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Historical persecution of Christians

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Religious persecution and discrimination
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Conflicts between Christians and non-Christians have resulted in the persecution of non-Christians by Christians. Christians have also persecuted each-other when conflicts arose between different Christian denominations. Such persecutions have extended to a wide variety of religious and social minorities within predominantly "Christian lands". This persecution has included unwarranted arrest, war, inquisition, imprisonment, beating, rape, torture, execution or ethnic cleansing. It also may refer to the confiscation or destruction of property, or incitement to hate non-Christians. In some cases such persecution has been visited upon those who consider themselves Christian, but are regarded as non-Christians by members of the dominant Christian denomination, such as Catholic Christians in majority Protestant areas, Protestants in Catholic areas, and so forth.

Theological debate of persecution

Christian theology derives its sources from the teachings and actions of Jesus as codified in the New Testament, as well as the Old Testament and several other sources depending of the Christian denomination. This makes the Bible, especially the canonical Gospels, the primary source in order to classify persecution by Christians as either religiously motivated persecution or ethnic persecution.

Some churches, such as the Roman Catholic Church, give weight to oral tradition.

Cited by persecutors

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  • Christian anti-Semites blame the Jews as the culprits for the crucifixion of Jesus. They base this on the citation "His blood be upon us, and all of our children". They hypothesized that because Jesus is God, thus, the Jews were the enemy of God. Note, however, that Jesus and his apostles were Jews themselves. The view of those anti-Semites, however, is regarded as contradictory to biblical teachings and as un-Christian by the Christian religious establishment and the vast majority of Christians, because it contradicts Jesus' commandments to love other people, even enemies, like oneself and the Mosaic injunction not to punish people for the sins of their ancestors. It also goes against the fundamental Christian teaching that Jesus died for the sins of all mankind, which places responsibility for Jesus' death on everyone, not on a particular group.
  • Some Christians considered the persecution of others as "necessary" in order to "protect the souls" of Christians against damnation by heretic teachings. See also: Inquisition. The vast majority of Christians and Christian denominations believe that Jesus rejected violence. For instance Paul of Tarsus ordered heretics to be admonished in the church or to be expelled from the church, not to be persecuted.
  • In the Old Testament, which Christians consider inspired Scripture, Yahweh commands that the temples, idols, and sacred groves the all the goyim (pagan non-believers) be destroyed, and that those that follow other gods in the territory of Yahweh people should be killed. According to mainstream Christianity, this, however, contradicts the teaching of Jesus which regards love towards God and other people as the supreme law and is considered to be not applicable anymore by mainstream Christianity, because the New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant.
  • In those same Gospels Jesus told the parable of the master and the servant, saying that once there was a master who had a fabulous banquet, so he sent out his servant to bring people the banquet, but they would not, so the master told the servant to force them into his house (used as a proof text by Augustine, who was responsible for the persecution and killing of many pagans and heretics). This interpretation is firmly rejected by mainstream, Christianity as it is a violation of the aforementioned Supreme Law.
  • Leviticus 20:27 ("A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned with stones, their blood shall be upon them.") and Exodus 22:18 ("You shall not permit a sorceress to live.") have been interpreted as Christians should kill people who supposedly use magic, for instance Wiccans. However the translation is debated and one interpretation is that it doesn't refer to magic, but to kill people using poison (this is particularly a common Jewish argument). It is worthy of note that the Hebrew people coexisted with Pagans who not only believed in many gods, but often practiced "sorcery." Also, those laws are considered by most Christians to contradict essential teachings of Jesus, e.g. the commandment to love other human beings like oneself. Also see Christian views on witchcraft.
  • Leviticus 20:13 ("If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.") have been used as an excuse for persecution of homosexuals. Also, those laws are by many Christians considered to contradict essential teachings of Jesus, such as the teaching not to judge others. Many have argued that this quote is taken out of context by Christians to justify pre-existing bias. In particular Jews may argue that it is a mistranslation, and that the initial verse condemns not homosexual activity, but orgiastic activity. In addition some have argued that the source of persecution against homosexuality lays with Luther's Germanic Translations.
  • 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. Jews who observe the Sabbath may argue that you are punishing yourself if you do not observe the Sabbath, and would come out against punishing people who do not observe the sabbath. Likewise most Jews would argue that quote is a mistranslation, and that the Hebrew people did not put people to death for failing to observe the sabbath, after all they did coexist with many people who failed to observe the sabbath but never killed them.

Cited against persecutors

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  • According to the canonical Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 5:44), Gospel of Luke (Luke 10:27) and the Gospel of Mark (Mark 12:31), Jesus commanded to "love thy neighbour like thyself and love God more than anyone" and called this the fulfillment of the Law. He further taught his followers to love thy enemies. Representing persecution as an act of love is a quite challenging task. However, some have interpreted "neighbour" to only include Christians. Others believe that anyone who doesn't believe in Jesus is doomed to spend eternity in Hell; therefore, doing anything possible to save them from that fate (by forcing them to convert to Christianity by any means necessary) is an act of love.
  • According to Christian Gospels, Jesus commanded people to withstand evil with good. Most people consider persecution to be an evil thing.
  • According to Christian Gospels, Jesus forbade to hate. Persecution implies hate. Paul of Tarsus, as well as Jesus himself, allegedly considered the commandment to love the supreme law.
  • According to Christian Gospels, Jesus said not to judge other people. Persecution can be considered as a crude way of judging others. However Christians often avoid this by saying it's God that do the judging, they just deliver it.
  • Jesus supposedly did not fight back when he was harrassed, arrested, and crucified, nor did his disciples, exempted Saint Peter, which was rebuked by Jesus.
  • In the canonical Gospels, the Acts and the Letters, there is no description of any case of persecution by Christians which could be used as a precedent for would-be Christian persecutionists.

