With Christianity, there have been some amazing events in its missionary history. For example, the Vandals, a Germanic tribe that often engaged in frays against the Romans, managed to sack several Roman cities from Europe to North Africa. Despite the fact that the pagan Vandals managed to conquer numerous Christian lands, they converted to the faith rather than forcing their own respective beliefs on those whom they had conquered².

 Another such similar incident came when the Mongols (as well as the Central Asian/Turkic Tatars under their leadership³) conquered much of Asia and Europe. These warriors were, for the most part, believers in polytheism, animism, and shamanism, yet many were converted to the faith of the very Christians they conquered. Though many of them converted to Islam, such notable figures as Takudar, son of Halaku Khan, happened to be Christian⁴.

 Why would anyone want to convert to the faith of a people whom they had conquered? While there is no set logic in the realm of theism, could the Vandals and the Mongols not conclude that their own gods were superior to the God of Christianity due to the simple fact they they won? It would seem that the very nature of the Christian story, as well as the missionary zeal of pious Christians, combined to make a powerful tool for converting those not of a major Monotheist religion.

 First there is the concept salvation. Adherents of polytheism and Shamanism rarely teach that salvation comes only through their faith; rather they often opt for a more tolerant attitude towards the beliefs of others. As Ibn Warraq put it, "[h]istorically speaking, monotheism has often shown itself to be ferociously intolerant, in contrast to polytheism on behalf of which religious wars have never been waged.⁵"

 On one side, you have Shamanism and polytheism, which teaches that you can choose between one set of rituals, or a completely different set of rituals, and either choice is equally valid. On the other side, you have Christianity, a jealous religion, with a jealous God, that teaches that the only road to salvation is through Jesus. To many, Christianity must have seemed a great deal more convincing.

 This state of mind is compounded by the concept of Hell, a frightening abode of eternal torment. George Smith, in one of his many polemics against Christianity, pointed out that "[the concept of Hell] has resulted in an incalculable amount of psychological torture, especially among children where it is employed as a terror tactic to prompt obedience.⁶" Religions that did not promote this concept of fiery torment for those who do not follow the law were sure to have a rough time competing with Christianity.

 Forced conversions, deceptions, and incidents of psychological terrorism are deeply intertwined with the history of the spread of Christianity. Some of the tactics used by Christian missionaries have been rather cruel, and even "unChristian."

 One sad example is of the Panare Native Americans of the Colorado valley which I read about on the Islamic Awareness site⁷. Christian missionaries, seeking to convert the Panare, translated the New Testament into their language. Unfortunately, many words found in the Christian New Testament had no equivalent in the Panare tongue. The missionaries got around this problem by taking certain liberties with the translation, changing the story to the point that it implicated the Panare in the crucifixion of Jesus.

 The new Panare version of the New Testament now contained such statements as "The Panare killed Jesus Christ because they were wicked." "'Let's kill Jesus Christ' said the Panare." "They laid a cross on the ground." "They fastened his hands and his feet against the wooden beams with nails." "The man died like that, nailed." "Thus the Panare killed Jesus Christ."⁸

 Such methods are strikingly unethical, but they have happened. Still, the above atrocity was not enough. The psychological terrorism would not be complete without the aforementioned threat of Hell. Frighteningly graphic threats of God consuming the land and animals with fire, and burning the evil Panare themselves, was found throughout this version of the New Testament⁹.

 Many of the Panare were terrorized, and it was through these methods that the missionaries were able to win over many converts. Now the Panare wanted to avoid the horrible punishments promised them in the book that contains God's word, and were willing to become loyal subjects of Christianity in complete submission. One woman came forth and said "I don't want to burn in the big fire, I love Jesus.¹⁰"

 The dark side of the spread of Christianity in the Americas did not stop there. In Tahiti, some missionaries discovered that they could spread their faith by way of influencing local leaders with weapons and alcohol. The missionaries would introduce a local chief to the glories of alcohol, and see to it that he was reduced to a hapless drunk.

