"What's That About? Killing Muslims and Jews?"

I find Religious Dispatches an excellent resource for tolerance and polite reporting about religion. This is the web site: http://www.religiondispatches.org/













Photograph from Religious Dispatches Blog.


Recently, my eleven year-old daughter told one of her fifth grade Sunday school classmates that her mother had written a book on church history. He replied, “What’s that about? Killing Muslims and Jews?” That pretty well sums it up—most people think that Christian history is about wars, inquisitions, crusades, and a corrupt church. I don’t deny that—it would be impossible to—but many people have managed to live admirable lives despite Christianity’s institutional failings. And I write about those people. I’m a realist when it comes to history, and part of that is a realistic assessment of when Christianity has lived up to the teachings of its founder. A People’s History is about war; it is about love of God and love of neighbor.