Gore Vidal (1925-2012), a writer, an intellectual for the people, wrote, "The malice of a true Christian attempting to destroy an opponent is something unique in the world. No other religion ever considered it necessary to destroy others because they did not share the same beliefs. . . No evil ever entered the world quite so vividly or on such a vast scale as Christianity did.” [Strange, he overlooked Islam.]
Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011), author, columnist, essayist, orator, religious literary and social critic, as well as a journalist, wrote a best-selling book called, "God is Not Good." He wrote: "We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.”[By the way, Christopher's brother, Peter, is an author in his own right, a committed believer and defender of Christianity, although he has received far less publicity than his brother. What else is new?]
Christopher and Gore (why did his parents name a baby, "Gore?") are only two; there are many others who blame Christianity for innumerable ills loosed upon the world, but those will suffice.
WHOA! WAIT A MINUTE!
Let's examine this charge in depth. Those two and others of their atheistic stripe blame Christianity for the brutality of the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, pogroms, wars, and witch hunts, but let's delve deeper.
The Crusades, who instigated those? The Roman Catholic Church did so when Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont called on the princes of Christendom for an armed “pilgrimage” to recover Jerusalem from the Muslims.
From 1000-1500 A. D., "The [Roman Catholic] church's response to loss and decline under Islam was mixed: the cross in one and the sword in the other. The early church had generally condemned war. But the western medieval Roman Church said, "God wills it!"(Don Fanning, Liberty University)
Who was in charge of the Spanish Inquisition? The Roman Catholic Church. Of all things that monstrous institution headquartered in Rome is not, it is not Christian. Martin Luther (1483-1546) referred to the Pope as an anti-Christ because he believed that term appropriate for anyone blocking people from Christ or working against Scripture’s teachings.
OK, BUT WHAT ABOUT CALVIN'S GENEVA?
But what about those witch hunts perpetrated by the New England Puritans? What about Calvin's Geneva burning Michael Servetus at the stake for the heresy of Pelagianism (the denial of original sin), Modalism (an anti-Trinitarian heresy), and Pantheism (a rejection of the fundamental distinction between Creator and creation) in August 1553?
Yes, those tragic events happened, but what's overlooked by Christianity's critics is that not one of them can cite a single New Testament verse that endorses such perversions of the faith. They parade the perversions, not the protocol, of Christianity.
SPEAKING OF OVERLOOKING
Speaking of overlooking the facts of history, let's go a bit deeper where we see that much about those early day Christians and Christianity has disappeared down the Memory Hole. George Orwell's vision of a totalitarian society in which facts disappeared from public knowledge strikes close to home.
For example, not many know that the pagans who converted to Christianity back in the early days of the church:
1. shared their wealth freely with widows, orphans, the elderly, the unemployed, and the sick.
2. cared for the victims of plagues and other natural disasters while their pagan neighbors fled.
3. ransomed one another from barbarian captors.
4. distributed bread during famines.
5. visited prisoners and miners (the lowest of the low).
6. sometimes sold themselves into slavery to raise money to ransom their brothers in Christ out of prison. (A group of Roman Christians did this.)
7. provided for the burial of the poor.
8. extended hospitality to travelers so they wouldn't have to stay in the dangerous inns of their day.
(Cited by Dr. Carl J. Richard, professor of history at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette)
9. rescued babies from infant abandonment, which was widespread in the first century. Christians looked after these babies, left to die, and changed the culture from a culture of death to a culture of life. (Cf. The Rise of Christianity, Stark, 1996)
I wonder if, in the interest of fairness, Mr. Vidal and Mr. Hitchens included those magnificent deeds anywhere in their books, speeches, and articles. Have you read of such in history books or seen just one of the above nine portrayed in film?
BUT NO
But no, what do we hear instead of the above eight? The press finds a small group of 40 Baptists in Topeka, Kansas, who, in violation of the entire ethic of the New Testament, stages obnoxious, disruptive protests at military funerals (an egregious violation of I Thess. 4:11), and the media, pouncing with glee, placards those pathetic few as representatives of Christianity. All the while, our history books give Paul's legacy which includes the above nine, the abolition of slavery, and the American Revolution (Cf. Twelve Greeks and Romans Who Changed the World) less ink than a classified ad. Let' s call it, "Satanic Censorship."
THE WAY OF THE WORLD
No surprise there. Back in the early days of the church, the powers that be tried to censor the message of the faith (Acts 4:17-18). That's the way of the world, the kosmos, which John says, "Lies cradled in the arms of the wicked one." (I John 5)
The pervasive stench from the sins of the church, both in the past and the present, stains the perception of unbelievers, blocking their view of the unfathomable beauty of the Love of God who stands behind the veil holding out to them His free gift of Salvation.
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