 Once this had been accomplished, the missionaries would have greater control over the chief. They would then offer the chief military assistance against rival tribes. The missionaries would give the tribe's army firearms, on the condition that the chief would force those whom he defeated to convert to Christianity. As Norman Lewis put it, "the whole nation [...] was converted in a day.¹¹"

 Such practices were also found when Jesuits residing in North America during the 17th century converted many people of the Huron tribe after protecting them from the Iriqois¹². One way or another, Christians in the Western hemisphere used their access to firearms to win over converts. As Latourette put it, "the Christian faith, far from bringing in the peace which it proclaimed, was still furthering the sword.¹³"

 This sort of use of force was maintained for centuries throughout the Americas, as was the method of "divide and conquer". In Brazil, Christian oppression of Muslim slaves from Africa was so intolerable, that there was an Islamic revolt in Bahia in 1835. Many African Muslims of the Huasa tribe were forced into slavery by the Fulani tribe under the command of Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio (ethnic conflict resulting in Muslim enslaving Muslim), and these men were sold to Christian slave traders from Brazil¹⁴. Once in Brazil, the Christians tried to forcibly convert the Muslim slaves to Christianity, and were at times successful, as Latourette points out that "[i]n Bahia the churches were said to have their chief support from those of Negro blood.¹⁵"

 The Christians in Bahia forbid the slaves to teach one another Arabic¹⁶, and often organized patrols made up of other slaves, that were ordered to subdue disobedient African slaves. "These people did the whites' dirty work: they kept order at the fountains, on the squares, and in the streets of Salvador. It was they who raided and destroyed religious meeting places.¹⁷" When the Muslims attempted a revolt, they were briefly successful, but eventually crushed by superior Christian firearms, and Islam was almost entirely erased from Bahia.

 Equally disturbing was the numerous instances of forced conversion of the Jews throughout much of Europe. In 1391, numerous anti-Jewish riots swept across Seville. On June 6th of that year, Christians stormed Juderia, the Jewish quarter, attacking the population. Many were forced to convert. Of those who refused, many were killed (around four thousand Jews were murdered that day), others fled, and still others were sold as slaves to Muslim slave traders. The end result left only seven thousand of the original thirty thousand residents remaining in Juderia¹⁸.

 Such incidents spread all over Castile, and even made its way to areas outside of the territory, such as Aragon. July 9th, only a month after the riots in Seville, forced conversions took place in the province of Valencia. After 250 of the residents were murdered, the rest of the 5,000 Jewish inhabitants embraced Christianity¹⁹.

 In the first two decades of the 15th century, the Dominican priest Vincente Ferrer traveled throughout Castile and Aragon, storming Synagogues, and demanding the Jews accept Christianity. Ferrer incited many Christians to attack Jews who were unwilling to convert. As professor Graetz points out, "Ferrer's mission to the Jews of Castile and Aragon is said to have resulted in not less than 20,500 forced baptisms.²⁰"

 Fortunately, the Jews of Spain, at least those who survived the inquisition, and numerous expulsions, began to slowly benefit from calmer times due to the Papal Bull Sicut Judeis, which prohibited forced conversions²¹. Still, there was always a great deal of Christian hatred for the Jews in Europe, including Martin Luther's numerous anti-Semitic writings after a failed attempt to convert the Jews by way of citation of Old Testament scripture²². Numerous Christians throughout history, and to this day, have assumed that Jews either know Christianity is the truth, but reject it out of pure obstinacy, or are wholly ignorant of its tenets, and can be converted with a few basic verses that allegedly point to Jesus. Whenever a different reality is brought to the Christians' attention, animosity towards the Jews is often the result.

