My recent interview with Forge & Anvil follows. Beneath it is F&A’s description:
When attempting to gain power, inconvenient truths are often ignored by those in charge of crafting the narrative. One such narrative we see today is the idea that the crusades are a dark blotch on the history of Christ’s church. These crusades are depicted as being a time when Christians wrongly pillaged non-believing communities and forced individuals to convert or die at the hand of sword. However, myself and many others like me have often wondered what inconvenient truths are being ignored in order to craft this narrative of evil Christians neglecting Christ’s teachings and killing innocents? On This episode of Forge and Anvil I will be joined by author Raymond Ibrahim to ask the question: Were the crusades really as bad as we’ve been told? All this and more.
Tershia says
Thank you Raymond for a very interesting discussion. My response to the question is a definite No.
History repeats itself and I see, with many variations of course, that very little has changed. Muslims were trying to conquer the world and that is still their mission. Hamas and their Islamic cohorts are modern day invaders by attacking Israel first and starting to infiltrate our Western cities by our invitation.
The fact that people these days are ignorant of history and can’t think critically because of their own biases, makes for troubling times. That sadly includes the Christian Church, many of whom follow the culture and not the teachings of scripture.
I have a hard time equating the Crusades with the Catholic Inquisition. The Cathars in Southern France were regarded as heretics by the Catholic Church in 1209, and were brutally murdered. Again in 1572 mob violence in Paris, where Catholics massacred French Protestant Huguenots, known as St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Many fled to South Africa, my ancestors included. The good that came out of that incident was the establishment of a lasting legacy of fine wine production.
I pray that there will be a silver lining for Israel too.
David Brian Barrett says
So what about the Crusaders who were quite happy killing Jews on their way to the Holy Land?