Christian Values

In a conversation with my brother the other day, he stated that someone who professed to be a Christian could not back Donald Trump. I wholeheartedly agreed with him. However, after giving it some thought, I realized that we were both wrong. Admittedly, we were under a definite handicap. Neither of us are regular churchgoers and neither of us espouses a specific church’s faith. We both adhere to Christian values but we base our believes primarily on the teachings of Christ as they are written in the Bible and as they are generally understood. We do not have a church to “explain” them to us. Therein lies the problem.

Why do I get to that conclusion? Quite simply because I look back on the historical actions of Christians and see how their beliefs and values have been expressed over the ages. I am basing my review solely on my own memory (albeit confirmed by quick fact checking) by it not an extensive study. I am sure that I am missing many, many examples but I thought I would give a few below to show what I mean.

• Let’s start with the Crusades. The Catholic Church essentially endorsed armies to invade the Middle East to overthrow the Muslim “hordes” to claim Jerusalem for Christianity, killing and pillaging along the way.
  • There are incidents during the Crusades of the crusaders killing fellow Christians because they looked different, thus were not true Christians.
  • How can we forget the Children’s Crusade, where children were allowed to march to the Holy Land. Did you know that the survivors (not many) were sold into slavery? Nice.
• Then we have the Inquisitions, yes there were more than one. We are all probably familiar with the Spanish Inquisition but there was a Portuguese, Mexican, Peruvian, and Roman Inquisition as well. And it is not ancient history either. The last person executed in the Spanish Inquisition was in 1826 and the office of the Roman Inquisition lasted into the 20th Century. Their purposes; torturing and executing anyone that did not agree with church doctrine. They may have prettied it up a little but that is the essence of their purpose.
• Witch Trials. Trying and executing anyone who they though was different. Closest to home? The Salem Witch Trials. But they were not unique.
• Ranking members of the Catholic Church joining the Nazi Party before and during WWII. Further, even after the atrocities were know following the war, ranking members of the Church actively aiding war criminals evade capture and prosecution.
• Religious persecution for differing Christian faiths:
  • Beatings, expulsions, and sometimes executions of Quakers in New England (religious freedom, my lower posterior).
  • Attacks and killings of Mormons in various places, culminating in their leader, Joseph Smith, being assassinated.
  • Attack and killings by Mormons at the Mountain Meadow Massacre. (Neither side has clean skirts).
• Darned near every city in Europe has a Jewish Ghetto going back hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
• People like Pat Robertson saying that a 2010 Haitian earthquake are God’s punishment for a 1791 slave rebellion – and he is believed.
• Jerry Falwell saying AIDS is God’s punishment for homosexuals and society that supports homosexuals – and he is believed.

I am sure with a little thought that I could come up with many more examples, as any intelligent reader of this missive. That is really not the issue. It is not about piling on. It is about recognizing that all of the above, and so many more, called themselves Christians, still call themselves Christians, and will call themselves Christians while they commit similar acts that are equally horrendous. They hide behind some form or organizational support system that supposedly abrogated their ignorance, stupidity, and evil actions. But if any of them bothered to read their Bible like us heathen types, they would realize they do not deserve to be called Christians in any way, shape, or form. I have a problem calling them human if you want to know the truth.