The Klan might have claimed to be Christians, but they obviously weren't by any interpretation of the Bible. The Christian dogma is open to abuse: try convincing my friend from Eithiopia otherwise! He grew up worshipping the Christian religion, except that he followed the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings literally; they thought their King was sent by God to guide them. Consequently, when he bought up all the food during a famine, and starved the people to death, there was less public outcry than there might have been. Even after the King was deposed, and my friend was talking over the "bad old days", his sister was shocked and afraid of his "blasphemy" for speaking ill of the old King, despite all people he had killed. Years later, exiled and powerless, the power of her past faith still held that poor girl brainwashed. I'd like to say that was a story from 200 years ago; but my friend told it to me in the late 1990s. Christianity is dangerous if abused; modern and ancient history proves it.

What's worse, it's an ugly and violent religion at core; rife with blood, death, and sacrifices. I suspect that most people who claim the God of the Bible is a good and just being haven't really read it, or have read only very selectively and metaphorically. Read literally, there's no way the Bible is anything but horrific by modern standards of ethics.

God condones genocide of unbelivers; both in the Koran and the Bible.

"Exodus 32:26-28: "Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men."

How was the Christian call to religious genocide better than the Islamic? A crusade is just another name for a jihad. Neither are acceptable.

It's not the only case of genocide: God clearly orders and approves of the slaughter of children, and even livestock; anything even remotedly related to the hated enemy must be destroyed.

Deuteronomy 7:1-2: "... the seven nations greater and mightier than thou; And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them."

Joshua 6:21: "And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.

God also murders little children for laughing at his priest's bald head! Isn't being torn to death by a bear a little, um, gruesome punishment for namecalling? Didn't God hear about the "sticks and stones" rhyme?

2 Kings 2:23-24: "And he Elisha went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them."

He not only condones the murder, but rape of children as well..

Numbers 31:1-18: "...And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded moses, and they slew all the adult males. And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones...And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses...And Moses was angry with the officers of the host And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Ba'laam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the female children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."

That's right: they kill all the men and boys, and slaughter all the women, then rape all the little girls!

Oh, and God liked slavery, too. Christ didn't seem to mind it, either. Rather than condemning slavery, (as you would expect, given he's railing at the social order of the Church, and other social customs), he sees it as natural, and uses it as a metaphor in his parables:

Luke 12:45-48: "The lord owner of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."

And just in case it isn't clear, yes, these slaves are real slaves: sold as property, and possesed of few, if any rights. For example, beating one to death is only a crime if they don't live through the day before dying of wounds.

"And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money property." Hebrew Scriptures, Exodus 21:20-21.

But Christ was a pacifist,right? He renounced all those old-school prophecies, right?

Actually, no. He supports the savage old laws and customs, including slavery, legal rape of women, and so forth.

"I come not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil them. Till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matthew 5.17,18)

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household." --- Jesus Christ(Matthew 10:34-36, NASB)

Care to explain again how Christians aren't prone to terrorism? I just don't buy it. The 1,000 year reign of the Catholic Church where they crowned the monarchy of Europe, and maintained a standing army to discipline the unbelievers sounds like rule by terror to me. The entire faith was founded on rule by fear of the fires of Hell, and the fires of the inquistioner, for centuries.

According to Christ, there are only two commandments a Christian must obey. Fair treatment to one's fellow man is the second, lesser commandment; blind loyal to their faith is the first, and supercedes all else. For their faith, devout men of God will kill, murder, rape, enslave or torture, according to their own Holy Scriptures. Abraham was willing to slaughter his own son to appease his God; who demanded ritual blood sacrifices, and commands an Angel of Death to slaughter children if the house is not warded with sigils of blood.

Read the Bible again: there's a lot of ugly, ugly things in there. A moral person has only two options: disregard a lot of the text of the Bible as metaphorical (a slippery slope), or reject the whole thing altogether. Accepting slavery, genocide, and the rape of children is just too much; and it's clear in the Bible, by direct quotation and by significant omission, that all these things were approved of by the Christian god's early followers.

If you can find a way to reconcile the bloody god of the harvest as presented in the early Bible with the kind and loving God presented by His modern followers, well, perhaps you're more imaginative than I am. I tend to be literal minded, and taking the Bible literally, there's little to recommend it.

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