The Roman Catholic Church
When Jesus ascended into heaven , He left one Apostolic church behind him- not a ragged bunch of bickering and contesting factions. The church had unity for hundreds of years, until the Great Schism, when the eastern and western halves of the Church broke up
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While this certainly destroys my argument that the Pope did nothing to oppse Hitler when in power, I am still somewhat confused.
According to the book i have cited above - and indeed, according to secular historical sources I read at school ( I don't mean stuff by jack chick, i mean historical works from a state school library) hitler asked the roman Catholic church to disband it's political party in return for guarantees that the Church would not see it's interests or property damaged. The pope agreed to this, paving the way for Hitler to become absolute dictator.
Now, can this claim also be shown to be false?
But thank you for this first link. It does help clear up one thing. I have heard these charges made against the church before - that the Spanish Inquisition , the Crusades and the rise of Adolf Hitler were all the products of roman Catholicism. If we can clear the Catholic church of these, then all Christianity benefits.
I particularly liked the quote by Einstein at the end. Was he aware of Jehovah's Witnesses opposition to Hitler, though?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Party_%28Germany%29
especially:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Party_%28Germany%29#The_Hitler_government_and_new_elections
and onwards. The party was dissolved before the concordat and for other reasons.
It must also be noted, that the Church has never formed any parties and was in fact for a long time against even lay people taking part in party politics, because the Church was against secular democracy.
The Inquisition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition
Death toll for the Iberian inquisitions (Spain + Portugal): somewhere in the region of 6000 in over 300 years. Most were NOT burned alive but garroted, then burned. Horrible, but not really the kind of reign of terror envisioned by the popular mind.
Also, concerning the institution of the Inquisition in general:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Inquisition#Punishment
The Crusades:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusade
"Another factor that contributed to the change in Western attitudes towards the East came in the year 1009, when the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of all churches and synagogues in his Caliphate, which included North Africa and the Middle East. That destruction included the Church of the Holy Sepulchre"... One would hope that the Muslims would stop whining sometime and face up to their responsibility for the start of the crusades.
"If we can clear the Catholic church of these, then all Christianity benefits"
"If we"!?! The educated man already knows that there is more to these things than what is commonly held (I for one am not a Catholic!). Lies against the Catholic Church have mainly been invented and proliferated by other parts of Christianity. They are to blame, even now when these falsehoods have taken on a life of their own and are used against the whole of Christendom. Actually, it kinda serves them right. Repentance is called for - the Catholic Church I'm sure can take care of itself.
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