# Christians who have committed hate crimes **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 20, 2008, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127 "2008-07-20T04:17:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/21 "2008-07-21T00:39:09Z")
Other examples Christian violence in recent/current war zones are Maronite Christian militia actions in the Lebanon, and the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/22 "2008-07-21T01:28:23Z")
Griffin, it’s an odd fact that, in the 20th century, many formerly Christian peoples have “thrown out the baby but kept the bathwater.” That is, Europe today is extremely secular, hardly Christian at all, any more… and yet, Europeans who’ve jettisoned Christianity may continue to hold attitudes and prejudices that make no sense in the absence of Christianity. One would THINK, for instance, that the old notion of Jews as “Christ Killers” would disappear in an era when hardly any Europeans believe in Christ any more. But apparently, Christian antisemitism is still going strong, and will continue long after there are any practising Christians. Similarly, Serbs who’ve never given Jesus a second thought may STILL retain ancient hostility to Islam (which is way many Serbs wrongly refer to their Muslim neighbors as “Turks”). ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/23 "2008-07-21T02:13:41Z")
[QUOTE=astorian] Griffin, it’s an odd fact that, in the 20th century, many formerly Christian peoples have “thrown out the baby but kept the bathwater.” [/QUOTE] The facts simply don’t support that. Nothern Ireland is far more religious than the rest of the UK, with church going rates of around %60 (and that is today, after The Troubles, at their height it would have been much higher). Clergy on both sides were invovled in the violence, both directly in a few cases, and in a inciting role in other. Yugoslavia(and its subsequent break away states) was and is very religious society (despite years of official atheism). And again clergy, both orthodox and catholic, were invovled in the violence. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/24 "2008-07-21T02:16:37Z")
I’ve heard fairly regularly that pretty much any gay male will experience a physical attack by religious homophobes at least once. I assume it to be easy enough to google up cites that it’s better for the OP to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/25 "2008-07-21T02:35:47Z")
Check into the [Church of Jesus Christ–Christian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Jesus_Christ%E2%80%93Christian) and the [Christian Identity](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Identity) movement - it’s basically a mixture of white supremacy and Christian fundamentalism. ---
**Author:** ![Frankenstein\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@Frankenstein\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frankenstein_Monster)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/26 "2008-07-21T09:39:28Z")
[Jewish family flees Delaware school district’s aggressive Christianity](http://www.jewsonfirst.org/06b/indianriver.html) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/27 "2008-07-21T09:57:06Z")
[QUOTE=Frankenstein Monster] [Jewish family flees Delaware school district’s aggressive Christianity](http://www.jewsonfirst.org/06b/indianriver.html) [/QUOTE] [Here’s](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/28delaware.html) a follow-up. ---
**Author:** ![Frankenstein\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@Frankenstein\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frankenstein_Monster)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/28 "2008-07-21T09:58:50Z")
[Oklahoma Atheist Family Resists Right-wing Christian Regime, Prevails](http://www.jewsonfirst.org/06b/smalkowski.html) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/29 "2008-07-21T10:37:09Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] Check into the [Church of Jesus Christ–Christian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Jesus_Christ%E2%80%93Christian) [/QUOTE] What hate crimes have they committed? Not arguing, just curious. [QUOTE=Little Nemo] and the [Christian Identity](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Identity) movement. [/QUOTE] Yeah, including terror bombings here in SA. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/30 "2008-07-21T12:13:00Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] What hate crimes have they committed? Not arguing, just curious. Yeah, including terror bombings here in SA. [/QUOTE] The CoJC-C and its sister group Aryan Nations spawned the paramilitary group The Order which committed a series of armed Brinks truck robberies & the murder of liberal Jewish radio talk show host Alan Berg. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/31 "2008-07-21T14:56:48Z")
[QUOTE=Magiver] 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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre) And as an FYI this doesn’t really qualify for what the op was asking for. The question was for modern examples. [/QUOTE] Thanks 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/32 "2008-07-21T15:01:12Z")
