There has been much discussion about religion in this echo.  Joanne and
Ken, the true "christians" seem to want to lay the bloody history
of Christianity at the feet of Catholics.  Protestant Christianity had
had its share of bloody history, also. Consider this:

Christianity was one religion although divided into various sects from
its inception with the teachings/ministry of Jesus Christ from
approximately 26-29 A.D.  For the first approximately 300 years of its
existence each sect was pretty much autonomous.  Then in 325 A.D the
Council of Nicaea met to standardize the beliefs, dogma and doctrine of
all the Christian sects.  The Church existed as the Catholic Church for
approximately 769 years until the Great Schism of 1094, when the
churches in the west became known as the Roman Catholic Church and the
churches in the east became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church.

During the next 428 years, the western Church or Roman Catholic Church
fought against many heresies.

In 1520 A.D. Martin Luther, a German Roman Catholic Church priest, broke
with the pope and exercised great influence over his followers but did
not organize a unified Church.  The Lutheran Church in Germany became a
collection of territorial bodies corresponding to the political
divisions and dominated by the civil rulers.  In 1522 Luther left the
the sanctuary (protection) of Wartburg Castle near Eisenach to take
charge of the Reformation, which had fallen under control of radicals
seeking to make a clean sweep of Catholic ideas and practices.  Luther
resumed preaching and teaching and with the aid of the rulers put down
disorder and carried out moderate reforms.  In 1524 he discarded the
monk's habit, and the next year he was married to Katharina von Bora, a
former nun.

In 1524-1526 came the Peasants' Revolt, caused by acute social and
economic distress.  Some of the leaders were Anabaptists and other
radicals of the Reformation.  Luther first sided with the peasants but
then turned against them and urged the rulers to exterminate the
"robbing, murdering" rebels.  His words found ready response.  Luther
lost much of his popularity among the common people, and had to rely
more and more on the rulers.  Lutheranism established close ties with
the state, and was often submissive to it.

This was the beginning of what is now called the Protestant Reformation
which occurred throughout Europe and the Roman Catholic Church beginning
in approximately 1529 A.D.

By 1600, critics charged that Luther's church was largely a system of
dogmatic orthodoxy and was no longer a living faith.  In the 17th
century a movement called pietism stressed devout daily living and
strict morality.  This movement had considerable influence on
Lutheranism.

There was much rivalry between the Lutherans and the Reformed Church,
which was founded by John Calvin.  The Reformed faith gained
considerable support in some German states.  During the 19th century the
Lutheran and Reformed groups formed union churches in many of the
states.  In 1933 under the Nazi regime the 29 state churches in Germany
united in the national Evangelical Church, which Hitler tried to exploit
for his political purposes.  Martin Niemoller and other church leaders
led a resistance movement against the Nazis.

Lutheranism spread to many other countries of Europe.  In the
Scandinavian nations it won the support of the rulers and became the
state religion.  Elsewhere it gained the support of small minorities.

John Calvin was a French theologian and reformer.  His original name was
Jean Chauvin or Coulvin.  Calvin was trained first for the priesthood in
the Roman Catholic Church and then for law.  He rebelled against the
Church, and in 1532 A.D. joined the cause of the Protestant Reformation.
His evangelical activities activities caused him to be banished from
Paris.

Calvin and Guillaume Farel tried to establish absolute Protestant
authority in Geneva, Switzerland.  They succeeded in making a Protestant
confession of faith compulsory for all citizens.  However, a revolt
compelled Calvin to flee the city in 1538.  He was recalled in 1541, and
Geneva then became a stronghold of Protestantism.  Many denounced Calvin
as a tyrant, and he was accused of being responsible for the burning at
the stake of Michael Servetus.

In 1534 in Munster, Germany, a group of Anabaptist fanatics led by Jan
Bockelson (or John of Leyden) set up a "Kingdom of the Saints."  John
made himself king, legalized polygamy, and established communal
ownership of property.  His "New Zion" was besieged and captured, and the
defenders were massacred or tortured to death.

Protestants and Catholics joined to persecute the Anabaptists.  The
movement was crushed, but remnants survived.

The Church of England (Anglicans) was formed by Parliament in 1534 after
Henry VIII separated from the Roman Catholic Church and the pope when
the pope refused to grant him a divorce.

Religious persecutions ran both ways depending on which group was in
power.  When Catholics were in power, Protestants were persecuted and
killed.  When Protestants were in power, Catholics were persecuted and
killed.  Most of the time the political struggles and the religious
struggles were intertwined.

Oliver Cromwell was an English statesman, soldier, and "Lord Protector
of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland" during the period
when England was without a king.  He was a brilliant soldier in whose
Puritan eyes every battle was "an appeal to God."  A shrewd,
opportunity-seeking politician, he ruled with an iron hand.  Although
Cromwell replaced the monarchy of the Stuarts with military
dictatorship, he believed to the end in the necessity for rule by
Parliament.  His extreme religious fervor led him to commit one of the
most brutal acts in English history -- a ruthless massacre of Irish
soldiers, priests, and civilians.

