion is fraudulent."

- Pat Robertson

[At a Pro-Israel rally] "This not a war between Arabs and the Jews, this is between God and the devil.

- Benny Hinn

There are also some people who have distorted basic Christian beliefs and have pushed their own agenda. And it makes no difference to today's Islamophobes that Jesus Christ is mentioned more than Mohammed in the Q'uran and that Christ is considered Islam's most important prophet (after Mohammed).

(Remember) When the angels said O Mary! Allah Gives thee Good News of a son through a Word from Him! His name shall be the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, honoured in this world and in the next, and of those who Are Granted Nearness to Allah! (3.45) And he shall speak to the people in the cradle, and when of middle age, and he shall be of The Righteous (3.46)

Qur'an 2:136–136 "Say: we believe in God and that which is revealed unto us, and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered."

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The following is only a small portion of the entire activity of people who have called themselves "Christian" in history. I have been compiling notes and statistics for 6 years. Many people will refute even these meager numbers and events. While I don't wish to overtly offend anyone, because, as I've said above in this article, there are many wonderful Christians in this world, there are people who don't want this kind of information to be exchanged. They now call it "revisionist" history. However, these statistics and featured events are culled from a myriad number of sources, all written long before religious "revisionist" theories were contemplated. In order to give you a taste of what philosophies have been tolerated under the name of Christianity, the following is taken from The Jesuit Extreme Oath of Induction:

“…I do further promise and declare that I will, when opportunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly and openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Masons, as I am directed to do, to extirpate them from the face of the whole earth; and that I will spare neither age, sex or condition, and that will hang, burn, waste, boil, flay, strangle, and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women, and crush their infant's heads against the walls in order to annihilate their execrable race. That when the same cannot be done openly I will secretly use the poisonous cup, the strangulation cord, the steel of the poniard, or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity or authority of the persons, whatever may be their condition in life, either public or private, as I at any time may be directed so to do by any agents of the Pope or Superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Father of the Society of Jesus.”

Christian "Crime Line"

There are crimes…and then there are CRIMES. The following is really just a partial list of all the historical events Christians just won’t own up to. Notable statements plus resulting casualties are highlighted in red. If you're a devout Christian, ask your local pastor about these points. If he or she can't answer them, then do some research. Research by yourself the development of your own religion. If even a tenth of the profile presented in these points are true, there may be something your pastor or religious mentor does not want to discuss, even in your Bible study class.

40 - St. Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr - Note: most persecutions were carried out on a local level -Death Toll: Up to 100,000 During 275-year period

48 - First Christian Council convenes Apostles meet in Jerusalem to determine if Gentiles need to become Jews first, then Christians. Gentiles do not have to undergo circumcision, nor are they obliged to keep Jewish ritual and purity laws

314 - Christians begin to massacre pagans in Egypt and Palestine .Persecution tables have now turned

325 - Council of Nicea is convened by Constantine to discuss date of Easter and deal with Arian Heresy. Approx. 300 bishops attended (out of 1800 in the entire empire, most of whom were in north Africa) – Note: Constantine threatened bishops with exile unless they agreed to the Nicene Creed. Arius and two others were exiled.

325 - Pagans are killed immediately after the Council of Nicea - Death Toll: 3,000

326 - Constantine first executes his son Chrispus in belief that he had sex with his step-mother, Fausta After Constantine finds out that Fausta lied about the affair, he has her boiled in her bathtub

336 - Arian Christians are persecuted - Death Toll: Approx. 10,000

350 - Riot between Arians and Christians - Death Toll: 3,150

580 - Christians arrest a group of Gentiles in a secret temple - Major Irony: the gentiles were fed to lions, but the lions refused to eat them. They were then crucified instead

590 - After Pope Gregory I decrees celibacy for the clergy, infants are murdered - Death Toll: 6000

782 - Charlemagne orders the beheading of pagans - Death Toll: 4500

850 - Eastern Orthodox Empress Theodora orders execution of Paulicans (heretics?) - Death Toll: 100,000

1095 - Pope Urban II calls for a “Holy War” to reclaim the “tomb of Christ from the heathen” - “Kingdom of Jerusalem” is established - Death Toll: 200,000

1096 - During the People’s Crusade (as in all nine Crusades) Jews are killed en route - Death Toll: 10,000

1144 - First “Blood Libel” used against Jews in England - “Blood Libel”: Jews accused of kidnapping Christian children, bleeding them, then killing them for ritualistic purposes –(Note: This ideology continued until 1915)

1209 Albigensian Crusade - First recorded genocide in Western Civilization. The Cathars (or Albigenses) were considered heretics and against the papacy - Death Toll: Over 100,000

1209 - The Inquisition as institution of Christianity is officially established - Inquisition continues under the title of Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and its chief goal is to root out heresy as in the thirteenth century. Present Pope Benedict XVI was head of this institution before becoming pope.

