Word Weld

Well, here we are again, talking about the Crusades and the Inquisition. This time, though, this discussion wasn’t started by the inexorable forum troll or anonymity-empowered Facebooker. But perhaps the President’s comments were cut from the same cloth? Let’s review the very few facts: the Islamic State murders a man in the name of their religion by burning him alive, and the President of the United States goes on record scolding the one group of people least involved: Christians. That’s like the next door neighbor shooting your dog, and then you go scold the mailman watching innocently from the sidelines because his third cousin’s former college roommate once killed a dog. Why are we even involved in this discussion, some Christians ask? I’m not God. I don’t know what’s going on in every Christian’s life, but for myself at least I know it’s been at least a week since I dusted off my armor and broadsword and rode down to the Holy Land to get me some Saracen heads. I can’t remember the last time I busted down my neighbor’s door, dragged him down into the dungeon in my basement, and slapped that crazy heretic on the rack until he confessed to something. Come to think of it, it’s been a few hundred years since us Christians did all that. Actually, now that I think about it, I can’t remember a time in history when true Christians were ever doing that stuff.

Wait, what? Am I saying the crusaders weren’t Christians? That’s ridiculous! I mean, those people prayed to God, they talked about Jesus, they read the Scriptures… how can they not be Christians. Plus, I’m sure I’ve got a lot of other people saying, “Aha! We’ve got you now, Arnan! You said ‘true Christians!’ So, you’re committing the ‘no true Scotsman’ logical fallacy!”

Actually, I’m not, but to illustrate how slapping the word “true” on doesn’t always equal fallacy, let’s do a more in-depth logic test and get everybody on the same page. Christians are called “Christians” because they adhere to the teachings of Christ. I think that I still have everybody on board at this point. So, what are the teachings of Christ? Well, they are based on the laws of the Old Testament Scriptures, as given to the Jews. In short, they are the Ten Commandments, which Commandments, according to the Scriptures, were given by God Himself:

And God spake all these words, saying,

I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

– Exodus 20:1-17

Jesus, who the Bible teaches the Old Testament was looking towards as Messiah of the Jews and the Son of God, summarized and yet simultaneously expounded upon the Commandments by saying:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

– Matthew 22:37-40

So, if you believe and live by what the Bible teaches (what Jesus teaches), that makes you a Christian. Now, if I say that I am a Christian, then go out and recklessly, intentionally murder someone, what does that say logically? Well, it says I’m not a Christian. After all, membership requires a respect and adherence for these laws, and even though no Christian is perfect, and we do make mistakes and sometimes intentionally sin, it is important to note that even if a Christian does fall, in the eyes of logic he has lost standing with his own creed. In other words, he will have difficulty calling himself a Christian, or you might say he is not a true Christian. Unlike in the no true Scotsman fallacy, here we have something to measure by. Even atheists know what Christians are supposed to do, so when they don’t you can reasonably say that they are not true Christians. Conversely, there is no rule set for being considered a Scotsman other than being born in Scotland to Scottish parents.

With that out of the way, we can quickly determine that roving bands of murderous Crusaders, greedy power-hungry Popes, and the Inquisitors of the Roman Catholic Church were not adhering to Christ’s teachings or the Scriptures, and are therefore not true Christians. It’s really not that strange when you think about it. After all, up until modern times starting around the Renaissance, everybody claimed to be religious and most people claimed Christianity as their religion. There were just as many evil people those days as nowadays, the only difference was that in our culture you can believe everything from Christ to Islam to God Particles. Back then Europe was almost exclusively “Christian” because that brought with it acceptance and a degree of authority and power. Thus, evil people in that day claimed to be Christian, went to Christian services, wore Christian symbols, had Christian names, prayed empty Christian prayers, and yet were no more Christian in reality than a card-carrying member of the American Humanist Association today!

Social stigma and greed drove many to accept the facade of Christianity, while they went about blatantly rejecting the teachings of Christianity with their actions. Many Crusaders were of this same breed. There were some sincere Christians who went on Crusades genuinely believing that God wanted them to save the Holy Land from the Muslims, and based on the projected spread of Islam across the world at the time, perhaps He did want them to. But with those true Christians came a host of greedy carpetbaggers and mercenaries, using the zeal of religion to obtain land, gold, and power, or simply to indulge their violent lusts.

What of Islam now then? Perhaps the Islamic State is just the same as those “Christians” during the crusades? Well, let’s briefly apply the same logic test we applied to Christianity. To review, we said that the God of the Bible gave commands for people who wanted to be true Christians, and that those who didn’t really believe and follow them, even if they claimed them verbally, were false Christians. Like Christianity, Islam has Scriptures which outline its teachings, so that we can distinguish those who are true Muslims from those who merely claim to be Muslims. Okay, let’s take a look:

“And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out. And Al-Fitnah [disbelief or unrest] is worse than killing…

but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and merciful. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah [disbelief and worshipping of others along with Allah] and worship is for Allah alone.  But if they cease, let there be no transgression except against Az-Zalimun (the polytheists, and wrong-doers, etc.)”

– Quran 2:191-193

“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”

– Quran 8:12

Allah’s Apostle said, “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”

– Bukhari 52:177 (From the Hadith)

Funny how all religions are essentially equal, yet teach diametrically opposite things. Almost sounds like a logical fallacy of some kind. Regardless, it sounds like the Islamic State is doing exactly what it’s religious ideology, scriptures, and prophet required in order for them to call themselves ‘Muslims.’ Muhammad and Allah demand that their followers slaughter non-Muslims who won’t convert, and that’s what they’re doing.

So, to sum up, our President is scolding the true Christians for something false Christians did hundreds of years ago in order to in some way mitigate responsibility of true Muslims in our time who are following their ideology’s teachings exactly by committing murder and destruction. That’s like justifying crime in general by pointing at policemen who committed crimes, except the policemen committed the crimes hundreds of years ago, and weren’t even real policemen.