"Bill Oliver" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Vox Humana wrote:


How do you account for so many denominations each having so large a
difference with fellow Christians that they can't abide belonging to the
same organization?


The second is that there is great ambiguity in most aspects of
Christianity. Jesus noted that there were really only two rules to
being a Christian: loving God above all else, and loving your neighbor
as yourself.

Yeah right!

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructed his followers (Matthew 5:43)

"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and do good to those who hate

you." This might have been a fine lesson if Jesus himself lived up to it.

But when it came to his own enemies, Jesus declared (Luke 19:27), "Take my

enemies, who would not have me rule over them, bring them here, and kill

them before me."


Everything else falls from those two. Most of the things
that people think of when they think of Christian orthodoxy are not
things that Jesus particularly cared about.

Godfrey's conquest of Jerusalem?known as the "First Crusade:"

At the Council of Clermont in 1095 CE, Pope Urban II proclaimed the First
Crusade (1095-1099); primarily to provide Christian pilgrims' access to
Jerusalem. Godfrey of Bouillon (c1060-1100) led the army that felled
Jerusalem in 1099 CE and founded the Christian kingdom of Palestine. There
are many recorded eye-witness accounts of the carnage in Jerusalem. Let us
read just a little on how Christianity implemented Jesus' dictates as set
forth in Luke 19 (something your clergy and Sunday school teachers never
told you).

From Gesta Francorum (The Deeds of the Franks):

"The defenders fled along the walls and through the city, and our men
pursued them killing and cutting them down as far as Solomon's Temple, where
there was such a massacre that our men were wading ankle deep in blood ...
Then the crusaders rushed around the whole city, seizing gold and silver,
horses and mules, and looting the housing that were full of costly things.
Then, rejoicing and weeping from excess of happiness, they all came to
worship and give thanks at the sepulchre of our saviour Jesus. Next morning,
they went cautiously up the temple roof and attacked the Saracens, both men
and women [who had taken refuge there], cutting off their heads with drawn
swords ... Our leaders then gave orders that all the Saracen corpses should
be thrown outside the city because of the stench, for almost the whole city
was full of dead bodies ... such a slaughter of pagans had never been seen
or heard of, for they were burned in pyres like pyramids, and none save God
alone knows how many they were."

Other religious nonsense snipped...



John