In my fisking of the UUWorld article last week, I dismiss one paragraph, "the rest of the paragraph is just as incredible", way too quickly. Let me elaborate on that.
Reverend Parker claims that Christianity's doctrine of the Atonement is formulated by Anselm of Canterbury in the eleventh century. Many passages in the New Testament serve to tell us that just isn't so; the Atonement is well-established Christian doctrine in the first century. See Paul's letters to the Romans, Galatians, Colossians, the letter to the Hebrews, the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of John, many other references to God's forgiveness being extended to us through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.
The rest of the paragraph should not be dismissed out of hand, however. There is historical evidence that mercenaries were provided with religious incentive to fight in the Crusades. The linkage to the Atonement doctrine is non-existent, however. Jesus never told His disciples they would be rewarded for killing their enemies. On the contrary, He said they would be judged on their compassion for others, which I include to mean, since Jesus said so, loving their enemies. The logic that Reverend Parker uses to blame Christianity for all the violence that the world suffers from today is tortuous indeed.
Posted by joelfuhrmann at October 22, 2002 09:51 PM