John Paul II. asks for forgiveness
On March 12, 2000, Pope John Paul II, on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, apologized for
ALL PRESENT AND PAST SINS committed by the sons of the church
These sins include, in particular:
- for the violence and hostility they harbored towards the followers of other religions
- sins of the first missionaries
- sins of the crusades
- "offenses" against the dignity of women
- sins during the conquest of America
- Sins based on racial differences
Another remarkable point of this "speech" is that these "sins" are attributed to the "SONS OF THE CHURCH" – that is, not to the doctrine of the church itself, the observance of which by ordinary "sons of the church" was ENFORCED by the church through indiscriminate means.
Nevertheless, "the entire civilized world welcomed this statement with relief, which is considered the most significant gesture in history (in 2000 years) ever to come from the Catholic Church" (quote. SME 13.3. 2000). Is this really so? Is it possible that such a statement, masking the true depth and breadth of these crimes, can be considered a "cleansing" justification? Please consider for yourselves after reading the specific selected examples that follow: BECAUSE MANY OF THE ACTS TO WHICH POPE JOHN PAUL II. REFERS HAVE FALLEN INTO OBLIVION, AND ESPECIALLY THE YOUNGER GENERATION HAS NOT HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO EVEN LEARN ABOUT THEM – WE WILL PRESENT IN THE FOLLOWING AN INCOMPLETE
INFORMATIONAL OVERVIEW
Victims of organized Christianity. Pagans Missions Crusades Hunt forheretics Witch hunt Religious wars Treatment of JewsIndigenous population Atrocities of the 20th centuryPlagues EMANCIPATION of womenGIORDANO BRUNO
Old Pagans.
Starting from the time when Christianity was adopted as the state religion (315 AD), magnificent non-Christian ("pagan") temples were demolished by Christians and "pagan" priests were killed. In the period between 315 AD and the 6th century, thousands of "pagans" were murdered. Examples: The Sanctuary of Asclepius in the Aegean, the Temple of Aphrodite in Golgata Aphaka in Lebanon, Heliopolis. Christian priests like Mark of Aphaka or Cyril of Heliopolis were known as "temple destroyers". From 356 AD, there was a death sentence for "pagan" worship. The Christian emperor Theodosius (408-450) even had children executed for playing with the remains of "pagan" statues, which Christian chroniclers described with the words: "he anxiously adhered to Christian teachings . " In the 6th century, "pagans" were deprived of all rights. In the 4th century, the philosopher Sopatros was executed at the request of Christian authorities. The world-renowned philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria was torn to pieces with glass shards in 415 AD by hysterical Christians led by the Christian priest Peter.
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Missie.
In 782, Emperor Charlemagne had 4,500 Saxons beheaded for not being willing to accept Christianity. The peasants of Stedinger – near the town of Altenesch (Germany), who could not pay the devastating church taxes, were murdered on May 27, 1234, including women and children (number: 5-11 thousand). Battle of Belgrade in 1456: 80,000 Turks killed. Poland in the fifteenth century: 1019 churches demolished and 17,987 villages razed to the ground by Christian knights (number of victims unknown). In Ireland in the 16th-17th centuries, English soldiers "pacified" and "civilized" IRELAND, where only Gaelic "savages" lived. "Irish" – meaning "unreasonable beasts without knowledge of God or good morals." One of the particularly successful soldiers, Humphrey Gilbert, ordered "that the heads of those who were killed be cut off and laid by the roadside. This effort to civilize the Irish really instilled fear in the nation when they saw the severed heads of their fathers, brothers, children, and relatives lying on the ground" (literal quote). Tens of thousands of Gaelic Irish fell victim to this massacre.
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The Crusades (1095-1201)
The First Crusade in 1095 at the command of Pope Urban II.
