I have two id's. I originally signed-up at my office but listed my home e-mail. When I realized that I could not access my password until I went home, I resigned using the second name (lanice8).
I agree with you that the Crusades were a response to Islamic imperialism. However, I do not agree that everything that happened during the Crusades was commendable. There were many beneficial things which were accomplished, albeit temporarily through the Crusades (ie. the liberation of Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy land from Islamic control.) I do not and will not apologize for that. But not every Crusader was of the same ilk, and not all of them did valiant deeds. The apology focused purely on the wrongs which were done, and there is nothing wrong in apologizing for that. Throughout history, we see many movements,(even beneficial ones) frought with inequities and atrocities. That doesn't mean that the overall movement was bad, or that it should not have happened, but I believe that it takes strength of character to acknowledge that some things did go wrong- terribly wrong- and that they should be acnowledged and dealt with. It does not in some way diminish the strength or character of the Church or the West to acknowledge that we have gotten some things wrong. In fact, I think that it strengthens us and shows our confidence in who we are, because it shows that we are not afraid to admit our faults, nor are we intimidated by our enemies. Please don't misunderstand the aim. The Rec Walk was not about apologizing for who we are, pandering to Islamic sympathizers, discrediting the beliefs of Christianity or the values of the West, etc. It was simply about dealing with the things that were wrong.
Does Islamic civilization have alot for which it can "apologize"? Certainly! But I do not require their apology as a prerequisite to giving my own.
-- I do not agree that everything that happened during the Crusades was commendable.
I didn't say that it was. I believe lots of nasty things were done by both sides.
-- But not every Crusader was of the same ilk, and not all of them did valiant deeds.
Of course not, many were poorly educated and little more than barbarians. Some of them actually were barbarians. And the same was true of the Saracen hordes. Those were barbaric times, full of barbaric deeds. But, for the most part, what we would not do today was commonplace in those times and would not cause an eyebrow to be raised.
-- but I believe that it takes strength of character to acknowledge that some things did go wrong- terribly wrong- and that they should be acnowledged and dealt with.
Nothing 'went wrong' by the standards of that time, not in the way you mean it. Terrible atrocities were routinely committed by both sides as was the norm in that era. The concepts that shape Western Civilization had yet to be invented. You are applying today's standards to yesterday and that is unfair. It diminishes all the progress made by humanity in the intervening time. It is demeaning.
Furthermore, it is presumptious to apologize on behalf of people whose motives you do not understand.
The worst of it all is that your apology only sends a perception of weakness to people who are the exact same barbarians as they were when your barbarian predecessors were fighting their barbarian predecessors. And as a result innocent people who don't give a democrat's ass about your post-Christian guilt will die horrible deaths.
-- Does Islamic civilization ...
Islamic civilization collapsed long ago. The Islamic world of today would have little culture or technology if it weren't able to import it wholesale from the West in exchange for oil. They'd still be chopping each other up in order to steal each other's women and goats. Their biggest contribution to modern civilization was literally nothing, and even that they stole from ancient India.
And they have nothing to apologize for prior to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War One. Since then, however, they have a great deal to answer for.
The wrong things that happened during the Crusades was done because some of the defenders of civilization and Christianity had been influenced themselves by Islam. They had suffered Islamic domination and learned how to torture, burn, slaughter and they irony is they used what they learned from the Muslims when figthing them.