You miss my point. No where on these threads have I suported Islam or the actions of it’s most diabolical adherents.
The point was up until very recently Christians engaged in much the same kind of “evangelical” bloodletting to anyone who wouldn’t convert, and they did it “in the name of God”. The forced conversions in Europe, the Americas and Africa are good examples. The Inquisition in Spain and other areas are an example of what happened to anyone who
“disrespected” the religion. Tens of thousands of Protestant “reformers” were burned at the stake and the violence between Protestants and Catholics in North Ireland are reminiscent of the battles between Sunni and Shiite.
And they all did it because it was what they thought God wanted them to do. Who is right? Anyone can say “God commands me to do this”. I find it ironic that many Christians condemn islam for it’s barbaric acts (as they should be) while whitewashing and excusing their history.
But my point on this thread is simpler. Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God, but the second most important was to love your neighbor. He also that if someone should strike you, to turn the other cheek. If someone should take your cloak, give him your coat. If they force you travel with them a mile, go two.
He also said he who violates the least of his commandments violates them all.
So how do these statements from Jesus square with some of th comments on this thread by so-called Christians?
They don’t. You’re not leading the kind of life Jesus told you to, you violate his commandments and you will surely be going to hell for it. So don’t tell me to go back and “read my bible”, because many of the people on this thread who profess to know it, don’t. Like many muslims they pick and choose the parts of it they agree with or which justifies their words and actions that day.
Neither have the moral high ground, only the arrogance to claim they do.
We’ve all violated the commandments, Bob J. However, by believing that He gave His only Son, we are reconciled to G_d, by G_d — all He sees is our covering of Christ.
This is the promise of Christianity: *while* we were/are sinners — the Lord made atonement for us by His sacrifice.
You certainly seem to defend Islam, by your mentioning them in conjunction with naming the transgressions of Christians as transgressions of “Christianity.” Oddly, each of the incidents you mention are historical, and you’d be hard put to find justification for them among any Christian scholar alive today or (historically) esteemed by the scholars of today.
I don’t condemn Muslims for what their forbears did hundreds of years ago - only for supporting imams like that man in Arlington, Texas, for allowing CAIR to interfere in so much of our lives and I hate that women and little girls the world over are declared non-persons, raped and murdered with the support of of those same imams. The Koran is their authority for continuing to kill each other and innocent bystanders - most often without warning.
I am a fan of Peter Kreeft, a philosopher and Christian apologist. At a conference, someone asked him how to reconcile the sermon on the Mount with driving the money changers from the temple with such violence. Dr. Kreeft said it was simple: Jesus is not a pacifist. In defense of the helpless worshipers (which would have included women and Gentiles) and in order to both rebuke the priests who were involved in judging the sacrifices and allowing unfair exchange rates in the Court of the Gentiles, and impeding the proper use of the Temple, He used force.
However, He didn’t even kill a dove, much less blow up everyone in the Court.
The difference, again, is that we can show scripture and verse that would have repudiated killing, slavery and theft in the name of G_d. We have been told that our G_d hates sacrifice and violence against others, and that we are to defend the weak and rescue those being led to slaughter.