Christians who have committed hate crimes

Great Debates
1

I am putting this on this board because it is pertaining to religion, but it’s a request for information.

Can people please post any anecdotal stories regarding Christians committing hate crimes in recent history. Don’t go back to the KKK or Witchburnings.

You can post stories of getting beat up, your friends getting beat up, etc… Show news stories pertaining to the subject, anything. I’d like to hear it. Air any dirty laundry as to how Christianity has emotionally scarred you or someone you know.

Thank you. This isn’t so I can use it as ammo for Christian hate. I am just in a discussion with some Christians who refuse to believe that Christians ever commit hate crimes.

2

I suspect that this will not end well.
Your call for anecdotes of personal trauma is going to result in posters challenging other posters as to whether events “really” happened and when you go back to your off-board correspondents, they are going to note that the plural of anecdote is not data (while challenging the veracity of the claims). Then you’re going to get more bickering among Dopers regarding whether the victims were “asking for it.”

However, in the interest of providing a starting point that I hope will answer your question without degenerating into acrimony, I offer the story of Lisa Herdahl, a Christian persecuted by Christians for failing to join in one community’s groupthink.

3

All right. My first college experience was at a traditionally all-girl school, and there was one girl in particular who was (1) a vehement Baptist, who always tried to convert people and take them to services at her church, almost like she was getting some kind of commission, and (2) a real sadist when it came to thinking up ways to haze other people. She pretty much focused on fucking up their hair, which was bad, at the time. She painstakingly squeezed Nair into a shampoo tube–fortunately the chick in question put a dollop into her palm and noticed it didn’t smell right. The Baptist also formulated a way to transform a spray can of spray adhesive so that it looked like a can of hairspray. She was happy to talk about these various things and was willing to target anybody. Anything you’d ever heard of–shortsheeting beds (why was this fun? I never got it), putting Saran Wrap over the toilet underneath the seat, fun with Ex-Lax (which at the time, and maybe still, resembles chocolate in appearance and taste)–she was up for it.

This seemed very unchristian to me. Whatever happened to “do unto others”? I don’t think it qualifies as a hate crime, though. Not then, when the concept of a hate crime hadn’t yet appeared, and probably not now, either. (Although if I woke up bald…well, I suppose now I’d say it’s just hair, but at the time it would have ruined my life.

4

Yeah, I wouldn’t use that one, because it’s not a matter of her failure to conform, it’s a story of her attempts to get others to conform. I’m not going to continue from here, and argue the merits of the constitutionality or anything, or who is right in this instance, only that it’s a poor example, and will really only turn on the, “PFAW and ACLU are the enemy.”, switches.

I am aware of this story though, and thanks for bringing it back to my attention. It is a good example of Christians behaving badly, but not suitable for the purposes.

5

Anti-abortion terrorism.

Some notable acts of Christian hate crimes include those committed by Eric Rudolph, Paul Hill and John Salvi, but historically, the incidents are innumerable. Research the history of anti-Jewish pogroms in Europe for example.

6

Christians having abortions.

7

Out here in Utah: “Mountain Meadows Massacre 1857”

Sorry, I’m new and haven’t figured out how to add links; :smack: but Google or Wiki will get you there.

That, and the Crusades, oh, and the extermination of the Native Americans, and Slavery

8

You add links by clicking on the Insert Hyperlink button which is the earth symbol underneath the font size button. Before you do this you highlight the word you want it to link to in your post. Then click on the Hyperlink button. it will first show you the words you underlined (click OK). Then it will ask you for the link. At this point you should have another window opened to the web site so copy the HTTP link from that site and past it. If you have security software that blocks scripts you will get an alert. Click on the alert and follow instructions to allow temporary scripting.

Mountain Meadows Massacre 1857

And as an FYI this doesn’t really qualify for what the op was asking for. The question was for modern examples.

9

Eric Rudolph is not a Christian, and seems to find it amusing that so many people (both his supporters AND those who hate him) believe he is.

In his own words “I prefer Nietzsche to the Bible.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-07-05-rudolph-cover-partone_x.htm

10

Abortion is not a hate crime. Or any other kind of crime, generally, for that matter.

11

You’ll note how I worded it. Many Christians believe killing an unborn child is murder.

12

Presumably, the ones who have them do not believe this.

13

The KKK is ongoing. They even have web sites.

How about Serbs raping Bosnian women? That’s pretty hateful.

14

Well yes, but that’s kinda like a PETA pork barbecue picnic. I should have said earlier that many Christian CHURCHES believe killing an unborn child is murder (as a matter of doctrine).

15

Agreed, but members of such churches are more likely to be committing other hate crimes such as bombing abortion clinics than having abortions themselves.

16

You sure about that?

17

What is the pedigree of your cite? It looks like someone’s blog.

18

What I say here is liable to sound like I’m absolving Christians of ever committing horrible crimes, or as if I’m saying that people who commit hate crimes are never motivated by religion.

So, in advance, I acknowledge that devout Christians can and do horrible things, SOMETIMES in the name of their religions, and SOMETIMES in the sincere belief that they’re doing God’s will.

Problem is, motives aren’t always as clear-cut as they appear. Religious differences are often blamed for conflict even when they’re a negligible factor.

Examples? Well, do you really think the ethnic Irish of Northern Ireland would have been more favorably disposed to their English conquerors if the English had remained true to the Roman Catholic Church? OF COURSE NOT! They’d STILL have regarded the English as oppressive bastards, and they’d STILL have engaged in revolutionary activities to get the English out. Calling “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland a religious conflict is, therefore, a gross oversimplification, if not downright baloney. If all sides were Catholic, those Belfast residents loyal to England would still be hated by Irish who wanted independence, and vice versa.

In the same way, the Balkans are often regarded as a hotbed of religious fanaticism because of the horrors of “ethnic cleansing.” But as P.J. O’Rourke reported, the Balkans are about the LEAST religious spot on Earth. As he put it, here’s how you tell the Serbs, the Croatians and the Muslims apart: the Croatians are the ones who never go to Mass, the Serbs are the ones who never go to Orthodox services, and the Muslims are the ones who, five times a day, DON’T face Mecca and pray.

Religion is sometimes a major source of conflict. Sometimes, it’s a mere component of conflict. Other times, it’s shorthand for something else.

Richard Dawkins may want to pretend that a “Catholic” IRA man who bombs a Belfast police station has committed a religious crime- but Dawkins WOULD like to believe that, wouldn’t he? He’s a Limey, after all. If The Troubles are a religious war, he can pretend it has nothing to do with him. If they’re the result of centuries of English crimes, well, then they DO have something to do with him, don’t they?

19

Astorian I think your point is very valid. On the message board in question however there is this notion that Christians are above the old tribal piques and they view Secularism as a road to vulgar barbarism. So even while you make a valid point, the nature of the conversation is essentially that Christianity is NOT above the petty tribalism that the so-called, Pagans, are guilty of.

20

Where it falls in the “Christians committing violence” versus “Christian violence” scale I’m not sure, but of course RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan was Christian.

In reply to astorian while I agree it is complicated, and there are plenty of other issues in both Northern Ireland and Yugoslavia that are not religious, it IS on balance correct to describe violence committed by Christians (and Muslims) in those areas as religious violence. Religion was central to those conflicts, albeit strongly linked to ethnicity.