It hasn't always been roses and rainbows.
As the Church is directed by men, not by angels, the same elements that the Founders understood as requiring checks and balances, suffered from the lack thereof.
1. I doubt that any need a remedial on the early history of the Church, the period that may the called its 'martyr period'.
But, when Constantine offered his sword to the Church....it used it.
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton
a. "It is with the twelfth century that we come to the greatest challenge confronting the historically naive Christian who may fondly suppose that his religion has been consistently faithful to the boundless philanthropy of its founder. For it is at this point in history ... that the Christian West, that is to say the Church itself, became what Professor Robert Moore has called a "persecuting society," the exact inversion of a martyr society. That society, often regarded in retrospect as Christianity in a state of religious and social perfection, now became a gross and habitual violator of human rights ."
Patrick Collinson, "Religion and Human Rights: The Case of and for Protestantism," in Historical Change and Human Rights: The Oxford Amnesty Lectures, p.34.
I'll bet that it would be hard to find Christians who are unaware of the persecution done to Jews, heretics, or the Crusades themselves. Collinson is largely spot on.
b. "If there is ignorance among the faithful, it pertains to dark episodes from other eras, like Charlemagne's merciless conversion of the Saxons in the eighth century, a campaign so brutal that the Nazis would resurrect its memory twelve centuries later in order to justify their anti-Christian policies."
"Christianity and Progress," by Carroll and Shiflett, p. 19-20.
" Charlemagne’s forces... routed the Saxons at the Battle of Suntel (or Sonnethal) Mountain, and thereupon
.... no fewer than 4500 of the others, ... were handed over and at the place on the river Aller called Verden, at the king’s command, all beheaded in a single day. Thus was punishment executed; and the king then retired to winter-quarters at Thionville, where he celebrated both the Lord’s birthday and Easter in the customary fashion.
This merciless slaughter of prisoners is one of the lasting blights on Charlemagne’s impressive reputation."
ExecutedToday.com 782 4 500 Saxons by order of Charlemagne
"Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car."
As the Church is directed by men, not by angels, the same elements that the Founders understood as requiring checks and balances, suffered from the lack thereof.
1. I doubt that any need a remedial on the early history of the Church, the period that may the called its 'martyr period'.
But, when Constantine offered his sword to the Church....it used it.
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton
a. "It is with the twelfth century that we come to the greatest challenge confronting the historically naive Christian who may fondly suppose that his religion has been consistently faithful to the boundless philanthropy of its founder. For it is at this point in history ... that the Christian West, that is to say the Church itself, became what Professor Robert Moore has called a "persecuting society," the exact inversion of a martyr society. That society, often regarded in retrospect as Christianity in a state of religious and social perfection, now became a gross and habitual violator of human rights ."
Patrick Collinson, "Religion and Human Rights: The Case of and for Protestantism," in Historical Change and Human Rights: The Oxford Amnesty Lectures, p.34.
I'll bet that it would be hard to find Christians who are unaware of the persecution done to Jews, heretics, or the Crusades themselves. Collinson is largely spot on.
b. "If there is ignorance among the faithful, it pertains to dark episodes from other eras, like Charlemagne's merciless conversion of the Saxons in the eighth century, a campaign so brutal that the Nazis would resurrect its memory twelve centuries later in order to justify their anti-Christian policies."
"Christianity and Progress," by Carroll and Shiflett, p. 19-20.
" Charlemagne’s forces... routed the Saxons at the Battle of Suntel (or Sonnethal) Mountain, and thereupon
.... no fewer than 4500 of the others, ... were handed over and at the place on the river Aller called Verden, at the king’s command, all beheaded in a single day. Thus was punishment executed; and the king then retired to winter-quarters at Thionville, where he celebrated both the Lord’s birthday and Easter in the customary fashion.
This merciless slaughter of prisoners is one of the lasting blights on Charlemagne’s impressive reputation."
ExecutedToday.com 782 4 500 Saxons by order of Charlemagne
"Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car."
