Why Have So Many Wars Have Been Fought in the Name of Religion?

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Why Have So Many Wars Have Been Fought in the Name of Religion?

Posted on May 16, 2024 by Father Joe

Krystal Smith poses this question at STAPLER CONFESSIONS and states: “From biblical times to modern day, it’s true that many wars have been fought in the name of religion. From the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades, to modern religious extremists and terror attacks, many have suffered. However, most religious people don’t support going to war with people who have different beliefs. Those who have been mislead to resort to violence fail to see the peaceful messages that are present in virtually all religious texts. Some atheists feel that the world would be more peaceful without the impact of any religions.”

Were there many wars fought over religion? While Hitler ordered the holocaust of six million Jews, it was not really a war over religion. The first World War had to do with clashing empires, alliances and money. The Japanese wanted sovereignty over Asia and control of the Pacific Ocean. Korea and Vietnam was all about the aggression of Chinese atheistic Communism. The Inquisition employed religion as a tool but besides stamping out heresy was essentially a political effort to secure Europe from Moslem occupation. The Crusades preserved Europe from Islamic invasion. Religion was a factor in the Crusades because it was hoped that the Holy Land might be reopened to pilgrims. Religion is merely one factor among many in such questions about human congress and tension. It is not necessarily the single root-cause for hostilities.

Speaking in terms of Christianity, the pacifism of the earliest believers became increasing impracticable and hard to sustain. Believers were martyred like the killing of flies. The Roman empire opposed the new religion because Christianity was intolerant of paganism and believers refused to compromise. One could not worship idols or the demons they signified and still claim the lordship of Jesus Christ. Old Rome saw the emergence of Christianity as a political threat to the empire— especially the language about turning the cheek, giving to those who take from you, and loving your enemies. Christians joined with Constantine to bring three centuries of persecution to an end. When it came to the relationship between the Church and Islam, the weight of guilt was more heavily upon Islam and its notion of jihad or holy war to force religious submission. Islam was to Europe what the Soviet Union was to us during the Cold War. Our faith and civilization were all at stake. The inquisition expelled an enemy from our midst. The crusades sought to open the holy land to pilgrims. The tensions between Protestants and Catholics in Europe were part of a struggle for political power between princes, kings, and the Church. The conflict was more about temporal matters than spiritual ones.

While there are many apologists who argue that militant Islam is an aberration to a religion of peace, in truth every place that becomes 51% Islam experiences a repression of Christians, Jews and others. We would concur with atheists that God’s children should not kill each other over religion; however, Christian believers have a right to defend themselves. When this becomes impossible, as with the Coptic men who had their throats cut, there is a witness to how we should remain faithful even if we must die.

Those atheists who think that a world without religion would be more peaceful are delusional. Atheism has been tried, and as with Stalin, millions suffered the loss of rights and incarceration in the gulags. He killed 20 million of his own people. The atheists who claim political power, subsequently treat their anti-god philosophy like a religion, seeking converts not through argument but through war and revolution. When God is taken out of the picture, men assume his throne. There can never be a vacuum. While critics lament God’s laws and judgment, the verdict of men is much harsher. Separated from the Divine Mercy, why should we be surprised?

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Atheism, christianity, Faith, history, Religion |

One Response

clubschadenfreude, on May 16, 2024 at 5:46 pm said:

Quite a set of false claims and excuses. Unsurprisingly, atheists don’t think that without religion, there would be no trouble in the world. We know that without religion there would be less.

FATHER JOE: Christianity draws us into an appreciation of the good, the true, and the beautiful. The Church is the voice for the voiceless. The Gospel gives a preferential option for the poor. Our Lord himself went out to the hurt, the sick, and the oppressed. You are very much deceived.

Communism isn’t atheistic. It can be Christian. JC was quite the Communist.

FATHER JOE: Both Soviet and Chinese Communism proved themselves true to their atheistic Marxist roots. Jesus was Jewish, the Son of God, and the founder of the Catholic Church. And you are proof of biblical teaching: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1).

