I think this commentary is several years old.
Atheism Has Fueled Greatest Mass Murders In World HistoryBy Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition
As we approach Christmas, the one day a year that we set aside to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are hearing noises among intellectuals and rock stars about the “dangers” of Christianity to world peace and cultural tolerance.
The most recent attack on organized religion came from homosexual rock star Sir Elton John, who thinks that organized religion—specifically Christianity—turns people into “hateful lemmings.” According to John, “I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays.” His solution: “ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it.”
Atheist Richard Dawkins, writing in his new book, “The God Delusion,” claims that many of the world’s conflicts around the world are due to the murderous religious impulses. Columnist Robert Kuttner claims that “The Crusades slaughtered millions in the name of Jesus. The Inquisition brought the torture and murder of millions more. After Martin Luther, Christians did bloody battle with other Christians for another three centuries.”
Dinesh D’Souza, a Fellow at the Hoover Institution recently pointed out the glaring errors in such statements in the Christian Science Monitor. He noted, for example, that the Spanish Inquisition sentenced to death approximately 10,000 individuals. Some historians claim another 100,000 died in jail.
One of liberalism’s favorite anti-Christian boogeyman is the Salem witch trials. How many actually died as a result of those trials: fewer than 25.
And what of the Crusades? Most Americans probably have a negative view of the Crusades as an attempt by Christians to conquer peaceful Muslims. The opposite is true. British historian Paul Johnson has observed: “The Crusades, far from being an outrageous prototype of Western imperialism, as taught in most schools, were a mere episode in a struggle that lasted 1,400 years, and were one of the few occasions when Christians took the offensive to regain ‘occupied territories’ of the Holy Land.” The Crusades were launched to regain land conquered by Muslims and to prevent Muslim armies from invading and conquering any more nations! It was a defensive war against Muslim imperialism.
The Christian-haters should turn their attentions to militant Islam and Atheism as the most serious dangers to the world.
The fact is that while religious wars have been fought for centuries, militant atheism has slaughtered more people than religious zealots ever have. The greatest mass murders in history have been committed not by Christians but by Communists Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung. More than 100 million have died at the hands of these militant atheists since the early 20th century.
And, one of the first genocides committed in the 20th century was by Turkish Muslims against Armenians between 1915 and 1918. An estimated 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed during that slaughter.
Elton John, Robert Kuttner, Richard Dawkins and others may want to do more fact-checking before they launch into new tirades against Christianity.
The fact is that Christians have been at the forefront of expanding and defending human freedom around the globe ever since the First Century Church was founded. Christians, for example, were the ones who campaigned against the gladiator games in ancient Rome as well as against the slave trade in Britain and in the United States. It has been our Christian compassion that has led us into wars around the world to defend the downtrodden and to preserve freedom for individuals. (Alvin J. Schmidt, Ph.D., clearly explains this in his excellent history book, “How Christianity Changed The World.”)
Elton John’s ability to speak freely and attack Christianity in Britain is due to the fact that Britain has based its laws upon the Ten Commandments and Christian principles about free speech and freedom of conscience. John might not fare so well under Sharia law nor would his music be freely marketed under a Communist dictatorship.
As we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, all of us should keep these truths in mind.
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2943
