On the subject of moral
On the subject of moral equivalence, I strongly disagree with Molly Ivin's take on history (link via Best of the Web Today). She states:
Let's see -- where does that leave Christianity, the religion of peace and love, founded by the Prince of Peace? Among the more notable Christian crimes were the unbearably bloody Crusades, the Thirty Years' War, the Inquisition, innumerable pogroms, regular slaughter of Protestants, counter-slaughter by Protestants, genocide against Native Americans (featuring biological warfare), slavery, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing, Northern Ireland … and the list goes on and on and on.
Let's consider these:
- Crusades: I agree that this is a big ugly spot on human history, but let's note that Muslims invaded Europe too, and I can make the point that the Crusades were a defensive move.
- Thirty Years' War: No comment - I'm ignorant here.
- Inquisition: In my opinion, a very bad thing the church did here. Denial of due process and excessive punishment. I won't try to defend this one.
- Pogroms: Conducted by totalitarian governments, and the totalitarianism is much closer to the root cause than Christianity, judging from the behaviour of other totalitarian governments in the twentieth century. Has any free country, defined as, say a free press and an elected government, conducted a policy of pogroms?
- Slaughter / Counter-slaughter of dissidents: This was bad too, but the numbers you hear from anti-Christian sources are exaggerated. It wasn't the bloodbath the Unitarians and Humanists make it out to be.
- Genocide against Native Americans with biological warfare: Mixed judgment here. Many atrocities were done against Native Americans by the Spanish, but Catholic monks also stood up for the natives and stopped the mistreatment. This was not genocide by any means.
- Slavery: Slavery was ended in England and North America by the efforts of Christians. Slavery still exists in some Muslim countries, such as The Sudan. The claim that Christianity is responsible for slavery is not true.
- The Holocaust: Many Christians in Germany opposed the policies of the Third Reich. I've written about this before (10/22 archive); I can't link to it, but my point was that their was significant Christian opposition to the Nazis. According to Vincent Carroll and Dave Shiflett, regarding the response of a certain Martin Niemoller:
" Niemoller bolted into action, inviting fellow pastors throughout Germany to join a Pastors' Emergency League to resist the Aryan paragraph and all other attacks on church doctrine. Within a few months, more than two thousand pastors had signed the pledge -- and that was still before one of the most revealing spectacles of the first year of Nazi rule."
- Ethnic cleansing: again, the issue of totalitarian governments is at fault here.
- Northern Ireland: No comment, not knowledgeable enough in this area.
- on and on: really, how? This is is simple cheap shot, intended to leave the reader with the impression that Christianity is so bad, Ms. Ivins cannot begin to describe it. If she really has more examples, she should provide them.
Why am I not surprised that Molly Ivins works for the same newspaper that gave
the negative review of The Radio City Christmas Spectacular because it ends with
a living Nativity?
Posted by joelfuhrmann at December 12, 2002 10:57 PM