The crusades were an invasion by Christians into where they believe their nonsense happened. Curious how other religions have that claim too, and not one of you can show your claims true. So, your attempts to cast Christianity as innocent are simply false. Christians killed Jews and Muslims. And kept killing and harming Jews for hundreds of years. You even attacked other Christians in the sack of Constantinople. So much for “pilgrims,” when going to a site does nothing for your supposed “faith.” Since you can’t show any of the supposed sites are real, you fail.

FATHER JOE:

When you look at the preaching of saints about the crusades, the message was always about freeing the holy land for believers. No one denies that were many who sought other benefits or that the rights of the innocent were sometimes trampled upon. Religion is often distorted by sinners for personal and political aims. However, the one with true faith knows that he or she will one day stand before the judgment seat of the Lord. The atheist, by comparison, might hope that crimes will never be disclosed and that he might benefit all the same. Take away an afterlife and judgment, and men will no longer fear God. Our broken or fallen humanity should do what is right out of love but the vast hoard of humanity are only retrained by threat of loss or punishment. Those who abused the crusades were likely not those who believed too deeply but those who did not believe enough. There are many practical atheists who wave the banner of religion. As a priest I can only speak to Catholicism.

Yes, religious zeal can lead us to atrocious acts. We see this with militant Islam today. The Jews persecuted the early Church as did the pagan Romans. Christians pressed Judaism into a ghetto religion; nevertheless, it is remarkable that an accommodation was made. Over time the Jews would flourish in business and the arts. The tragedy of Nazism should not totally overshadow their contribution to Judaeo-Christian Western civilization.

The sacking of Constantinople in 1204 was a major historical tragedy and would weaken Christendom against the coming onslaught of the Ottoman empire. Many saw it as a retaliation for the wholesale massacre of Roman Catholics by the Orthodox in 1182. But in truth, it seems the crusaders were motivated more by greed and power than by faith. A wedge was placed between the two lungs of Christianity. The late Pope John Paul II made an apologia on behalf of the West that was accepted by Patriarch Bartholomew I.

Really Joe, you think others are ignorant of what the church’s history really is.

FATHER JOE: Yes, I suspect there is great ignorance. Such is necessarily the case when one fails to appreciate what the CHURCH is and what she is ultimately about. The Church is holy because Christ is holy. However, our Lord called sinners to himself, and the Church must do the same. The Church is the great sacrament of salvation.

The inquisition was where Catholics were doing their best to destroy other Christians.

FATHER JOE: There were many inquisitions as they were national efforts. The Spanish was the most severe although the great enemy was Islam which threatened the nation. Most inquisitions were mild with fines for wrongdoing or heresy. The legacy of massive blood-lust is largely fiction.

Remember that Albigensian Crusade? The murderous nonsense between Catholics and Protestants were from each side claiming that only their side was true and thus everyone else “evil.”

FATHER JOE: The Cathars or Albigensians were neither true Christians nor even Protestants, despite the fraudulent polemics of certain fundamentalists. They were Gnostics with a faith that stole the trappings of Christianity while emptying it of substance. They believed in two competing deities, one good and the other evil. They denied the divinity of Jesus and his resurrection. They looked down upon marriage because they viewed its association with childbirth as negative, trapping souls to matter. So much did they look down upon this life that they practice ritual suicide— made it a sacrament. While we cannot condone the brutality against them, we might well understand how they posed a terrible heresy against the true faith and endangered the public good. Not everything can be tolerated. There is an objective measure give by faith and nature that must inform our values and laws.

Constantine forced the Christians who were busily attacking each other to stop it and make up one version of Christianity, which promptly failed.

FATHER JOE: You have such a skewed understanding of history that I wonder if you are even capable of understanding. Before Constantine the Christians had suffered three centuries of martyrdom. They endured every sort of indignity: crucifixion, beheading, burning and the spectacle of the arena where they were torn apart by wild beasts. Constantine is said to have seen a cross in the sky with the words “in hoc signo vinces” or “by this sign you shall conquer.” Christians were drawn to his cause and he won the leadership of the Roman empire. Christian persecution by the pagan Romans came to an end. Over time paganism would disappear and thus it could be said that the Catholic faith ultimately conquered the Roman empire, not with the sword by with its own blood mixed to that of Christ.