– In Semlin (Hungary), thousands were killed (24/6/1096), Wieselburg (Hungary): another thousands (12/6/1096) 9/9/1096 to 12/9/1096. For 4 days, Nicaea, Xerigordon (at that time Turkish) – many thousands killed. Up to Pope John (1098), a total of 40 capitals and 200 castles were conquered. The numbers of those massacred are unknown. 3/6/1098 then Antioch (then Turkish) was conquered, reports of those killed vary from 10,000 to 60,000. Later 28/6/1098, 100,000 Turks (including women and children). In this case, Christians " otherwise did not harm the women they found in the enemy camps, they only pierced their bellies with their spears" (quote: according to the Christian chronicler Fulcher of Chartres). In Maraatan-numan 11/12/1098, thousands were killed. As a result of the subsequent famine, "the already stinking corpses of the enemy were eaten by Christians," as the chronicler Albert Aquensis wrote.
Jerusalem was conquered on 5/7/1099. More than 60,000 victims (Jews, Muslims – men, women and children). According to an eyewitness: "In front of Solomon's Temple there was such a massacre that our people waded in the blood of the enemies up to their ankles" and then our people "happy and with cries of joy walked to the tomb of the SAVIOR to honor him and give him thanks". The Archbishop of Tyre, who was an eyewitness, wrote: "It was impossible to look at the huge number of killed without horror; everywhere lay pieces of human bodies, and the whole earth was covered with the blood of the killed, not to mention the number of headless bodies and the number of mutilated human limbs scattered everywhere, which aroused the horror of the spectators. Even more terrible was to look at the victors themselves, from whom blood dripped from head to toe – a terrible sight for everyone. It was reported that about 10,000 victims died inside the temple.
The Christian chronicler Eckhard of Aura recorded that even in the following summer, the air throughout Palestine was tainted by the stench of decaying bodies.
One million deaths in the First Crusade . Battle of Ascalon (12/8/1099) 200,000 "heathens" killed in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Fourth Crusade.
12/4/1204 Constantinople was conquered, the number of victims is unknown. (Many thousands, including Christians)
. In 1203, Christian crusader knights (IV. crusade) plundered Constantinople (Carihrad). They desecrated the tombs of emperors in the Hagia Sophia, women including nuns were raped and murdered. The city was practically dismantled. [R 74]
(The rest of the Crusades – details are omitted to save space) It is estimated that up to the fall of Acre in 1291, there were probably up to 20 million casualties (only in the "Holy Land" and Arab-Turkish territories). Note: All these figures are according to the Christian chroniclers of the time.
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The Hunt for Heretics
As early as 385, the first Christians were beheaded for heresy, namely the Spaniard Priscillianus and his followers. This happened in Trier (Germany). The Manichaeans, who had somewhat different views (see above), were massacred in large numbers between 372 and 444 AD throughout the Roman Empire. (Many thousands of victims)
The Albigensians, who considered themselves good Christians but were unwilling to blindly obey papal edicts and pay taxes to Rome, became victims and, at the behest of Pope Innocent III, were massacred (see above). In Beziers (present-day France), all citizens were massacred, including those Catholics who did not want to betray their Albigensian friends. 20,000-70,000 fell victim to the slaughter. In Carcassonne on August 15, 1209, thousands were murdered. Other cities followed. For 20 years of war, almost all Cathars (about half the population of Languedoc, present-day southern France) were completely exterminated. When this campaign ended (1229) , the INQUISITION was founded in 1232 so that inquisitors could search for and exterminate surviving and hiding "heretics." The last of the Cathars was burned in 1324. The estimated number (of Cathars alone) is about one million. Other "heretics" were Waldensians, Paulicians, Runcarians, Josephites, and many others. Most of these sects were massacred. (It seems that some Waldensians survived to this day, but they had to endure 600 years of persecution.) Estimates of these victims are at least one hundred thousand (including the Spanish Inquisition, but not counting the victims in the New World – America).
The Spanish inquisitor Torquemada himself is allegedly responsible for the murder by burning of 10,220 people. Jan Hus was burned in 1415 for his criticism of papal infallibility and for trading in "indulgences". University professor B. Hubmaier was burned in 1538 in Vienna. Giordano Bruno, a Dominican monk, was burned for heresy in Campo dei Fiori (Rome) on 17/2/1600 after seven years of imprisonment, having previously had his tongue pierced with a nail.TITLE HOME
Witch hunt
From the beginnings of Christianity until 1484, many thousands of innocent victims were burned or hanged, but the orgy of witch murders began later. In the period between 1484 and 1750, according to modern scientists , many hundreds of thousands of victims fell, 80% of whom were women, who were burned or hanged . (Incomplete list in the book Burning of Witches – A Chronicle of Burning Times)
Religious wars
The 15th-century Crusades against the Hussites – many thousands killed. In 1538, Pope Paul III declared a crusade against apostate England and declared all Englishmen slaves of the Church (fortunately, he did not succeed in his intention).
