CHRIST-APP by philtierneyblog

Story Five: Violence Begets Violence

Four hundred years later or so, a man named Gutenberg invented the printing press. The first book he printed was the Holy Bible.  He printed it in Latin, but another printer, named Mentelin, printed the first German version of the Bible in 1466.

Just about fifty years later, Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses. He and other scholars at the time had read the Bible. They saw what they considered discrepancies between what they understood the Bible to say and the practices and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther’s Theses pointed out some of those discrepancies and demanded that reforms be made to Church doctrines and practices.

Those demands for reform and the Catholic Church’s reaction to it ignited the Reformation. Luther’s understanding of what the Bible said inspired him to identify ways in which he thought the Church should change in order to be more consistent with the Bible. The Church hierarchy rejected Luther’s propositions and demanded that Luther renounce his views. He famously refused. The Church attempted to arrest Luther and bring him before the “holy” inquisition to silence and discipline him. But Luther appealed to Fredrich III, the Prince and Elector of Saxony, for protection. Both parties to the disagreement turned to political power to accomplish what they firmly believed God required.

The Reformation spread across Europe.  Protestant leaders, like Luther in Germany, Calvin in Switzerland, Hus in Bohemia, Zwingli in Switzerland and Cranmer in England advanced their beliefs of how the Catholic Church should change. As the reform movement spread the Church became more rigid in its opposition and determined to suppress it. The Church insisted on conformity. The more rigid the Catholic Church became the more intransigent the reformers became. Each side of the controversy turned to “Christian” kings, princes, other nobles and governing authorities to enforce their cause.

As the Church increased its political pressures and reformers turned to politics and rulers to protect and advance their cause, the use of power politics increased and spread. As that happened, conflicts intensified. Religious-based violence ensued. The European Wars of religion carried on for about 200 years during the period between the 16th through the 18^th centuries. The most famous was the Thirty Years War. Those conflicts were fought over doctrines, firmly held beliefs or practices and political power.  It is estimated that between eight and eighteen million European Christians killed each other during that time, all for faith and the power to impose faith.  

Religiously inspired violence also broke out in the British Isles. The English Civil Wars were fought between Christians of different beliefs from 1642 to 1651. They were largely religiously inspiration. The Puritans and Scottish Calvinists (Presbyterians) didn’t want to be united in the Church of England because they believed that it was too “Romish” (Catholic). And so, again, Christians killed Christians to get power to make the religious and political rules in their respective areas. 4% of the population of England, 6% of the population of Scotland and, altogether over the centuries, 41% of the population of Ireland were killed during these civil wars.

Did Jesus teach his disciples to take up arms or use politics to overwhelm those with whom they disagreed?  Did the other apostles go for their knives when James and John wanted to rule beside Jesus? Did Peter take his sword and lop off Thomas’s head when he didn’t believe his story that Jesus rose from the dead? The very notion of it is absurd. Followers of Jesus do not use force or violence to get their way, not according to Jesus. And yet, throughout the ages, those who claimed to be followers of Jesus have done just that. Most of them insisted they did it for Christ’s sake, to serve what they understood to be God’s will and advance God’s Kingdom in the world.

Story Six: Fort Caroline

In the name of Jesus, Spanish conquistadors and European colonists killed and dispossessed natives in the New World. But the first actual massacre of European Christians, in the Americas, was perpetrated by other European Christians. This is what happened.

On September 20, 1565, the Spanish military garrison at St. Augustine, in what is now Florida, attacked a French settlement at Fort Caroline, in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. The attack was motivated by rivalry over the national interests of one “Christian nation” against another “Christian nation.” They killed the defenders of the fort.

Then the Spanish learned that the French civilians in Fort Caroline were not Catholics. Upon learning that the civilians were French Huguenots (Protestants) they killed all of the unarmed male civilians and some of the women and children. The mission of the Spanish invasion was initially political. But it became religious, and when it did it became more brutal and inhumane.  Their “Christian” zeal inspired them to slaughter unarmed Christians because they had different beliefs. Their “Christian” beliefs caused them to stop seeing those civilians as other Christians or even other humans, but as heretics, instead. That enabled them to treat them barbarically.

Religion added to political rivalry suspends morality in the minds of “Christians,” all for the sake of God. And that gives rise to brutality.