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Jesus is arguably the most influential person who ever lived. He is thecreator of Christianity, the largest civilization of today. Christianity hasevolved the world, and changed how people think, and live. Ancient timeswould have been drastically different if Jesus was never born. Theconstitution and laws of vast amounts of countries would be different, andcolossal amounts of lives would have been spared in the ancient world. Jesuswas only on Earth for a short amount of time, and yet he left behind a giantimprint.
Christianity and the Wiccans
Before Christianity came to rule the world, there were people all over who worshiped the earth, they were called many things from ‘Druids’ to“Wiccans’. Some of them participated in an act that we know today as‘Witchcraft’. They were not prominent in most societies, but they wereknown, yet, not looked down upon. These ‘witches’ mixed together debrisfrom the planet and said incantations to worship the earth. After the rise of Christianity, most witches continued their religion underground, fearing prosecution of the Christians. The Christians wanted everyone to switch totheir religion, and the Wiccans were not excluded. In some instances, if youdidn’t switch to Christianity, you would be killed for your sins.Wiccans continued to do participate in ‘witchcraft’ until the ‘GreatWitch Hunt’ of the 1500’s. The Christian church encouraged the hunt of thewitches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The church told the public that witchcraft was an evil art, and that anyone participating inwitchcraft was also worshipping the devil. Anyone accused of witchcraftwould have a trial before being prosecuted. The church had a habit of influencing the judge to come up with the guilty verdict. After being chargedguilty, the person in question would be put to death. Being burned at thecross was a common punishment, but many were also hung. A large amountwere thrown down wells, or drowned in local lakes. These witch hunts arecommonly depicted in Hollywood movies these days, and have given plotsto dozens of movies.
Christianity’s Effect on Rome
The Christian religion was not fond of violence and human cruelty.The Roman Empire is today famous for their ‘gladiators’, men who foughteach other for the entertainment of others. As you can bet, the Christianswere not fond of this sport.Once Emperor Constantine declared the new Roman faith asChristian, the people of Rome began to follow what the Bible says. It wasonly a matter of time before all other religions were wiped out of Romecompletely. If you were caught in worship in any other religion thanChristianity, you would be punished by death. It is very amazing how timescould change. Before, Christians in Rome were hunted down and killed for their ignorance, yet, a century or so later, if you were not Christian, you wereevil. It was even the Romans who killed the Messiah of their new religion. Itis baffling as to why the Romans would have a sudden change of heart.You may be wondering why the Romans didn’t accept the Christianreligion at first. If you look back into Roman history, you will see that theyaccepted numerous other religions and worked them into their own. For example, the Romans took the Greek religion and made it their own bytaking the mythology and changing the names of the gods. Christianitywasn’t accepted with open arms for one reason. To be Christian meant toworship only one god.The Romans worshipped their emperor as a god, starting with the firstemperor, Augustus Caesar. If you were only allowed to worship one god,then the ideal that emperors were gods would become extinct. This is one of the major reasons that the Roman government and the emperor hated theChristians and executed them by large numbers.The Christian religion made the people of Rome more soft than their earlier ancestors. The Bible said to love your neighbor, among other things,which grew activists against gladiator fights.Gladiator battles were not eradicated immediately. They were slowlywiped out over time. At first, only women gladiators were banned fromfighting. Female gladiators were always involved with controversy, so the ban on them was not surprising. Next, about 165 years later, humans werenot allowed to battle wild animals for sport. 34 years later, a Christian by thename of Tetramachus jumped into a gladiator battle to try and stop it, and hewas killed. Facing pressure, the Emperor banned gladiator battles for good.Another change that Christianity brought upon Rome was howchildren were treated. Before the Christian religion spread to Rome, childrencould be abused, starved, or worse, killed. Don’t get me wrong, it was still
illegal to kill a man in Rome, but harming a child was not frowned upon, itwas even at some points favored. Christianity taught people to love children,and treat them with care. The message from the church was that harming achild was one of the greatest sins that a person could commit.
A Holy War
In the early 1000’s, the Christian church along with the Pope began to build up an army to fight the Muslim people to both eradicate their oldreligion, and to take back the ‘Holy Land’, Jerusalem.Men were recruited to be ‘Soldiers of the Church’. They would behanded a cross from the Pope or one of his associates, and then would besent to war. This brought even more interest to those who did not care a lotabout the church, or were not Christians. They saw this great power rising,and they knew that it would be best for themselves to become involved in it.This was a type of religious propaganda.The first Crusade was considered ‘Just War’ by the church andChristians. They were only going to war to take back what was rightfullytheirs from the ‘evil’ Muslims. Some today may consider this drastic, butthey only wanted to preserve their heritage from those who would do itharm. This is what gave the Crusade such overwhelming support. NoChristian opposed this ‘Holy War’ because they believed that they weredoing it to serve justice and take back what was rightfully theirs.Some say that the Christians struck out against the Muslim people because they were scared that they would rise up and challenge their power.This is very interesting considering that the Christian and Islam can beconsidered the two religions which are ‘arch-enemies’ today.There were numerous Crusades over the years, all meant for different purposes. The last of which were ended by Napoleon Bonapart. TheCrusades were a very dark period in Christian heritage, one that the churchand all Christians tend to forget or pass over. These Crusades took placeduring a time where the church was a little power crazy, and a little less‘loving’ and civilized as they are thought upon today. You can’t look downon them though because they were just defending their religion and land.
The Church and School
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