In 1568, the Spanish Inquisition tribunal ordered the execution of three million rebels in what is now the Netherlands (which then belonged to Spain). Thousands were indeed executed.
In France, about 20,000 Huguenots were murdered on the orders of Pope Pius V , and by the 17th century, 200,000 Huguenots were forced to flee their homeland.
- In the 16th century, Catholics murdered Gaspard de Coligny, a Protestant leader. After they murdered him, "they mutilated his body, cut off his head and his genitals… and then threw him into the river. However, that was not enough, because they thought that he was not worthy of being food for fish – so they pulled his body out and hung it on the gallows in Montfaucon to be food for worms and crows."
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Treatment of Jews
The synagogues were already demolished in the 4th and 5th centuries. The number of Jews killed is unknown.
In the middle of the fourth century, the first synagogue was demolished on the orders of Bishop Innocentius of Derton in northern Italy. The first known burned synagogue was near the Euphrates River on the orders of Bishop Callinicon in 388. By decision of the Council of Toledo, 694 Jews were enslaved, their property confiscated, and their children forcibly baptized. The Bishop of Limoges (France) in 1010 ordered that Jews in the city who did not want to be baptized be expelled or killed. During the First Crusade, there were massacres of Jews in the cities of Worms (18/5/1096) – Mainz (27/5/1096) – a total of 1100 killed – in Cologne, Neuss, Altenahr, Wevelinghoven, Xanten, Moers, Dortmund, Kerpen, Trier, Metz, Regensburg, Prague and others (All cities in Germany, except Metz/France. Prague/Czech Republic). The total number of victims is estimated at 12,000.
The Second Crusade: 1147. Hundreds of Jews were killed in Ham, Sully, Carentan, and Rameru (places in France).
The Third Crusade: English Jewish communities expelled 1189/90, Fulda (Germany) 1235: 34 Jewish men and women killed. 1257, 1267: Jewish communities in London, Canterbury, Northampton, Lincoln, Cambridge and other cities exterminated. 1290 in Bohemia and Poland allegedly 10,000 Jews killed. In Germany, starting with the pogrom in Deggendorf (1337), a murderous wave against Jews spread to 51 other cities in Bavaria, Austria, and Poland. In 1348, all Jews in Basel (Switzerland) and Strasbourg (France) (two thousand) were burned alive. (In this one year alone, more Jews were killed than Christians in 200 years of Christian persecution in the old Roman Empire). In 1389 in Prague, 3,000 Jews murdered. In 1391 in Seville, under the leadership of Archbishop Martinez, 4,000 Jews killed, 25,000 sold into slavery. They were easy to find because all Jews had to wear a colored "mark of shame" from the age of ten. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus set sail to discover the New World, more than 150,000 Jews were expelled from Spain, many of them died on the way. In 1648, the Chmielnicki massacre. In Poland, about 200,000 Jews killed, and so it continues century after century until the crematoria in Auschwitz.TITLE [ [NBSP]] HOME
. Indigenous population
Starting with Christopher Columbus, the subjugation of America meant the propagation of Christianity in the most indiscriminate ways. As soon as they set foot on dry land on the first inhabited islands of the Caribbean Sea, Columbus captured six natives about whom he declared: "they should be good servants and… I will easily make them Christians, because it seems to me that they do not belong to any religion." He further speaks of the Indians as "idolaters," "as many slaves as the Spanish crown desires." His companion Michele de Cuneo, an Italian nobleman, spoke of the natives as "animals" because they eat when they are hungry and "make love openly whenever they please." On every island where Columbus anchored, he placed a cross with the corresponding declaration ("requiremento") signifying that he was taking possession of the land for his Catholic patron in Spain. If the natives hesitated (or did not understand what was going on)… Columbus continued: "I assure you that with God's help we will enter your country by force and wage war against you and subject you to the yoke and obedience of the church, we will inflict as much evil upon you as we can, just like vassals who refuse to accept their lord." The governor of the "Massachusetts Bay" colony, John Winthrop, entrusted the new planters (colonizers) in New England to bring the gospel to these parts of the world… and to create a bastion against the kingdom of Antichrist. Approximately two-thirds of the indigenous