Posted on 08/09/2014 1:09:08 PM PDT by EBH
As a Crusade historian, I found the tranquil solitude of the ivory tower shattered by journalists, editors, and talk-show hosts on tight deadlines eager to get the real scoop. What were the Crusades?, they asked. When were they? Just how insensitive was President George W. Bush for using the word "crusade" in his remarks? With a few of my callers I had the distinct impression that they already knew the answers to their questions, or at least thought they did. What they really wanted was an expert to say it all back to them. For example, I was frequently asked to comment on the fact that the Islamic world has a just grievance against the West. Doesn't the present violence, they persisted, have its roots in the Crusades' brutal and unprovoked attacks against a sophisticated and tolerant Muslim world? In other words, aren't the Crusades really to blame?...
...Misconceptions about the Crusades are all too common. The Crusades are generally portrayed as a series of holy wars against Islam led by power-mad popes and fought by religious fanatics. They are supposed to have been the epitome of self-righteousness and intolerance, a black stain on the history of the Catholic Church in particular and Western civilization in general. A breed of proto-imperialists, the Crusaders introduced Western aggression to the peaceful Middle East and then deformed the enlightened Muslim culture, leaving it in ruins...
..So what is the truth about the Crusades? Scholars are still working some of that out. But much can already by said with certainty. For starters, the Crusades to the East were in every way defensive wars. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression — an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicculture.org ...
At this point, Christianity as a faith and a culture has to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades are that defense. “
Works for me.
General Pershing is the way to go!!!
General MacArthur was right! We should have kicked North Korea's butt way back into China, then they wouldn't be supplying the current conflicts in the Mideast
"One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda"
I read a book from the 1930s, it was the only book that my pastor would endorse.
Crusade history bump
If Mohammed were here on Earth he’d be on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list as a terrorist. If Jesus were here on Earth it would be The Second Coming and the Savior of Mankind .
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/661560/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/691603/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1027242/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1027520/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1400196/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1539361/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3055572/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/thomasfmadden/index
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/thomasfmadden/index
LOL...it seems we still haven’t learned enough history to not repeat it.
I’d much rather see this posted over and over for the next year, than watch and stand witness to the slaughter of Christians AGAIN, as the earth has been doomed to repeat.
May the “Religion of Peace” meet the Hand of God, soon.
Soon and very soon!
Even with the growing threat of ISIS, even now the Saudis are getting SCARED bigtime.
Tonight (Saturday, Aug. 9), cable channel BBC World News premieres the three-part series The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors, which aired last fall in the U.K.
While it's not exactly a whitewash of the invasion into Europe of Muslims from Turkey, and the subsequent centuries-long occupation, it's not a condemnation either.
[...]
At one point, a British historian states that Europe is "richer for" the Ottoman Empire, but the documentary never really explains how, except to say there was a lot of "multiculturalism" and trade (which one supposes would have gone on anyway). It does go to great pains to talk about how "tolerant" the Ottomans were of Christians and Jews, so long as they peacefully accepted their Muslim overlords, their second-class dhimmi status, and dutifully paid their extra taxes (oh, and if they were Christians, tithed their sons and daughters).
That is what gave birth to the Crusades. They were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense.
Well worth a read. I think I heard him on Catholic Answers recently.
I wonder if reporters call him anymore.
Communists are blaming us. They've taken over the ivory tower.
Yes it was so wonderful to live under the Empire at that time.
ping
The Saudis made the same Faustian deal with us that the Kuwaiti made. Don’t build a first world military and rely on the US for protection.
They have worked against us while at the same time relying on our protection. When we grow too week or too spread out to protect them then it is a given that the other Muslim powers are likely to seize Mecca and Medina (offing the house of Saud in the process).
If not for the Catholic Church Christianity would have been completely whipped off the face of the earth. But you will not get too many protestant posters to even reply to this main story, the truth about the Crusades. Hatred runs so deep with them that they can never give credit to the Catholic Church for anything. And that my friends is sad.
MaxMax/Cruz 2016
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