--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bob_brigante <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Very borglike on the part of some Islamic fundies (although they are > not by any means representative of all of Islam, just as Xtain > fundies, numerous as they are, do not represent all of Christianity), > just like European Christians who fought -- how many was it again? -- > "There were many different crusades. The most important and biggest > Crusades happened from the 11th century to the 13th century. There > were 9 big Crusades in this time. They are numbered 1 through 9. > There were also many smaller Crusades. Some crusades were even within > Europe (for example, in Spain and France). The smaller Crusades > continued to the 16th century, until the Renaissance and > Reformation.
The thing you are leaving out, Bob, is that two of these Crusades were against *fellow Christians*, the Cathars. The two Albigensian Crusades were for the specific purpose of practicing genocide against fellow Christians who deviated from the Roman dogma and refused to acknowledge Rome as "authority." Not to mention conquest of territory and theft of their property. The Crusaders and the Inquisition killed an estimated 250,000 of them in the name of God. The three things promised to Crusaders -- their "enlistment bonus," as it were -- were: 1) guaranteed Heaven...nothing they had done previously in life or for the rest of their lives would be considered a sin; 2) they could keep anything they could steal; and 3) while any member of their family was on Crusade, none of their debts could be collected. The last promise was the reason that most families in Europe signed up one or more of their sons for the Crusades; they were in hock up to their eyeballs, and were anxious for those debts not to be collected. I'm not arguing with your premise that Christians have as bad or worse a history of warfare and genocide as Muslims and Jews; I'm merely pointing out a detail, that their real *reasons* for the genocide and warfare were neither altruistic nor limited to one opposing religion. It was a case of "us vs. them," with "them" being anyone who stood in the way of "us" getting what they wanted. > The word "Crusade" is related to the word "Cross", and means a > Christian holy war. See above. How "holy" were the Crusades in reality?
