Religion and Hate: A Marriage Made in Heaven
We often hear from the Christian evangelicals: “God hates the sin; but God loves the sinner.” (A non-Biblical statement used to gloss over the fact that the “loved” unforgiven sinner will fry like bacon for eternity in the Lake of Fire (Hell) because of “God’s love“). But remember sinner, you sent yourself there, not your loving Heavenly Father.
Or again: If God be for me/us, who can be against me/us?! This statement is simply an excuse to exploit religious bigotry and hatred under the guise of salvation theology. Anyone who doubts this need only read Brad S. Gregory’s Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Modern Europe (Harvard University Press, 1999) and winner of the Thomas J. Wilson Prize of Harvard University Press. The fly cover states:
Thousands of men and women were executed for incompatible religious views in sixteenth-century Europe. The meaning and significance for those deaths are studied here comparatively for the first time, providing a compelling argument for the importance of martyrdom as both a window onto religious sensibilities and a crucial component in the formation of divergent Christian traditions and identities. … Gregory shows us the shifting perspectives of authorities willing to kill, martyrs willing to die, martyrologists eager to memorialize, and controversialists keen in dispute.
Be it in John Calvin’s Geneva, Luther and Melanchthon in favor of death for the Anabaptist, the Catholic Inquisition or the killing of witches in New England; the Hebrew Bible set the precedence in the slaughter of all of God’s non-chosen people in the land of Canaan.
This is followed in the New Testament where even a loving “Gentile Jesus meek and mild” states:
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10: 34 - 37) and Jesus in the final stage of Salvation History is depicted riding a white horse in Revelation 19: 11 - 21 wheeling a sword to the slaughter:
“And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” (verse 21).
Even the Ku Klux Klan’s website proclaims that “Our Entire Group of Sites are Family and Christian Friendly” which is re-enforced by their own Pastor Thomas Robb of the World Church of the Creator:
A racist recognizes within their kindred people a special relationship with Jesus Christ. They recognize that race is but one aspect of living a Christian life, but such an important one that the mingling of the races, will as in the days of mingling in the scripture cause God’s wrath to fall upon his children. Peace on earth for all nations and races can only come about by adhering to Biblical truth. It is we who are the compassionate ones because we understand that true satisfaction and happiness will not be felt by everyone until God’s word and his edicts are felt throughout the land. Our job in the Knights’ is to send a wake up call, to inform our white brothers and sisters of their rightful inheritance and to ask them to repent so that God will bless our nation once again. We want God to use us to bring a message of revival throughout the world.
With Bible courses such as: The Anglo-Saxon Jesus sold in their White Heritage Book Store, the positive side of religious hate can be made very family friendly.
Finally, to show how vicious another monotheistic religious tradition can be, this is from an August 17, ‘08 new paper:
A Saudi Arabian Muslim father cut out his daughter's tongue and lit her on fire upon learning that she had become a Christian.
The child became curious about Jesus Christ after she read Christian material online, the Gulf News reported.
Her father read of her Internet conversation, detached her tongue and burned her to death "following a heated debate on religion," according to an International Christian Concern report. The father is employed by the muwateen, or Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The muwateen are police tasked by the government with enforcing religious purity. The man has been taken into custody, and his identity has not been released.
The ICC pointed out the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has reported textbooks at the Saudi Arabian government school in Northern Virginia teach, "It is permissible for a Muslim to kill an apostate (a convert from Islam)."
Saudi Arabian oil money is used to export Wahabbism – a version of Islam said to be least tolerant toward non-Muslims – to other nations, including the U.S., ICC notes.
ICC president Jeff King said, "Saudi Arabia has to treat Christians with the same respect that it wants Muslims to be treated in other countries. It has to stop exporting hate and persecution against Christians in other countries."
Or again: If God be for me/us, who can be against me/us?! This statement is simply an excuse to exploit religious bigotry and hatred under the guise of salvation theology. Anyone who doubts this need only read Brad S. Gregory’s Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Modern Europe (Harvard University Press, 1999) and winner of the Thomas J. Wilson Prize of Harvard University Press. The fly cover states:
Thousands of men and women were executed for incompatible religious views in sixteenth-century Europe. The meaning and significance for those deaths are studied here comparatively for the first time, providing a compelling argument for the importance of martyrdom as both a window onto religious sensibilities and a crucial component in the formation of divergent Christian traditions and identities. … Gregory shows us the shifting perspectives of authorities willing to kill, martyrs willing to die, martyrologists eager to memorialize, and controversialists keen in dispute.
Be it in John Calvin’s Geneva, Luther and Melanchthon in favor of death for the Anabaptist, the Catholic Inquisition or the killing of witches in New England; the Hebrew Bible set the precedence in the slaughter of all of God’s non-chosen people in the land of Canaan.
This is followed in the New Testament where even a loving “Gentile Jesus meek and mild” states:
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10: 34 - 37) and Jesus in the final stage of Salvation History is depicted riding a white horse in Revelation 19: 11 - 21 wheeling a sword to the slaughter:
“And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” (verse 21).
Even the Ku Klux Klan’s website proclaims that “Our Entire Group of Sites are Family and Christian Friendly” which is re-enforced by their own Pastor Thomas Robb of the World Church of the Creator:
A racist recognizes within their kindred people a special relationship with Jesus Christ. They recognize that race is but one aspect of living a Christian life, but such an important one that the mingling of the races, will as in the days of mingling in the scripture cause God’s wrath to fall upon his children. Peace on earth for all nations and races can only come about by adhering to Biblical truth. It is we who are the compassionate ones because we understand that true satisfaction and happiness will not be felt by everyone until God’s word and his edicts are felt throughout the land. Our job in the Knights’ is to send a wake up call, to inform our white brothers and sisters of their rightful inheritance and to ask them to repent so that God will bless our nation once again. We want God to use us to bring a message of revival throughout the world.
With Bible courses such as: The Anglo-Saxon Jesus sold in their White Heritage Book Store, the positive side of religious hate can be made very family friendly.
Finally, to show how vicious another monotheistic religious tradition can be, this is from an August 17, ‘08 new paper:
A Saudi Arabian Muslim father cut out his daughter's tongue and lit her on fire upon learning that she had become a Christian.
The child became curious about Jesus Christ after she read Christian material online, the Gulf News reported.
Her father read of her Internet conversation, detached her tongue and burned her to death "following a heated debate on religion," according to an International Christian Concern report. The father is employed by the muwateen, or Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The muwateen are police tasked by the government with enforcing religious purity. The man has been taken into custody, and his identity has not been released.
The ICC pointed out the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has reported textbooks at the Saudi Arabian government school in Northern Virginia teach, "It is permissible for a Muslim to kill an apostate (a convert from Islam)."
Saudi Arabian oil money is used to export Wahabbism – a version of Islam said to be least tolerant toward non-Muslims – to other nations, including the U.S., ICC notes.
ICC president Jeff King said, "Saudi Arabia has to treat Christians with the same respect that it wants Muslims to be treated in other countries. It has to stop exporting hate and persecution against Christians in other countries."