Christianity: Details about 'Historical Persecution By Christians'

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• Exodus 31:15 ("Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall be put to death.") and 35:2 ("Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy sabbath of solemn rest to the LORD; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death") have been used as an excuse to kill people who work on Saturdays or Sundays. Many Christians think this is contradicted by the various instances in which Jesus took stance against a rigid interpretation of the Sabbath. Many erroneous beliefs and accusations were issued against the Pagans of Greece. Christians used false accusations that the Greeks killed Christians at their temples during ritualistic sacrifices to justify much religious persecution and bloodshed. Many of these accusations were in part caused
  
  
  
  by a mistaken association with Greek pagans and the pagans of Rome and Thrace, who unlike the Greeks did commit human blood sacrifices.

  Other Examples of Persecution

  The conflict between the Orthodox and Arian versions of Christianity was one of the causes of conflict between Christian peoples, in particular Vatican supported assaults on the kingdoms of the Arian Vandals and Goths.

  Muscovy and Imperial Russia government forcibly baptized as Muslim Volga Tatars as pagan Chuvash, Mordva and Mari after the conquest of Kazan Khanate and Astrakhan Khanate in 1550s. Mosques and mahallas were prohibited. Persecution ended only during the reign of Catherine II of Russia.

  Medieval Christendom

  In fully Christian Europe there were a number of persecutions directed against Jews and Christian heretics. The Crusades, launched against the Muslim middle-east to "liberate" Jerusalem, have also been interpreted by some as an example of religious persecution. Certainly there were massacres of Muslims and Jews when Jerusalem was taken by Crusaders in 1099. Raymond d'Aguiliers, chaplain to Raymond de Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse, wrote:

  Piles of heads, hands, and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious ceremonies were ordinarily chanted. What happened there? If I tell the truth, it will exceed your powers of belief. So let it suffice to say this much, at least, that in the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle-reins. Indeed, it was a just and splendid judgment of God that this place should be filled with the blood of unbelievers, since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies. The city was filled with corpses and blood. (Edward Peters, The First Crusade: The chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and other source materials, p. 214)

  Jews were also persecuted in Visigothic Spain and later elsewhere in Europe, especially after the emergence of the blood libel. Jews were persecuted, killed and eventually expelled from England by King Edward I. In Spain after the Reconquista, Jews and Muslims were forced to either convert or be exiled. Many were killed.

  Some neo-Pagans believe that persecutions of witches were attacks on surviving Pagans, but this view is not widely accepted (see Burning times).

  The attempts to suppress the neo-Gnostic Cathar faith took the form of the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229) – a brutal 20-year military campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the puritanical religion practiced by the Cathars of Languedoc, which the Roman Catholic hierarchy considered heretical. It is historically significant for a number of reasons: the violence inflicted was extreme even by medieval standards; the church offered legally sanctioned dominion over conquered lands to northern French nobles and the King of France, acting as essentially Catholic mercenaries, who then nearly doubled the size of France, acquiring regions which at the time had closer cultural and language ties to Catalonia. This led to the creation of the Medieval Inquisition which was charged to suppress heresies. Individuals whose views were considered deviant could be convicted and executed, as happened with Joan of Arc and Jan Huss.

  Reformation, Counter-Reformation and Colonialism

  Conflict between Christian factions reached its height following the Reformation, as Protestants and Catholics struggled for control of territories in Western Europe. Catholic authorities persecuted Protestants in a number of jurisdictions, the most notorious being the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, when the French king ordered the murder of all Protestants in France. Outbreaks against Catholics also occurred in Protestant countries, leading to endemic conflicts in some areas, such as Ireland, where the British government imported Protestants and expelled Catholic landowers following a long period of conflict over control of the island.

  European colonization and imperialism was also fueled by Christian evangelism and sometimes by persecution of "pagan" communities. Spanish conquests in central and South America were accompanied by attempts to suppress native religions. Portuguese expansion in India was accompanied by persecutions of Hindus and Buddhists. By the 18th century, persecutions of unsanctioned beliefs had been reduced in most Europeans countries to legal restrictions on those who did not accept the official faith. This often included being barred from higher education, or from participation in the national legislature. In colonized nations attempts to convert native peoples to Christianity increasingly took the form of "carrots" rather than "sticks". In British India during the Victorian era, Christian converts were given preferential treatment for governmental appointments.

  Contemporary

  Canada

  Under pressure from the Roman Catholic church, the government of Quebec withheld the vote from women until the mid 1940s. During 1995-1998 Newfoundland had only Christian schools (four of them, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, and inter-denominational (Anglican, Salvation Army and United Church)). The right to organize publicly supported religious schools was only given to certain Christian denominations, thus tax money used to support a selected group of Christian denominations. The denominational schools could also refuse admission of a student or the hiering of a qualified teacher on purely religious grounds. Quebec has used two school systems, one Protestant and the other Roman Catholic, but it seems this system will be replaced with two secular school systems: one French and the other English.

  Greece

  In Greece the Greek Orthodox church is given privileged status and only the Greek Orthodox church, Roman Catholic, some Protestant churches, Judaism and Islam are recognized religions. The Muslim minority alleges that Greece persistently and systematically discriminates against Muslims.

  Mexico

  According to a Human Rights Practices report by the U.S. State Department note that "some local officials infringe on religious freedom, especially in the south". There is conflict between Catholic/Mayan syncretists and Protestant evangelicals in the Chiapas region.

  United States

  See also

  • Blood libel against Jews
  • Historical persecution by Muslims
  • Persecution of Ancient Greek religion
  • Persecution of Asatruers
  • Persecution of Wiccans
  • Criticisms of Christianity
  
  

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