I have a feeling you’ll get a lot of “no true Scotsman” responses if you truck out any of this stuff. “Well, sure, they _claim_ to be Christians,” etc. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/33 "2008-07-21T16:03:08Z")
We can’t go as far back as lynchings? Can you give us a definite date, then? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/34 "2008-07-21T18:28:58Z")
If the OP is still looking for concrete examples of Christians who have committed hate crimes, here’s one particular horrible example: > **[BBC NEWS | Africa | Rwandan priest guilty of genocide](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6175717.stm)** > > The first Rwandan Catholic priest to go on trial at the UN tribunal in Arusha is found guilty of genocide. Of course, depending on the OP’s intended audience, this may not help. If they’re fundamentalist Protestants, they may not deem us Catholics to be true Christians. Moreover, this priest’s crimes (and he wasn’t the only one; numerous Hutu nuns and priests took part in murderous hate crimes against their Hutu neighbors) were not religious in nature. After all, the Tutsis he helped kill were ALSO Catholic. But if the purpose is simply to show that self-styled Christians are quite capable of horrific crimes based on nothing more than prejudice, you can’t do much better than this one. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/35 "2008-07-21T18:34:34Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] I have a feeling you’ll get a lot of “no true Scotsman” responses if you truck out any of this stuff. “Well, sure, they _claim_ to be Christians,” etc. [/QUOTE] Nah. Look, I’m Catholic. And if Sean Malone goes to Mass every day, blesses himself before he plants a bomb outside a gay bar, and prays the Rosary while he waits for it to detonate… well, I can denounce him, I can repudiate him, I can say he’s in violation of all the most sacred teachings of the Church… but I CAN’T pretend he’s not a Catholic or that he’s not acting according to what he THINKS are Catholic values. No matter who we are or what we believe in, SOMEBODY on our side is bound to be a scummy character. We don’t have to embrace those people, but we can’t pretend they don’t exist or that they’re not REALLY one of us. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/36 "2008-07-21T19:03:27Z")
[QUOTE=astorian] No matter who we are or what we believe in, SOMEBODY on our side is bound to be a scummy character. We don’t have to embrace those people, but we can’t pretend they don’t exist or that they’re not REALLY one of us. [/QUOTE] I’m not saying everyone is going to dismiss this stuff that way, just that that would be the default response from most Christians claiming that Christians were inherently nicer than everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/37 "2008-07-21T19:21:30Z")
[QUOTE=griffin1977] Other examples Christian violence in recent/current war zones are Maronite Christian militia actions in the Lebanon, and the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. [/QUOTE] Not sure that really applies given there is foreign financed Muslim millitia occupying Lebanon. I think this is more a matter of survival then a Christian hate group. I personally know of 2 Lebanese Catholic familes that came to the US to escape the violence. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/38 "2008-07-21T20:57:36Z")
Well, you have the [Fronte Combattente Cristiano or ‘Fighting Christian Front’](http://goondesbar.blogspot.com/2008/04/christian-combat-front.html) in Italy. There’s very little written about them on the Internet except in Italian, which I don’t read. There’s [Eric Rudolph.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Robert_Rudolph) There’s [every gaggle of thugs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_LGBT_people)who have ever beat up or killed a gay kid. Some may not have been motivated by Christianity, though. There’s [Christian Identity.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Identity) The [Lord’s Resistance Army](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Resistance_Army) in Uganda. [God’s Army](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%27s_Army_%28revolutionary_group%29) in Burma. The [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudan_People's_Liberation_Army) in Sudan. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/39 "2008-07-21T21:31:01Z")
[QUOTE=Gala Matrix Fire] The [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudan_People's_Liberation_Army) in Sudan. [/QUOTE] Could you clarify this one? Looks like a secular movement to me. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127/40 "2008-07-21T21:32:09Z")
[QUOTE=Gala Matrix Fire] We can’t go as far back as lynchings? Can you give us a definite date, then? [/QUOTE] Ok, since 1980. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-who-have-committed-hate-crimes/457127.md?page=3)