stuff & the crusades

sorry to the four people who read this that i haven't posted lately. i've been quite busy and had a trip last weekend to fredericton, NB because my uncle passed away. Please pray for his family. i'll try to post some pics and movies and stuff from the other bball games @ erie soon hopefully. anyway, i was reading some blogs and websites and came across this about the crusades:
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Crusades
There are many events that were done in the name of Christianity that appear to make the Church look like an evil empire bent on expansionism. We should look at these events in context and not how so many have taken them out of context.
First, and the most notable event is the crusades. Contrary to popular belief, the Christians did not start the crusades. The first crusades could be categorized as defensive wars; they were retaliation for Islamic aggression against Christian lands. After Mohammed’s death in the 7th century, Muslims expanded their territory. By the 8th century they had conquered many formerly Christian lands such as Syria, Palestine and Egypt. By the 11th century, Islam had conquered all of North Africa, Spain and Asia Minor. The once powerful Christian Byzantine Empire was now comprised only of Greece. Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus sent an ambassador to his fellow parishioners in the west and pleaded for help. After centuries of Islamic conquest, the Christians retaliated and Pope Urban II gave his famous speech, saying much more than “God wills it.” His sermon was a plea for help for Christians in the east:
“From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our ears: namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God, a generation, forsooth, which has neither directed its heart nor entrusted its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by sword, pillage, and fire; it has led away a part of the captives into its own country, and a part it has destroyed by cruel torture; it has either entirely destroyed the churches of God or appropriated them for the rites of its own religion. They destroy the altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanness. They circumcise the Christians, and the blood of the circumcision they either spread upon the altars or pour into the vases of the baptismal font. When they wish to torture people by a base death, they perforate their navels, and, dragging forth the end of the intestines, bind it to a stake; then with flogging they lead the victim around until his viscera have gushed forth, and he falls prostrate upon the ground. Others they bind to a post and pierce with arrows. Others they compel to extend their necks, and then, attacking them with naked swords, they attempt to cut through the neck with a single blow. What shall I say of the abominable rape of the women? To speak of it is worse than to be silent. The kingdom of the Greeks is now dismembered by them, and deprived of territory so vast in extent that it can not be traversed in a march of two months. On whom, therefore, is the task of avenging those wrongs and of recovering this territory incumbent, if not upon you? You, upon whom above other nations God has conferred remarkable glory in arms, great courage, bodily energy, and the strength to humble the hairy scalp of those who resist you….”
Urban’s sermon was a plea for help. These may not be the words of a power-hungry Pope who wishes to re-conquer the Holy Land, but represent the passion of the leader of a religion and culture that was being mortally threatened by a powerful foe.
However, no one condones the indiscriminate killing during the crusades, these actions were immoral according to the just war theory. Those actions were also immoral according to Christian principles. The crusades had both positive and negative implications. The greatest critics of the crusades lived during the crusades. For example, there were corrupt individuals during the crusades, people who were most likely Christians in name only, who attacked and plundered the Jews to fund their first crusade. Catholic Bishops spoke out against this, and prior to the second crusades St. Bernard made it clear that this was an action condemned by God.
Yes there were un-Christian atrocities committed during the crusades but without the crusades Christianity would have disappeared into extinction. Christianity has the right of defence. Islam demonstrated contempt for justice; the Christians had every right to respond.
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The page this was actually on:
http://skyhawk.unb.ca/~s8ai9/Crusades.html
The site:
http://skyhawk.unb.ca/~s8ai9/Kirby's_Dreamland.html