Is Christianity a religion of peace? From Vasko Kohlmayer at antiwar.com:
In a short time the world will once again celebrate Christmas. We evangelicals are traditionally excited about this season, since it celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the man whose teaching and example we profess to honor and love.
But our testimony rests on an inherent contradiction. Even though we claim to be followers of the Prince of Peace surveys and polls consistently show that evangelical Christians constitute the most militant demographic in American society.
Revealingly, evangelical militancy is not a new phenomenon. Evangelical zest for international warfare can be traced at least to the Spanish-American War of 1898. One of the early instances of American interventionism that military adventure was widely supported by evangelical churches and leaders. The famed Josiah Strong, the popular leader of the Social Gospel Movement, was one of the many ministers of the time who incited militarism among the faithful by giving sermons in which he provided theological justification for American interference on the Cuban island.
Next came the Philippine-American War which was sparked by the refusal of the US government to grant independence to the Philippines, an American territorial possession at the time. The Filipino people rebelled and the result was a brutal and protracted conflict in the course of which US forces committed depredations and atrocities on a massive scale. Some historians estimate that nearly one million Filipinos perished during the war. If this figure is correct, the death toll claimed more than ten per cent of the whole population. In any case, the actions of the US military on the island could only be described as genocidal. Given all this, it is hard to believe that American followers of the Prince of Peace would support such a murderous undertaking. But torture, death and terror notwithstanding, American churches gave the war their passionate support. The deplorably un-Christlike attitude of the Christians of the time was masterfully captured by Mark Twain in The War Prayer, one of the most powerful antiwar stories ever written.
Hardly a dozen years after the conclusion of the brutal Philippine campaign the first shots were fired in what was to become World War I. American evangelical Christians once again wasted no time in jumping into the fray. Billy Sunday – the most famous and popular American evangelist of the time – traveled up and down the country beating the war drum with great vigor and fervor. Sunday stumped for recruitment, urged the faithful to keep purchasing war bonds and raised large quantities of money.
His patriotic vehemence notwithstanding, Sunday never explained what exactly America’s interests were in jumping into the middle of that far away and bewildering conflict which produced over 100,000 American dead. Needless to say, America’s involvement was in direct contravention to the warnings of the Founding Fathers who repeatedly cautioned against military engagement in foreign lands and especially in Europe.
To continue reading: A Christmas Challenge
If you find these difficult to understand, you need to go to the same efforts to understand the Quran! No where in the Bible does God tell Jews or Christians to use terrorism, rape,murder, poisoning,taxing of infidels, harassment, stabbing infidels just because they are infidels, and more! Nor will you find a New Testament or a God who became one of us in order to sacrifice His perfect sinless human self for even our darkest aforementioned sins! Nor will you find the word Islam, Muhammad, Quran, or anything else Muslim, unlike the Quran, because it came 635 years after Christ. I think due diligence is required in making a true assessment.