{"id":4809,"date":"2007-12-13T00:00:08","date_gmt":"2007-12-12T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/?p=194"},"modified":"2007-12-13T00:00:08","modified_gmt":"2007-12-12T20:00:08","slug":"oh-that-horrible-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/2007\/12\/13\/oh-that-horrible-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, That Horrible Christianity!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you heard the latest?\u00a0 They now have a sign up in Connecticut which says \u201c “9\/11” was caused by religion.\u201d
\nNot that this sign is anything new.\u00a0 Atheist literature for years has been claiming that religion in general and Christianity more specifically, is responsible for most of the evil in the world.\u00a0 When it\u2019s pointed out that 9\/11 was caused by Muslims, the quick, canned response is that Islam should not be singled out.\u00a0 After all, the true problem here is with any<\/em> fundamentalist religion of which Islam is only one and Christianity is even worse<\/em>! So in a way, 9\/11 can kinda sorta be blamed on Christianity or at least something very much like Christianity.
\nEven when it is pointed out that some of the worst evils in history were done by godless Socialist governments like Nazi Germany or Communist Russia, the words, \u201cHitler was a Christian,\u201d bounce back like rolled up Silly Putty.
\nOK.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get this nonsense cleared up once and for all.\u00a0 First, Hitler was NOT a Christian.\u00a0 I am so tired of listening to such baloney. Don\u2019t let anyone get away with this. The person who spews forth such dogma is either displaying his dishonesty or his incredible ignorance.\u00a0 Yes, Hitler was born into a Catholic family. But he had long since renounced his religious upbringing by the time he became Chancellor of Germany. Hitler considered himself to be a Pantheist and follower of Frederick Nietche, famous for the \u201cGod is dead\u201d poem.\u00a0 Hitler also referred to Jesus as the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier.\u00a0 You still wanna make him into a Christian with a r\u00e9sum\u00e9\u2019 like that?
\nThe stretch is not limited to Nazism but Communism as well.\u00a0 Christopher Hitchens (a very intelligent man whom I agree with on so many political matters but who hates religion with a passion) was asked by Hugh Hewitt how he could defend the statement that religion caused more evil than atheistic philosophies.\u00a0 As an example, Hewitt pointed out the butcheries of Joseph Stalin, follower of the godless Marxist ideal with power to put it into practice.\u00a0 Hitchens responded by saying that Stalin would not have done such a thing, had he not learned from the example in history of Russian Czars who worked closely with the Orthodox Church.\u00a0 Good one, Hitchens.\u00a0 I hesitate to even grace such a maneuver with a response but maybe you\u2019ll consider a blatantly obvious example from a man who is a kindred political spirit even if we are not kindred religious spirits. Would you, as a thinking Conservative, dismiss the lies of Bill Clinton if some Democratic pundit claimed Clinton was inspired by Nixon?
\nAs for there being no moral difference between Muslims and Christians, I believe I can think of one and it\u2019s a significant one: Jesus DID NOT order Christians to kill in His name and conquer the world for His kingdom.\u00a0 He DID NOT command us to execute all people who will not convert to Christianity.\u00a0 Mohammad DID command such things in the name of Islam<\/em>.\u00a0 I know, I know.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard it a million times. Christians and Muslims both fought in the Crusades.\u00a0 Give it a rest.\u00a0 Putting aside the fact that Christians were trying to take back land that had forcefully been stolen by Muslims, let us concede that the Crusades were nothing for Christians to brag about.\u00a0 They were far to preoccupied with the Holy Land and they made the mistake of thinking that the cause of Christ was enhanced by such geography. There were also many soldiers in those days that saw the Crusades as a license to plunder and \u00a0butcher, using Christianity as a rationalization.\u00a0 But let\u2019s face it;\u00a0 All ideologies get misrepresented. \u00a0It is the ideology itself<\/em> which must be critiqued. What then, is the difference between the Christians who fought in the Crusades and Muslims who fought in the Crusades?\u00a0 The difference is quite simple:\u00a0 Christians were doing this in disobedience<\/em> to Jesus. Muslims were doing this in obedience <\/em>to Mohammad. (Surah 9)
\nI will admit to much hypocrisy done in the name of Jesus through disobedience to Jesus. But what about the times Jesus is obeyed?\u00a0 Nobody wants to talk about that anymore. You still want to make a case that Christianity is just as bad for the world as Islam?\u00a0 How about the fact that most of the abolitionists in America and England were Christians?\u00a0 How about the fact that once upon a time in America we needed no government welfare organizations because the church was taking care of the poor, the orphan, the widow and the elderly?\u00a0 How about the countless churches that do the same today?\u00a0 How about the WMCA and the Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army?\u00a0 But I must admit, the compassion of Christians in America can\u2019t compare to pinnacles of virtue like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.\u00a0 And church history is put to shame when we look at the humane examples of secular leaders like Stalin, Castro and Hitler.
\nYes, sweet Virginia.\u00a0 Christianity is the terror of the world.
\nThis is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you heard the latest?\u00a0 They now have a sign up in Connecticut which says \u201c “9\/11” was caused by religion.\u201d Not that this sign is anything new.\u00a0 Atheist literature for years has been claiming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-moralobjections","category-questionsandanswers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}