population died of smallpox introduced by the colonists even before the violence began. This was proclaimed as "a miraculous kindness and foresight of God" in the interest of Christianity. The governor wrote in the year 1634: "As for the natives, almost all of them died of smallpox, so God thus secured our ownership of what we have here. In Hispaniola, after Columbus' arrival, the indigenous population (Arawaks), who were a happy and peaceful people inhabiting an island with rich natural resources, a true paradise on earth, soon suffered a loss of 50,000 lives. Those who survived succumbed to rape, murder, enslavement, and Spanish raids. One eyewitness described it thus: "So many Indians died that it was impossible to count, dead Indians lay everywhere on the ground. The smell was enormous, deadly." The Indian chief Hatuey fled with his people, but was caught and burned alive. As he was tied to the stake, a Franciscan priest urged him to accept Jesus so that his soul would go to heaven instead of hell. Hatuey replied that if there were Christians in heaven, he would rather go to hell ." (What happened to his tribesmen will be described later)
The Spaniards took pleasure in inventing all sorts of atrocities. They made a gallows where the toes touched the ground so that the victims would not suffocate immediately. Then they hanged thirty Indians at once in honor of Jesus Christ Our Savior and his Twelve Apostles… then they wrapped the bodies in straw and burned them alive.
At other times, they took pleasure in cutting off someone's entire arm, or an entire leg from the pelvis, or a head like butchers, with a single stroke of a sword. Vasco (de Balboa) ordered forty Indians to be torn to pieces by specially trained dogs. The island, with eight million inhabitants at Columbus's arrival in 1492, lost half its population by the end of 1496; eventually, all the natives were exterminated, so the Spanish were "forced" to import slaves from other Caribbean islands, but they suffered the same fate. In a quarter of a century, millions of natives were killed. Then the Spanish invaded the interior of Mexico in Central America. The culture of these cities was soon completely devastated and the natives exterminated . By the end of the 16th century, about 200,000 Spaniards had immigrated to America and about 60 million natives had been murdered. The founding colonists of North America were no different in this regard. By European standards, the war against the Indians was just "child's play." In the words of some: "These wars are less bloody… so there were not many killed on either side. Even if these Indians fought for seven years, they would not kill more than seven people, and moreover, Indians usually spare women and children. " In the spring of 1612, some English colonists took a liking to life among the friendly and generous natives, and many moved from Jamestown to the natives (this solved their sexual problems – they did not ask for the church's opinion). "Governor Thomas Dale had them caught, some were hanged, others broken on the wheel, or shot. Such "elegant" executions, however, were the privilege only of the English who wanted to live like Indians. Different methods were used against the natives. In the area of present-day Massachusetts, a genocide took place, which we now call the "Pequot War". The killers were Puritan Christians from New England. When a dead colonist was found, no one bothered to investigate, but an avalanche of revenge was unleashed against the Narragansett Indians, despite agreements with their chief. When the Pequot Indians, who were enemies of the Narragansett, welcomed them, they burned all their settlements as well. John Mason, a Puritan deputy commander, wrote after one such massacre: "And indeed, such a terrible terror was unleashed upon them by Almighty God that they ran headlong into the hot flames, where they perished… above them was God, who laughed at the enemies of His nation."
Such a judgment God gave against the GENTILES, filling the whole place with dead men, women, and children," meaning "THE LORD delighted in striking our enemies in the back of the body to give us their land as our inheritance." Mason's personal friend immediately justified this with the Bible: "the bloody sight was terrible for the young soldiers, but the Holy Scripture declares that sometimes women and children must perish with their parents."
The colonists even trained special dogs to catch and tear apart Indians. They practically exterminated the Pequots in this way. Priest John Endicott wrote to the governor and asked him to assign him a young woman, a girl, and a boy from the captives.