Oliver Cromwell was born at Huntingdon, in east-central England in 1599.
After a year at Cambridge University, Cromwell was married and began
managing his father's estate.  He was first elected to Parliament in
1628.   Beginning about 1636 he went through a long period of religious
depression until, as he put it, he "saw the light."  From that time on,
he was a fervent, unswerving Puritan.

In 1640 Cromwell was elected to the Short Parliament and then to the
Long Parliament.  Although hard-working, he was not an outstanding
leader during this period and attracted little attention.

In 1642 fighting broke out between the Royalists (supporters of Charles
I) and the Roundheads (those who believed Parliament should govern),
beginning the English Civil War, or Great Rebellion.  Cromwell, then a
man of 43 with no previous military experience, formed a troop of
Roundhead cavalry made up wholly of "pious men" who prayed before each
battle.  He and his troops earned the name "Ironsides" because of their
fighting ability.  They fought effectively at Edgehill and Marston Moor.

In 1645 Cromwell's plans for reorganizing the army were put into effect,
resulting in the New Model Army -- England's first truly national army.
Cromwell commanded a wing of this army at the Battle of Naseby (1645)
and his generalship defeated Charles.  The battle broke the king's
power, putting the government entirely in the hands of Parliament.

Meanwhile, the Puritans split into two factions.  The Presbyterian
faction controlled Parliament and favored a restoration of the king.
The Independent faction, to which Cromwell belonged, controlled the
army.  In 1648 Cromwell forcibly removed the Presbyterians from the
House of Commons, leaving the Independents in complete control.  At
first Cromwell was opposed to efforts to put Charles I to death, hoping
to set up a form of constitutional monarchy.  Cromwell later reversed
himself, and was the leading prosecutor at Charles' trial.  The king was
beheaded on January 30, 1649, and England was declared a commonwealth
under the rule of Parliament.

Cromwell then led an expedition to Ireland to put down Irish rebels.  At
Drogheda and elsewhere his troops ruthlessly killed every soldier and
priest they could capture and slaughtered thousands of civilians.
Characteristically, Cromwell considered the Irish massacres to be "a
righteous judgment of God upon... barbarous wretches."  When Ireland was
subdued, Cromwell invaded Scotland and defeated Royalists at Dunbar
(1650).  At Worcester (1651) he smashed Charles II's invasion of
England.

During his five years as protector, Cromwell virtually was dictator.  He
called several Parliaments, none of them regularly elected.  They had
little power.  The country was actually under military rule.  He upheld
religious tolerance, except for Roman Catholics.

Baptists first appeared as a denomination in England and America in the
early 17th century.  They were the extreme separatist element of the
Puritan movement that disrupted the Church of England.  English Baptists
flourished under Oliver Cromwell.

During the 16th century the movement against witchcraft reached its
greatest intensity, with Roman Catholics and Protestants competing with
each other in the display of antiwitchcraft zeal.  It is estimated that
300,000 European women were put to death as witches between 1484 and
1782, the year the last official death sentence was put into effect in
Switzerland.  Many who died were guilty of nothing more than odd
behavior that aroused the suspicion of their neighbors.

Persecution of witches was especially prevalent in England about the
middle of the 17th century.  It is estimated that at least 150 supposed
witches met their deaths by official decree during a six-month period
in 1645.

The feverish campaign against witchcraft spread to New England.  In 1692
it reached its peak in Salem, Massachusetts.  Within an eight-month
period, 19 citizens were hanged, one pressed to death between weights,
and many imprisoned.  Two Puritan clergymen, Increase Mather and Cotton
Mather, helped to incite the trials but condemned the verdicts because
of the evidence used against the accused.

Political-religious struggles continue to this day in places like
Ireland and Bosnia.  In the Middle East the political-religious
struggles are not among Christians, but between Jews and Muslims.

These are the dangers from mixing religion and politics.  Our First
Amendment is a guarantee that the same things will not happen in this
country.  But we must remain ever vigilant as there are some whose goal
is to tear down that "wall of separation of church and state", brick by
brick; as the Bible says "like a thief in the night."  These are the
wolves in sheep's clothing that we must guard against.  We must cast
them out, like the devils that they are and preserve our civil liberties
and civil rights.  If our freedom of religion and our freedom from
religion are abolished, can our other freedoms be far behind?

"They came for the communists, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a
communist;
They came for the socialists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a
socialist;
They came for the trade union leaders, and I did not speak up because I
wasn't a trade union leader;
They came for the Jews, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."
--Martin Niemoller (1892-1984)

                                Until next time,

                                    Eileen

NetMail Address: 1:114/428
E-Mail Address: Eileen.Irwin@a19.gryn.org

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