Roman Empire

Main article: Persecution of Roman religion

When Constantine became the sole Roman Emperor in 323, Christianity became the official religion of the empire. Religion and state now intertwined, the early Roman Church with full official backing, turned to the pagans and began to persecute them. After the death of Constantine in 337, two of his sons, Constantius and Constans took over the leadership of the empire. Constans, ruler of the western provinces, was, like his father, a Christian. In 341, he decreed that all pagan worship and sacrifice should cease; warning those who still persisted in the practice of paganism with the threat of the death penalty.

Constans was killed in 350, and soon after his brother became the sole emperor of the entire empire three years later. Constantius, also a Christian, decreed that all pagan temples in the empire be immediately closed. He warned that anyone who dared still offer sacrifices of worship to the once-revered gods and goddesses in these temples were to be put to death. Similarly, any governor to refused to enforce this decree was also to be punished.

But it wasn't just the emperors who persecuted the pagans. Lay Christians took advantage of these new anti-pagan laws by destroying and plundering the temples. Theologians and prominent ecclesiastics soon followed. One such example is St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. When Gratian became Roman emperor in 375, Ambrose, who was one of his closest educators, persuaded him to further suppress paganism. The emperor, at Ambrose's advice, confiscated the properties of the pagan temples; seized the properties of the vestal virgins and pagan priests, and removed the statue of the Goddess of Victory from the Roman Senate.

When Gratian delegated the government of the eastern half of the Roman Empire to Theodosius the Great in 379, the situation became worse for the pagans. Theodosius prohibited all forms of pagan worship and allowed the temples to be robbed, plundered, and ruthlessly destroyed by monks and other enterprising Christians.

A prominent example of this persecution is the case of the philosopher Hypathia of Alexandria. Hypathia was the daughter of the mathematician Theon. She was one of the most learned individuals of her time. She taught and elucidated Greek mathematics and philosophy. She lectured widely in Athens and Alexandria. But her widespread popularity and intelligence, coupled with her complete lack of interest in Christianity, so irritated the Patriarch of Alexandria, Cyril, that his attacks on her inflamed a group of monks to murder her in the year 415. The cruelty of the method of her murder can be seen by the description of it by the historian Edward Gibbon:

"On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, Hypathia was torn from her chariot, stripped naked, dragged to the church, and inhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the Reader and a troop of savage and merciless fanatics; her flesh was scrapped from her bones with sharp oyster shells, and her quivering limbs were delivered to the flames. The just progress of inquiry and punishment was stopped by seasonable gifts; but the murder of Hypathia has imprinted an indelible strain on the character and religion of Cyril of Alexandria."

It should be mentioned that, because of his relentless defense of orthodoxy and, as an obvious corollary, his zealous destruction of heretics and infidels (such as Hypathia), Cyril is considered a saint by the early Christian church.

Under Theodosius the Nicene or "Orthodox" version of Christianity became the official religion, engendering conditions for conflict with the mostly Germanic tribes who had converted to the "heretical" Arian form of Christianity. In the year 416, under Theodosius II, a law was passed to bar pagans from public employment. All this was done to coerce pagans to convert to Christianity. Theodosius also persecuted Judaism, destroying a number of synagogues.

Christianization of Europe

With the full Christianization of Europe Paganism all but disappeared from the Western world for two reasons: the relentless persecution by Christians and, possibly, the assimilation of some pagans and subsequently their ideas into Christianity. The process of Christianization was long and complex, involving conflicts between peoples that were partly fuelled by religious differences, and partly by inter-ethnic power struggles. Both Christians and Pagans suffered during this period. Sometimes conversions were peaceful and assimilative, other times they were more coercive.

Northern Europe

Main article: Persecution of Asatruers

In Northern Europe, Ásatrúers were the subject of much religious intolerance from Christians. The priests were killed, temples torn down and the followers persecuted and killed.

In 1087 king Inge I of Sweden, who earlier had been forced away, traveled with his housecarls through Smalandia and Ostrogothia, riding both day and night, until he arrived in Sweden. Having arrived at Old Uppsala, he surrounded the hall of Blot-Sweyn, and set the hall on fire. When the king ran out, he was immediately slain. This is probably the date of the destruction of the Temple at Uppsala.

The tradition seem to have remained even after the christianization and in early Swedish law books there is listed a fine for the crime of blóting.

Greece

Main article: persecution of Ancient Greek religion

During the christianization of Greece, there was much persecution of Ancient Greek religion. Followers were the subject of a great deal of religious intolerance from Christians. The priests were killed, the followers persecuted and killed, and the temples torn down to be made into limestone quarries, Christian Churches, or civic buildings. Many followers of the Hellenistic gods were punished and slain by Christians, and those caught worshipping or making sacrifices to their gods were often imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Many myths 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 blood shed. 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.

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, has also beeen interpreted by some as an example of religious persecution. Certainly there were massacres of Muslims and Jews when Jerusalem was taken by Crusaders 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 colonisation and imperialism was also fuelled 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. Portugese 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 colonised 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.

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