 Gore Vidal summed this idea up best when he wrote the following polemic against Monotheism:

"The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism. From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These are sky-god religions. They are patriarchal - God is the omnipotent father - hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his male delegates. The sky-god is jealous. He requires total obedience. Those who would reject him must be converted or killed. Totalitarianism is the only politics that can truly serve the sky-god's purpose. Any movement of a liberal nature endangers his authority. One God, one King, one Pope, one master in the factory, one father-leader in the family.²³"

 In the first quarter of the first century of the common era, before Christianity was even started, the Jews were already taking part in a missionary campaign to convert gentiles they came into contact with. First there was the writing of "the book of Wisdom," where the author ridiculed polytheism and idolatry, writing "[t]here is no God but Him whom the Jews adore [...] Israel is the upright one whom God has chosen." The writer went on to level charges of infanticide and other atrocities against the Roman and Greek polytheists as part of an ad hominem against their beliefs. There was also the Judaean Sibyl, written in Greek, which assured the Greeks that their idols were worthless, and invited them to worship only the God of Abraham, so that they could partake in the fruit gardens and rivers of milk that God has prepared for His servants in paradise²⁶. It is interesting to note that the Muslims of early Islam used the exact same rhetoric against the polytheists of Makkah (Mecca), showing that both Islam and Christianity seem to draw their missionary zeal and their intolerance from Judaism.

 The first quarter of the book consisted of de las Casas' refutations of On the Just Causes of War, a book written by Gines Sepulveda, another catholic scholar. Sepulveda argued that it was perfectly alright for Christians to subjugate non-Christians, particularly "savages," "barbarians," and idol worshippers. In fact, Sepulveda's writings insinuated that it was a Christian's duty to establish his dominance over such people.

 De las Casas' work also confronts similar arguments from other contemporary theologians, and as is pointed out in Bartolome de la Vega's introduction to de las Casas' work, there were many such Catholic theologians inside and outside of Spain. As de la Vega puts it, "these men are found everywhere, and are blind to the justice of the Indians and their concerns, they are unashamed of teaching their death dealing methods and errors regarding the Indies, errors by which many have been taken in even to the present moment.²⁸"

 After reviewing de las Casas' refutation of Sepulveda's work, a committee at the university of Alcala de Henares condemned Sepulveda's work as being unsound²⁹. Still, the debate between de las Casas and Sepulveda is a helpful tool when giving examples of the various arguments that Christians can base on scripture. Sepulveda's arguments for the justification of the enslavement of idolaters were almost exclusively based on verses from the old testament. De las Casas' points about equality, mercy, and love were always backed up with verses from the New Testament.

 Sepulveda pointed to verses in the Torah, as well as the book of Joshua, and cited what had happened to idolaters when the Israelites under the command of Moses or Joshua encountered them. His argument was meant to prove that God sanctions the slaughter of those who worship idols. He went on further to cite the 24th chapter of Proverbs, which says "rescue those being lead away to death," and then leveled charges of human sacrifice against the Natives (an act many of the Old Testament prophets condemned). Based on this, Sepulveda argued that subjugating the Natives was a way of protecting them from one another³⁰.

 Furthermore, Sepulveda goes on to constantly refer to the Natives as "barbarians." De las Casas, in his response, first points out that anyone can be called a "barbarian," and cites how even Nicanor of the Scythians was called a "barbarian" in the second book of Maccabees³¹. He then goes on to argue that not all Natives sacrifice humans, and further, one should not demand non-Christians to live by Christian law.

 Sepulveda is also quoted as citing Aristotle's statement that fools ought to be the slaves of the wise, and then cites a similar passage in the book of Psalms. In response, de las Casas states that Aristotle was a brilliant philosopher, but also points out that "this man was ignorant of Christian truth and love,³²" and proceeds to quote verses from Matthew. De las Casas' established that Jesus ordered Christians to love other people, and thus removes Aristotles from the equation as far as arguments of a scriptural basis are concerned.

 Finally, de las Casas devoted chapters six, seven, and eight of his work to refuting Sepulveda's arguments that God wants his servants to persecute those who practice idolatry. He first argues that it is not incumbent upon Christians to hand out punishments to those who do not live under their rule³³. He proves this by citing Decretum Gatiani (Gratian's Decree), a major work on canon law by the Italian canonist Graziano, who argued that Christians were not allowed to punish non-christians, rather that would be the job of Jesus upon his return³⁴. De las Casas then points out that only specific idolaters were punished, and states that "with the exception of the Jewish people and the line from Adam to Christ, the whole world was given over to the worship of idols.³⁵" He puts an exclamation point on this argument, and destroys Sepulveda's claims by citing Deuteronomy 23:7, which shows that even the Torah commands people to be merciful to idolaters ("you shall not abhor an Edomite [...] do not abhor an Egyptian").