The treachery of Christians in peace agreements was common. We quote the State Council of the State of Virginia: "Peace treaties were signed with the premeditated intention of violating them." "Once the Indians feel secure, we will have the advantage of surprising them and cutting off their horns." In 1624, sixty heavily armed Englishmen slit the throats of 800 defenseless Indians, men, women, and children. In a single massacre during King Philip's War in 1675 and 1676, 600 Indians were killed. Before the arrival of the English, the Western Abenaki tribe in New Hampshire and Vermont numbered 12,000. In less than half a century, only 250 of them remained alive (95% exterminated). The Potumtuck tribe had more than 18,000 members. After fifty years, only 920 remained (95% exterminated).
Quiripi-Unquachog: originally 30,000, 1,500 remained (95% exterminated)
In Massachusetts, out of the original 44,000, only 6,000 remained (an 81% loss). These are just a few indicative figures. The total number of exterminated Indians in both parts of the continent is 150 million in the period from 1500 to 1900. In several countries such as Brazil and Guatemala, this continues to this day.
Other famous events in the history of the USA.
In the state of New England, in 1703, Reverend Solomon Stoddard submitted an official request to the governor to pay the colonists for the purchase and training of special dogs "to hunt Indians as they would bears." Sand Creek Massacre – Colorado, 12/11/1864. Colonel John Chivington, formerly a Methodist minister and still a superior of this church, had all the inhabitants of the Cheyenne settlement (about 600), mostly women and children, shot, despite the chief surrendering and waving a white flag (400-500 killed).
Under the supervision of Father Rufus Anderson, the extermination took place in Hawaii, where 90% of the population was liquidated by 1870. This priest saw it as a completely natural process, "amputation of a diseased limb from the body."
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Atrocities of the Twentieth Century
Catholic extermination camps
In World War II, in 1942-1943, there were many extermination camps in Croatia, run by Catholic Ustaše under the dictatorship of Ante Pavelić, a practicing Catholic and regular visitor to the then Pope. Concentration camps for children were even established! The most notorious of these camps was in Jasenovac, headed by a Franciscan priest. Orthodox Serbs (and a substantial part of the Jews) were murdered there. They burned their victims in ovens like the Nazis, but unlike the Nazis, they threw the victims into the fire alive . (The Nazis first killed them in gas chambers.) Other times, the Ustaše stabbed the victims like pigs or shot them. The number of victims: 300,000 to 600,000 (in a relatively small country). Many of the killers were Franciscans. These atrocities were such that the observing Nazi SS members from the "Sicherheitsdienst" complained to Hitler (in vain, however). The Pope knew about it but did nothing to prevent it.
Catholic horror in Vietnam.
In 1954, North Vietnam was liberated from French rule (with US financial support of $2 billion). Many Catholics fled to the South due to anti-communist propaganda, even though religious freedom was guaranteed for all. In South Vietnam, a clique of the Catholic lobby in Washington, along with the Vatican spokesman in the US, Cardinal Spellman, prevented democratic elections in South Vietnam, and the Catholic fanatic Ngo Dinh Diem became the President of South Vietnam. Unprecedented discrimination occurred, as all aid, including food from the US, was given to Catholics for free, while Buddhist villages and residents had to pay for it or were ignored. A regime was also introduced that surpassed American "McCarthyism." The President of South Vietnam issued a decree stating that: "persons deemed dangerous to national defense and public security shall be imprisoned by the executive power in concentration camps." Thousands of Buddhist dissidents and monks were sent to concentration camps. In protest, Buddhist intellectuals often doused themselves with gasoline and died by self-immolation. (Note: Buddhists self-immolated – Christians, without exception, always burned others). These concentration camps turned into extermination camps. According to estimates, during this period of terror (1955-1960), at least 24,000 people were injured and 80,000 were executed, 275,000 were imprisoned and tortured, and 500,000 were sent to concentration camps. In the following decades, thousands of American soldiers laid down their lives to defend such a regime .
Massacres in Rwanda.
