Originally Posted by FlyerJosh
And Christianity has been perfectly well balanced and forgiving? Don't forget that just as many wars have been started in the name of Christ or God. If you doubt it, do some research on the crusades or read the old testament.
I amazes me that people can make blanket statements about one religion without knowing a thing about that particular religion. Saying that all muslims are waging wars in the name of their religion is like saying all christians burn crosses while wearing white robes and hoods.
Actually, az's post was right on.
If you doubt it, do some research on the crusades or read the old testament.
Why do you reach back 1400 years to the crusades?? First of all, the crusades were STARTED by MUSLIMS who invaded Christian lands. So the Christian involvement was defensive, not offensive. Second, anyone who wages war in the name of Christ is not representative of Christianity. Just compare their actions to what Christ taught and you will see for yourself.
Do you really want to go into the Old Testament? Sure, wars were waged in the Old Testaments, but they weren't started with the intent of converting people to believe in God. And if you look into the New Testament, you will see that war is preached NOT to be a method of conversion and that innocent people are not to be killed in the name of Jesus.
From a Biblical perspective, war is not glorified, but it is JUSTIFIED in and under certain cases, both in the Old and New Testaments. What the Bible does not teach is to wage war for sake of waging war or for the sake of using it as a tool for conversion.
Islam is a lot different. They DO convert by the sword. If you don't believe me then go to a country such as Saudi Arabia or Indonesia and try to convert people peacefully to any other religion. Do you know what the penalty under Islamic law is for trying to convert someone to Christianity? It is death.