There is no religious or governmental institution in the world, no matter how noble it's intentions and righteous it's founding principles, that cannot be corrupted by base men.
Certainly there has been much evil done in the name of religion, but to stereotype all members of that religion because of the action of certain of its members is patently unfair.
Without doubt, the history of Christianity over the last 2000 years has been troubled. Having been founded on the kindest of human principles, the early Church survived persecution to establish a foothold in the mightiest empire in the ancient world, only to see those principles perverted and subsumed beginning with the Council of Nicaea and the depradations of the Emperor Valens.
The Church split into two branches, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic. Of the two, the Roman Church became far more bellicose and corrupt. Many of its beliefs, the sacraments and excommunication, are non-scriptural and were often used to whip those who opposed the Church hierachy into line.
One of the great "sins" laid at the feet of the medieval Church by modern critics was the instigation of the Crusades. While the first Crusade was called by Pope Urban II, the European armies that marched into the Holy Land were a natural military and political reaction to a perceived threat, the unbridled expansion of Muslim military might. While it is politically correct these days to paint the Crusaders as blood-thirsty fanatics, the truth of the matter is that there were plenty of fanatics on both sides. Crusaders who remained in the Holy Land, living in close proximity to local Muslims, developed respect for, and friendship with, those Muslims.
The corruption of the Roman Catholic Church reached its height during the late Middle Ages. It is certainly no accident that growing discontent with Church corruption, wealth, and blatantly non-Christian teachings coincided with the invention of the printing press and the spread of learning. The revolt by thinking Christians against these evils brought on the Protestant Reformation, and began the process of returning Christianity to the principles upon which it was founded. The attempts by the Papacy to return Lutherans and other Protestants to the fold, led to a series of bloody conflicts in Germany, Spain, and elsewhere. The murderous attentions of the Inquisition, which are often cited in these posts as evidence of the evil of religion, were, in fact, directed at those who opposed Papal control of Christianity.
Yet the Reformation proved to be a watershed even in the history of Christianity...and benefitted not only Protestants but Catholics as well.
And yet, during the troubled history of the Church there have always been those who lived by Christ's example and strove to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of their fellow man. Who can deny that the Red Cross, the Civil Rights Movement, the abolitionist movement, and other great social and charitable organizations were founded by the Christian faithful.
So, you see, when some here on these boards cast sneering references to their belief that religion has done far more harm than good, they only reveal the shallowness of their knowledge of history and the depths of their own biases and lack of respect for the beliefs of others.