Still, it is wholly obvious the violence perpetrated by Christians is directly related to their scriptures and their religion in theory. The Bible is a book that teaches that those who are not on the right path (i.e. those who do not engage in the mindless rituals particular to your specific sect) will be punished. There are numerous instances in the Old Testament of disobedient people being punished, and much of Christianity is filled with yet more punishments to come after the day of judgment. With all the threats and punishments from God, this becomes the model of how to deal with nonbelievers. The very idea of an angry deity, an invisible dictator in the sky, combine with the concept of a correct religion and an incorrect religion is the very root of intolerance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. While Christians and Muslims do not recognize themselves as the "chosen people" on ethnic terms, they do see themselves as such ideologically.

Notes

(1) Imran Hossein, Islam and Buddhism in the Modern World, (CRTDM, 1972) p.75

(2) "Vandals" in The Columbia Encyclopedia, (New York, 1950) pp. 2055-2056

(3) "Tatars" in Columbia Encyclopedia, p. 1946

(4) Hossein, Islam and Buddhism, p.81

(5) Warraq, Why I am not a Muslim, (Prometheus, 1995), p. 116.

(6) Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God, (Prometheus, 1989) p. 299)

(7) It should be noted that all quotes from Dr. Muhammad Saifullah's article Conversion to Christianity: A Missionary Deception have yet to be researched by the Freethought Mecca. We cite quotes from a book by Norman Lewis as found on the site, but we have not read this book ourselves, thus we cannot guarantee that these excerpts were not quoted out of context.

(8) Norman Lewis, The Missionaries: God Against the Indians, (McGraw-Hill, 1988) p. 208, as cited in Saifullah, Conversion to Christianity

(9) Ibid., p. 210, as cited in Saifullah, Conversion to Christianity

(10) Ibid., p. 211, as cited in Saifullah, Conversion to Christianity

(11) Ibid., p. 4, as cited in Saifullah, Conversion to Christianity

(12) Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity, (Harper & Row, 1939), Vol. 3, p. 177

(13) Ibid., p. 393

(14) Joao Jose Reis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia, translated from the Portuguese by Authur Brakel (Sao Paulo, 1986), pp. 93-96

(15) Latourette, Expansion of Christianity, Vol. 5, p. 97

(16) Reis, Slave Rebellion, p. 110

(17) Ibid., p. 143

(18) Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews, (JPS, 1894) Vol. 4, p. 169

(19) Ibid, pp. 170-171

(20) Ibid, pp. 204-206

(21) For more on this, see Solomon Grayzel, "The Papal Bull Sicut Judeis," in Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict, (NYU, 1991) pp. 231-259

(22) see Mark Edwards, "Against the Jews," in Ibid, pp. 345-379

(23) New Statesman Society, June 26, 1992, p. 12, as cited in Warraq, Why I am not a Muslim, p. 116

(24) Graetz, History of the Jews, Vol. 2, pp. 8-9

(25) Ibid., p. 37

(26) Ibid, pp. 205-207

(27) Agustin Millares Carlos, "Una Obra Inedita de Frey Bartolome de las Casas," Ivestigaciones Bibliograficas Iberoamericanas, (Mexico, 1950), p. 43 as cited in Stafford Poole's introduction to Casas, In Defense of the Indians, translated from the Latin by Poole (Northern Illinois University, 1974) p. xiv

(28) Casas, Defense, p. 4

(29) Ibid., p. 9

(30) Ibid, p. 14

(31) Ibid., p. 29

(32) Ibid., p. 39

(33) Ibid., pp. 56-57

(34) The exact decree can be found in Decretum Gratiani, part II, canon 10, cause 15, question 1

(35) Casas, Defense, p. 104