# Examples of Forced Christianity **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110 "2009-01-13T17:04:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/21 "2009-01-13T19:30:17Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > In which case the wars of religion in France would surely count. And also the thirty years war in Germany. Both sides committed numerous massacres. As would the persecution of the [Cathars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathars#Massacre) of southern France in the 1200s. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/22 "2009-01-13T19:34:36Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > As would the persecution of the [Cathars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathars#Massacre) of southern France in the 1200s. Indeed. “Kill them all. God will know His own” ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/23 "2009-01-13T19:39:20Z")
It’s a lot of info, but [this](http://www.truthbeknown.com/victims.htm) should help. ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/24 "2009-01-13T19:45:44Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > The fact that many respected authors and historians have been known to state that Christianity has caused \*all sorts \*of carnage throughout history, lead me to be quite confident that I could find some specific examples to rub some salt into the wounds of those that might blindly cling to the idea that their entire religion is all about sunshine and rainbows, and then want to force feed me that nonsense, and call it fact. While it can’t be argued that a lot of horrible stuff has been committed in the name of religion and that religion has been used to justify horrible actions after the fact, one could argue that that is not what the religion itself is about. Just so we understand each other, I am an atheist. FWIW, Rob ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/25 "2009-01-13T19:56:58Z")
> [@sweeteviljesus](#): > > While it can’t be argued that a lot of horrible stuff has been committed in the name of religion and that religion has been used to justify horrible actions after the fact, one could argue that that is not what the religion itself is about. Just so we understand each other, I am an atheist. > > FWIW, > Rob I got a beef with Christianity. The \*whole idea \*of it, but if pressed to give a specific example, I’ll offer up the psychological torture of children (including me) by telling them that a loving God might burn them eternally in a suffocating, horrifying, flaming hell. Just so we understand eachother, I do not consider myself an atheist. ---
**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:** [January 13, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/26 "2009-01-13T20:15:06Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I got a beef with Christianity. The \*whole idea \*of it, but if pressed to give a specific example, I’ll offer up the psychological torture of children (including me) by telling them that a loving God might burn them eternally in a suffocating, horrifying, flaming hell. I was about to remark that a suffocating, horrifying, flaming hell is not, per se, a fundamental component of Christianity; then I Googled “hell in the bible” and found [this](http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=400), and realized that 1) I’m wrong, and 2) “[bible.org](http://bible.org)” are not nice people (and seem to have some trouble with objectivity). ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/27 "2009-01-13T20:38:26Z")
Of course, most of these things reflect on Christianity now in about the way that Daniel Boone fighting the Indians reflects on America as a whole now. Yes, I know that it’s arguable that certain attitudes remain, but do they reflect the core point of the organization, especially now? ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/28 "2009-01-13T21:01:46Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Does being the wrong kind of Christian count? After the Reformation, there was a period of flip-flopping between Catholicism and Protestantism among England’s monarchs; every time a new one took the throne, they’d start oppressing the other side. Specifically, begin with the reign of Henry VIII and read up through Charles I. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/29 "2009-01-13T21:03:47Z")
Many examples have already been given, but here’s a story about an [autistic boy killed by faith healers.](http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/08/24/autistic.boy.death/) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/30 "2009-01-14T00:42:54Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Charlemagne famously had the Saxons who refused to convert or kept following heathen practices after conversion beheaded. This also continued into the next generation, with the last gasp of pagan Saxony being the [Stellinga revolt](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellinga), brutally put down by the now Christianized Saxon nobility. Another example are the Muslims of Lucera in Italy. Deported there from Sicily by Frederik II, for ~3/4 of a century they more or less loyally supported assorted Christian monarchs ( first Hohenstaufen, then Angevin ) with troops and taxes until 1300, when much of the population of the town was sold into slavery or otherwise expelled by their king, the Angevin Charles II, partly at the instigation of the Pope. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/31 "2009-01-14T02:04:37Z")
