Holy wars Is there any one else out there that belives that Christians never declared a Holy War?
361980
Christians pretended the war was "Holy" so they could feel justified in raping, pillaging, and murdering thousands of people.  Christians were no better than Hitler and should really be ashamed of themselves.  The Bible is often used to justify greed, murder, and all the terrible things Christians pretend to be against.
1180556
That is an essential doctrine of the Christian faith and as such, I would not consider them true Christians.  I hope and pray that they do come to the full realization of God in all His aspects.  Blessings.
1109775
Nobody really knows for sure. Not mentioned anywhere in the bible or in any historical records.
1164530
Jihad : the concept of Holy War in Islam\n\nThe Quranic term 'Jihad' means, "Holy fighting in the Cause of Allah or any other kind of effort to make Allah's Word (i.e. Islam) superior. Jihad is regarded as one of the fundamentals of Islam." \n\nMuslims refer to a 'greater Jihah' (the personal struggle against sin), and a 'lesser Jihad' (holy warfare against the enemies of Allah and Islam). This distinction is often lost in the media, in part because some Muslims deliberately misrepresent the concept of Islam.\n\nFor Christians:\nMany Christians talk about a "Just War", but the Gospel of Jesus is the Gospel of Peace, there is no way in the New Testament to justify any bloody War... it is difficult to justify even the just, defensive war if one takes seriously the message of the Sermon on the Mount, which is the heart of the Gospel (Mat.5:28-42).\n\n    Jesus changed the whole attitude on warfare:\n    For a Christian, the answer to any war will be to "turn the other cheek"...To Peter, and to you and me, Jesus said: "Put your sword back in its place", because Jesus will bring the sword, Jesus will take care of you, because “vengeance is mine,” says the Lord (Mat.5:39, 26:52, Rom.12:19).\n\n    However, indeed there have been hundreds of wars made by Christians against Christians and against non-Christians... I am sure you are thinking about Ireland, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Crusades... the wars of France, Italy, Spain, Germany, England, USA... all Christian countries, and dozens more... and that's all wrong for Christians, even if it has been done for centuries!.\n\n    Actually, things are changing, even the Pope John Paul II is a pacifist at heart, an activist against war... with 137 documents against war just in the 3 months before the war of Iraq (January to March, 2003)... before the war, the Pope sent a cardinal to Washington to plead with President Bush not to attack, and another cardinal to Baghdad to press Saddam Hussein to cooperate completely with U.N. weapons inspectors.\n\nThis is what Jesus said and did:\n\n   In the Sermon of the Mount:\n    This Sermon, called the Constitution of Christianity, contains in Mat. 5 the "Law of Christ" of Gal.6:2. In it Jesus fulfilled the Law introducing several changes in Matthew 5:17-48.\n    One of them is about aggression, defense and war:\n   You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. (Mat.5:33-41).\n    No "eye for eye" in Christianity, but "turn the other cheek"... no revenge, no war... it is difficult to justify even the just, defensive war if one takes seriously the message of the Sermon on the Mount, which is the heart of the Gospel.\n   Just Love!... put the other cheek... he steals your tunic?, give him your cloak as well... it sounds incredible... impossible to follow... it is the Law of Christ, the Prince of Peace and of joy and of love... This is Christianity!.\n\n    At Gethsemane:\n   Jesus is telling us what he told Peter:\n    "Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest, and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?. But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"... "But Jesus said, "No more of this!" And he touched his ear and healed him." (Mat.26:50-54, Lk.22:51)...\n   The
839683
THERE ARE WARS THAT ARE JIHADS=HOLY WARS. MUSLIM FAITH CALLS FOR THESE WHEN THE INFIDALS AS WE ARE CALLED ARE BREATHING.\n\nAS A CHRISTIAN I SEE THINGS AS SPIRITUAL WARFARE, OUR WEAPONS ARE THE WORD OF GOD AND PRAYER.
216991
I am a Christian.  I want to make clear that there is no other faith that believes in the same God as the Judeo-Christians.  The muslims kind of do, they just follow the son of Abraham, Ishmael.  (simplistic, there are many more factors involved with the muslim faith, the Jews follow the line of Abraham through Isaac and the muslims through Ishmael)  Some religions (ie. Hindu) believe in many gods, others believe in reencarnation and there are a multitude of other beliefs.  It is stupid to fight against one another.  I am appalled that there was fighting between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland and it is very sad that in Iraq, the recently liberated people there are now fighting between the Shiite and Sunni branches of Islam.  I have also hated the fact that during the Crusade times, the Muslims would invade the Christian and Jewish areas, rape, torture and pillage.  Then the so called Christian crusaders would come in and do the exact same to the muslims.  \nJust because some groups of people do stupid and immoral things, that should not cause all religion or beliefs to be fought against.  I might add that the greatest massacre of Christians took place not long ago.  Stalin and Lenin killed millions of Christians because they fought against religion.  Communism doesn't like having a God, they wanted to be.
405488
IT WAS IN FACT...IRAQ.   any doubt as to why we are there now fighting someone else's  Holy war?
167017
Personally, I do not have a definition for a “Civil War,” because I believe that such a thing does not exist. Now grant  it that war is an unavoidable thing on this earth, and that will probably never change. Yet, to call the deaths, torture, bombing, massacring, and hurting and capturing of innocent people “civil” is beyond me. The same to can be said about the whole notion of a “Holy War.” There is nothing holy in war at all - even if it is for a particular belief.
366957
They were Jewish. \n\nAlso Christians are not a sect of Judaism and we actually have very little in common.
779596
None.  They didn't exist when religious texts were written.
534922
I think you are wrong. True there are some Christians who try every chance they get to cram down your throat their version of their religion. And is it also true that in other religions that same type of narrow middle zealots exist. So the problem really is one of the zealots not getting along and not the billions of us left in the world who do get along.
1174117
As long as there are religions, there are wars against countries.\n\nIf there were no religions, the wars would be of a more honest kind.\n\nnow there`s christians declaring wars for "democracy" in the name of god.\nIt would make a slight difference in honesty, if a president or nation would just say "we want your oil, period"\n\nreligion is a shield for real intentions.
746174
Jesus never involved himself in the political landscape. He was more concerned with the spiritual.
777968
how does one differentiate between 'real christians' and the rest who are somehow........ imaginary?--real christians try to end suffering any way they can--voting is one way they can do this--however, I am kind of glad 'Love my lord' does not
433742
Hahaha. I can tell you for a fact they (the Christian people, at least) would not. Their book literally prevents them from ever accepting world peace. And, in fact, if somebody were ever to try and achieve this they would call this person the "anti-christ". Watch the Left Behind movies. Or Omen. They would try to murder the one who would dare try to produce an actual peace in this world. \n\nPeace is the product of reason. Religion is the total opposite.
368022
I love how sensitive the Christians are about this question, when it makes no mention of Christianity.\n\nThere's no shortage of folks who consider themselves to be "soldiers of god".  Christians, Muslims and Jewish folks seem fairly prone to these concepts.  No religion is immune to zealotry.\n\nHow do they justify their cruelty?  Well the ones dishing out the cruelty think of themselves as "soldiers of god", while the ones not dishing it out can easily slide the blame aside and say, "The Inquisition? Burning Witches? Well, they weren't real Christians" or "Suicide Bombing? That's not what Islam about".\n\nEasy as pie.
316514
I dissagree.  I believe that if you do enough research you will find that almost all wars that seem to be associated with religious differences were really hiding behind religion and were always about land or control or a percieved threat to survival.