1348 - Jews, believed to be the cause of the Black Death were massacred in Mainz, Germany - Death Toll: 16,000

1400 - Approximate time witch hunts occurred - Note: while women were the majority executed, men and children were as well - Death Toll: Approx. 100,000

1420 - Hussite Wars - First organized wars of Christians (Catholic) killing Christians (Protestants) - Death Toll: 80,000

1470 - Start of the Spanish Inquisition - Death Toll: 350,000

1492 - Colonization of the Americas – Christianity vs. Indigenous beliefs Unconverted “heathens” are persecuted for the next 500 years

1540 - Persecution of the Waldensians - Death Toll: 900,000

1572 - St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre - French Protestant Huegenots murdered in one day - Death Toll: 70,000

1631 - The Thirty Years War - Ultimate Death Toll: aprox.11,500,000

1648 - Cossak rebellion against Jews in Poland - Death Toll; 100,000

1648 - Cromwell’s Puritan Revolution in England and Ireland - Massacres of thousands of Catholics - Death Toll: 868,000

1850 - Taiping Rebellion - “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace” is founded by Christian heretic Hong Xiuqan who preached that he was the brother of The Messiah - Death Toll: 20,000,000

1913 - The “Jesuit Extreme Oath of Induction” is entered into the Congressional Record

1940 - FBI raids the offices of Christian Front. J. Edgar Hoover stated that it was the intent of the Front to murder Jews, communists and at least 12 congressmen - The Christian Front was founded by Father Edward Coughlin, “The Father of Hate Radio”

1993 - Magdalene Laundry Scandal erupts in Ireland - Brutal conditions and treatment in the “fallen women” Magdalene Laundries run by Catholic nuns are exposed - The identification of 130 bodies in a mass grave are still coming to light

1995 - The Lord’s Resistance Army massacres villagers in Uganda - Death toll: 750

As we stated above, this information was given not to insult good Christians., but to give a perspective to the reader when Christofascists such as Rick Warren, Pat Robertson and Rod Parsley tell us that Christianity has always been a religion of peace. Islamophobia is now creeping into tour lives. Christian "leaders" are calling for serious ramifications for Muslims. They are telling each of us non-Muslims that Islam is an intrinsically violent religion. And they are doing so in order to paint themselves as supporters of Christianity - a "peaceful" religion they think is beleguered with anti-Christian sentiment.

Go outside. Walk for a while and stop every time you see a (so you think) slightly Christian symbol. Count them. Look around you, then ask yourselves how persecuted Christians are these days in the US. Look around you and count the number of Christian symbols in your house - your neighborhood, your town, your state. Christianity has grown so large as to permeate the fabric of being American. And that stupendous growth was based on one ideal: freedom of religion.

America now ranks as the nation with the least amount of restrictions on religion. It also ranks among the most religious nations in the world. So where's the persecution?

Look to the mosques.

Just a thought.

Starting the Year With A Bloody Muckraking Headache: Taking On The Christofascists

Or, How I Had A Good Time In Spite Of All The Bloodshed

OK, so I didn't have a good time. Not really. I spent New Year's Day revisiting some of my old material, my old gripes, my old passions, my old fears. And you know what?

They're still here.

They haven't changed. Oh, in the last three years the main characters have changed somewhat: they've gone from mostly Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell to a variety of Christofascists: Mike Huckabee, Ann Coulter, Glen Beck (marginal, but nonetheless a presence hard to avoid), Rod Parsley, Rick Warren, Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly, Benedict XVI, etc. But widening the field has only pumped up the volume: there are more people bloviating over social issues and politics than ever before and covering/reading about/expounding on them is very acidic to my brain as well as my stomach. And their venues for screeds and harangues have not really changed either: separation of church and state, same-sex marriage, abortion, politics, war, morality, etc., etc. I'm working on a particularly difficult piece right now, - Islamophobia - and as with other subjects, this one is going to create more muckraking (for me), more rhetorical bile (from Christofascists) and more written displeasure (from everyone). It takes on Anti-Semitism, death tolls,, persecution, and religious history (which my detractors will insist is revisionist). It will definitely get responses of "NO!" "Not True!" "Un-American!" "written by an idiot," "inconsequential bile."

...and their point? They want to make sure that everyone knows that they hate me. They read my articles, spurred on by an insulting or titillating title, then spend their time telling me as well as others how wrong I am. Oh, they've been getting more sophisticated: they use spell check ... sometimes. And they've referred to other articles (usually in the op-ed section of their local paper). But they still write in generalities. I'm waiting for the day someone writes something of substance using concrete evidence. Apparantly I'm worth the effort for general outrage but not for researched, substanciated outrage.

I looked back at one article in particular and want to share it. It was written within several weeks of Katrina and it featured, of course, Robertson and Falwell. Their responses to disasters and acts of terrorism are still mimicked by Christofascists today: God's wrath resulting in nature's destruction, economic crises, hard times.

God's Ambulance Chasers

By DAN VOJIR

I've just come from another "beer bust" for Katrina hurricane victims. Given the magnitude of the charity the U.S. has shown for them, this might become a usual pastime for more than several months. The difference with these beer busts is that they are sponsored by gay bars.

What this brings to mind is the point that true compassion knows no "orientation" boundaries, while the doctrines of many churches lead us to believe that food and shelter for the suffering are given a decidedly "Christian" slant. Some fundamentalists, such as Repent America's Michael Marcavage and Fred Phelps (Westboro Baptist Church), are, in fact, enjoying their role as God's Ambulance Chasers: Marcavage offers "prayers" but no help, while Phelps' website has a headline "Thank God For Katrina!"

Other Christian pleas are more indirect in their conditional compassion: Falwell Ministries requests people to "send a special gift to support our volunteer-driven, faith-based response to the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina" and touts the work of Southern Baptist Conference, the infamous fundamentalist denomination that reviles homosexuals, feminists and (still) Jews. Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing works in conjunction with FEMA while cloaked with an air of righteousness. It's a sort of poor man's Salvation Army and reminiscent of the lyric from Guys and Dolls: "Halleluiah, place a nickel on the drum, save another drunken bum! Place a nickel on the drum and he'll be saved!"

Even Barbara Bush had an air of sanctimoniousness about Katrina's devastation with her "underprivileged anyway" words of patrician moral wisdom. At another time and place, I believe the quote was actually "Let them eat cake!"

I guess it all comes down to the irony of ironies: legions of queers are much quicker to respond than FEMA or faith-based charities and far less toxic to the conscience.