“The worst thing that ever happened to Christianity is when the cause was taken up by Constantine, beginning the persecution of pagans by “Christians”, of Christians by each other and wars to spread “Chritianity”.”
That is one of the worst canards that has led to a twisted leftist narrative of Christianity. Constantine’s conversion and official acceptance of Christianity was far more nuanced than your one-liner states.
All Constantine did in the Edict of Milan was declare religious toleration and give back land confiscated under previous persecutions. That is far from the “persecution” of pagans, unless you consider taking properties given to pagans during the persecution back to Christians as “persecution of pagans.” Constantine himself was not baptized until he was dying, and was baptized by a bishop who was declared a heretic by the First Ecumenical Council, a council Constantine called, the conclusions of which he disagreed, yet he did not suppress.
It wasn’t until later emperors that real abuses started occurring, most often when the emperors accepted heretical doctrines and tried to suppress the Church. There are, however, plenty of *other* examples of later problems with the Byzantine marriage of Church and state.
All this talk about Constantine ignores history because the Roman state returned to persecuting orthodox Christians.
The Council of Nicaea was rejected by Constantine’s heirs who adhered to the Arian heresy.
The honor of who made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire fell upon Theodosius the Great in the 380 A.D.
The Constantine myth is simplistic because Christianity became the states religion of the Armenian kingdom, which fell outside of the boundaries of the Roman Empire in 301 A.D.
Not to mention Ethiopia’s accession of Christianity in the mid-4th century.
Constantine is just a good boogey man for Evangelicals to latch onto as part of anti-Catholic mythology.