Violence and Religion
 

 A History professor that I had in graduate school often said words to the effect that, “more wars have been started since the beginning of recorded history over religions than for any other reason.”

The older I get the more I’ve come to believe his statement. Not just for the last 100 years but also back in antiquity. The ancient shamans also perpetrated wars and conflicts.
 Historians speculate that from the beginning of religion there were at least 10,000 gods. Shamans were the earliest and they were tribal oriented. The deities focused on fertility and agriculture.

 As civilizations developed, religions became more structured and more dominant. They also were very localized. Good examples were Egyptians and Sumerians. They would have gods for every occasion.

 However, Egypt for a limited time was monotheistic. Many of these ancient religions practiced human sacrifice.

Then came Abraham and the beginning of Judaism around 2085 B.C.E. (Before the Christian Era.) Religion moved from a tribal focus to a national focus.

Hinduism is dated about 1500 B.C.E.; Buddhism from 500 B.C. E.; Christianity from 30 A.D.’ and Islam 610 A.D. All of the religions have had splinter groups.

These religions are unique in that they have international influences. A few like Mithraism, Shintoism, Confucianism, Bahia, Taoism, Jainism, and a few others are considered national religions.

A biblical historian has calculated the number of men, women and children that were slaughtered in the land of Canaan, ostensibly at God’s behest to have been ten (10) million.

The Old Testament was written by men that had an agenda. They baptized their views by using the name of God as the author. For instance; the Jews were God’s chosen people and the land was given by God. By the way, this view is endorsed by Israeli’s leading archeologists and historians.

The Hindu religion was the originator of the Indian “cast system.” Mahatma Ghandi fought this system but it is still prominent in India today.

President Obama has been the object of severe criticism because of his mentioning-in his National Prayer Breakfast-the war of the Crusades between Christianity and Islam. And the Catholic and Protestant Inquisitions.  What he said is true.

 I do not wish to belabor this view, but more recent history. When Cortez swept into Mexico in the early 1500’s, there were twenty (20) million Mexican Indians. By the beginning of the 1600’s, Mexicans were only 1 million. Nineteen million had been killed or died of diseases brought by Christians from Europe. It was done under the name of Jesus.

 Who brought most of the slaves from Africa to the Americas? I heard a black college professor the other day say that “sixteen (16) million blacks were brought to North and South America as slaves.”

 Most of them were made captives by the Muslims and they were transported by white European slave ships by Christian slave owners.

 An example. Sir John Hawkins was the first slave-ship captain to bring Africans to the Americas. He was an avowed Christian and his ship was called “the good ship Jesus.” The captain and his ship left England in October 1562.

 In my opinion, President Obama did not go far enough in his indictment of major religions.

 Most of our founding fathers were slave owners. The Southern Baptist Church and the Southern Methodist Church were both founded on the principle of slavery and the Civil War.

 I pastored for eight (8) years in Florida in the 50’s. I saw firsthand the injustice toward blacks-education, jobs, prejudice. The Klu Klux Klan was made up primarily of Methodists and Baptists. The Civil War, in my opinion was a religious war.
 Let’s go back further in time. To the slaughter, enslavement, mistreatment, of Native Americans. Who perpetrated all three? Christians. The Puritans, the Catholics, the Protestants.

 The justification and disclaimers were based on the Bible. The “Mark of Cain” was falsely used as “the color of blacks.”

 The bigotry of Christianity toward blacks, Jews, Muslims, gays and others is being perpetrated by fundamentalist ministers like: Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Jimmy Swaggart and others of their ilk.

 It has been aptly said that each of us is entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own set of facts. In this article I have not only expressed my opinions but I have supported those opinions with the facts that history has recorded.

Amen. Selah. So be it.

WORDS TO THINK ABOUT

G.W. Abersold Ph.D.