The Spanish Inquisition was pretty brutal. ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/32 "2009-01-14T02:38:41Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I need some examples of slaughter of people by ‘Christians’ because others have not accepted Christianity. Can anyone provide me with examples and cites? Need answer fast! Thanks. Do a google on Bartolome de Las Casas (1474-1566) who was a Spainish Dominican missionary and take note how Columbus and others treated the Indians. He noted that Spaniards: > [@](#): > > …made bets as to who would slit a man in two, or cut off his head at one blow; or they opened up his bowels. They tore the babes from their mother’s breasts by their feet, and dashed their heads against the rocks….They spitted the bodies of other babes, together with their mothers and all who were before them on their swords. Also Tainos were hung from a gallows frame: > [@](#): > > …just high enough for their feet to touch the ground, and by thirteens, in honour and reverence for our Redeemer and the twelve Apostles, they put wood underneath and, with fire, they burned the Indians alive (quoted in Sale p.157). How’s that? These quotes I used directly from Professor Gerald Larue’s _Freethought Across the Centuries_. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/33 "2009-01-14T02:49:53Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I was about to remark that a suffocating, horrifying, flaming hell is not, per se, a fundamental component of Christianity; then I Googled “hell in the bible” and found [this](http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=400), and realized that 1) I’m wrong, and 2) “[bible.org](http://bible.org)” are not nice people (and seem to have some trouble with objectivity). I’m not sure why that site convinced you of anything, but a suffocating, horrifying, flaming hell is not, per se, a fundamental component of Christianity. Even setting aside the question of biblical literalism, there’s the fact that even interpreted fairly literally, the bible can easily and honestly be interpreted as not containing such a message. (Granted it can easily and honestly be interpreted as _containing_ such a message as well.) The most compelling reference to anything like a flaming hell is in Revelation, with the references to a lake of fire. However (again, recall I’m in “literalist” mode, which is not my natural mode but I’m just illustrating here) the lake of fire is characterized as “the second death,” and elsewhere in the new testament it is said that the end of the cosmos consists in a state in which God is “all in all” and in which there is no such thing as death at all. I could say more but this is a hijack already. I just wanted to register that there are honest inerpretations of the bible which take it fairly literally and yet which do not ascribe to it the traditional doctrine of hell. Again, that’s to put aside the question of literalism itself. Once you start understanding scriptural and mythological writings (and the experiences that give rise to them) as fundamentally symbolic and metaphorical, there’s no way to maintain that the traditional doctrine of hell is “fundamental” to Christianity. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/34 "2009-01-14T03:32:49Z")
I am loving this thread. Thanks guys. I have already quickly dispensed with my friend. I emailed her links in between my customer calls at work, and she was reduced to getting all personal. (It just feels like you don’t like me when you say these things). Ha. Frylock, I started [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10689939#post10689939)in Great Debates, because I am interested in more of what you have to say. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/35 "2009-01-14T03:47:28Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > The Spanish Inquisition was pretty brutal. The Inquisition [What a Show!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKxnaMeOK20) ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/36 "2009-01-14T05:25:03Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > The Spanish Inquisition was pretty brutal. Correction: The Spanish Inquisition was _unexpectedly_ brutal. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/37 "2009-01-14T05:27:32Z")
Christainity reached south India[2000](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christians) years ago, very peacefully. But in [Goa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_Inquisition) portugese forced locals to convert. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/38 "2009-01-14T05:40:11Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I am loving this thread. Thanks guys. I have already quickly dispensed with my friend. I emailed her links in between my customer calls at work, and she was reduced to getting all personal. Congratulations. Maybe you can make her cry too. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/39 "2009-01-14T06:07:53Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > Congratulations. Maybe you can make her cry too. She thought I would be easy pickins, having no higher education and being insecure in my ability to debate most topics; she thought she can feed me her nonsense and I would be unable to combat it. If she weeps, let her weep disabused of that idea. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-forced-christianity/481110/40 "2009-01-14T06:26:39Z")
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