Of course they committed terrible sins and we must disassociate ourselves from what they did back then but don’t even try to deny that they were obeying scriptural injunctions! Perhaps YOU should study your Bible. Misinterpreted or not this is what the Bible says:
Exodus 22:20: He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the Lord alone, shall be utterly destroyed.
If you don’t know what utterly destroyed means, here’s clarification for you:
Deut. 13:6-10: If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end) you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Deut 17:2-7: If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded, and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. And behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed, to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death. On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
Luke 19:27: But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.
By the way, it is well documented that Christian killed Christian in very, very high numbers – possibly in the multi-millions – obeying orders from people such as Pope Innocent III who said, “Anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of God which conflicts with Church dogma must be burned without pity.” The Inquisition was an ecclesiastical court and process of the Roman Catholic Church setup for the purpose towards the discovery and punishment of heresy which wielded immense power and brutality in medieval and early modern times. The Inquisitions function was principally assembled to repress all heretics of rights, depriving them of their estate and assets which became subject to the ownership of the Catholic treasury, with each relentlessly sought to destroy anyone who spoke, or even thought differently to the Catholic Church. This system for close to over six centuries became the legal framework throughout most of Europe that orchestrated one of the most despicable religious orders in the course of mankind.
In the ages of faith, when the priest, was little less than a God himself, a curse from his lips was often more feared than physical torments. To even establish an accusation against a bishop itself required 72 witnesses; against a deacon was 27; against an inferior dignitary was 7, and for non-members of the clergy, 2 was sufficient to convict. Whole communities went mad with grief and fear of the thought towards being denounced to the Inquisition. It spread all over Europe. Men, women, and children, all legally murdered on evidence by a church, which today would only be accepted if the court and jury specifically composed of the inmates of a lunatic asylum.
Do some research. Things were pretty gory back then; the period wasn’t called the Dark Ages for nothing. Christians had a few hundred years jump on the Muzzies but now they are trying to catch up. What I’ve said here is documented and taught – I learned this stuff over 50 years ago. You can deny it all you want but that doesn’t change the truth.
Cite a document.