Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Christianity, power and The New Testament

The stories of Jesus have always been appealing to those who are hungry for power and gold. Kings, tyrants, colonizers, slave traders, exploiters and fascists have all found encouragement in the Bible. Isn't this strange? How come that these kinds of people became so interested in the New Testament? They must have found something there that was very attractive, the question is what.

And the churches, Catholic and Protestant, why did they align themselves with these crooks? The Catholic Church endorsed the slave trade. How could the Jesuits in Senegal justify that children were separated from their parents and sold like cattle? How were they thinking? The Catholic Church supported the fascists in Spain? The Pentecostals endorsed the American terror bombings in Vietnam? A priest blessed the Hiroshima bomb. How do you explain all this?  



“In spite of a stronger condemnation of unjust types of slavery by Pope Gregory XVI in his bull In Supremo Apostolatus issued in 1839, some American bishops continued to support slave-holding interests until the abolition of slavery. In 1866 The Holy Office of Pope Pius IX affirmed that, subject to conditions, it was not against divine law for a slave to be sold, bought or exchanged.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_slavery