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.
You get upset when I broadbrush the entire Christian community by the un-sacred acts of a few, but that is exactly what many on this thread have done...but are unable to see the irony if not the hypocrisy.
What was that message from Jesus about pointing out the speck in the eyes of others but not seeing the beam in they own?
Anyone who doesn’t have basic respect for religious objects of another religion do not deserve to have their own respected by anyone else. Taking those books and burning them is the same thing as when some left wing idiot takes the American flag and burns that. It may be only cloth, but the symbolism and underlying intention, not to mention message, is understood even if it isn’t verbalized.
So all the people on this thread who spent time exhibiting and rationalizing obviously abhorrent behavior should look to the beam in their own eye because I will guarantee you that if you don’t, Jesus will. And by then it will be too late for you.