In 1994, hundreds of thousands of civilians were massacred in the dwarf African state of Rwanda in a conflict usually described as being between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. The active participation of the Catholic clergy in the 1994 massacres in Rwanda was carefully concealed. The first reports refuting the Catholic Church's involvement in the massacres appeared in Catholic newspapers long before anyone filed a lawsuit against such involvement. Then, in Germany, the news program " S2 Aktuel" on 18/10/1996 published the following:
"Anglican and Catholic nuns are accused of actively participating in the murders. In particular, the actions of some Catholic priests have attracted public attention in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali, for many months. It was a priest of the Holy Family Church who murdered Tutsis in the most brutal way. It was reported that he accompanied the Hutu militia, who plundered everything, and had a firearm under his hood. A terrible massacre of Tutsis, who sought refuge with him, actually took place in his parish. Even after two years, many Catholics are reluctant to enter their church because they declare that the participation of a certain part of the clergy in the massacres has been proven with certainty. There is probably not a single church in Rwanda where women, refugees, and children kneeling before the crucifix were not brutally murdered."
According to eyewitnesses, priests handed over hiding Tutsis to the Hutu militia, who then murdered them one by one with machetes. In connection with these events, the names of two Benedictine nuns are repeatedly mentioned, who are currently hiding in a Belgian monastery to escape prosecution. According to survivors, one of them called the murdering Hutus and led them to many thousands of hiding civilian defenseless refugees who were seeking refuge in the monastery. The murderers then led them out in front of the gate and executed them there in the presence of the nun. The other nun also directly cooperated with the Hutu militia murderers. Eyewitnesses testified that she coldly watched the murder of people and even then brought gasoline, which the murderers poured on the bodies and burned them, often while they were still alive.
The aforementioned damage caused to humanity and human civilization was mostly caused by the human factor, whose actions were modified by Christianity . However, this part needs to be further developed with analyses of the impact of Christianity on the relationship of man to nature, science, and human society.
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The plague was indirectly caused by Christian teachings.
Plague (bubonic plague) is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is transmitted to humans by fleas from infected rodents, especially rats.
From the very beginning, Christianity rejected the ancient Hellenic ideal of HARMONY OF BODY AND SPIRIT . Body cultivation, sports, and frequent baths, which were a natural part of life in ancient Greece, became pagan heresy and sin. According to Christian teaching, the physical body became an object of resistance , hindering the development of the (religious) spirit. Bathing and washing regularly with soap were declared to be contrary to "religious modesty" [E 102]. A prior at the Sorbonne named Joseph Lambert even declared that : "any touching of the body is already a serious sin" [E 102].
No wonder that as a result of this teaching, people considered it a great virtue to reject any hygiene, they slept in the dust on the ground, and therefore their bodies were teeming with lice, fleas, and scabies, even among people who were rich, and even nobles, princes, and kings were infested with lice, full of fleas and scabies.
Once a reservoir of plague infection arose in rats, FLEAS immediately transferred it to "pious Christians" who, out of piety, did not wash or bathe. This explains why the ancient Greeks did not know the plague, while the Christian Middle Ages were terribly decimated by it. One such epidemic during the 6th century wiped out 100 million people (not only in Europe, but also in adjacent parts of the Middle East and Asia).
In the 14th century, the BLACK DEATH wiped out a quarter to half of Europe's population, i.e. about 75 million people.
The most absurd thing about it, however, was that Christians attributed all this not to the errors they themselves preached, but to God's wrath. When the epidemics died out, they erected thanksgiving plague columns to various saints, to whom they attributed the merit for deliverance from the plague. TITLE HOME
The Bible and Women's Emancipation ( Anonymous author) (Minor "sins" against the dignity of women – according to Pope John Paul II)
Organized religion (including Judeo-Christian) has always been among the biggest opponents of WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS: In the "Western world", influenced mainly by Christian ideology, the following two verses of the Bible describe the position of women in society: (Gen 3:16) I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in sorrow you shall bring forth children; and your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. With this statement of Genesis, the woman lost her rights, her equality in society. MOTHERHOOD BECAME A DIVINE CURSE SUPPRESSING HER POSITION IN SOCIETY.
In the New Testament: the Bible states: (1 Tim 2:11-14) A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. One more biblical verse that is responsible for the burning of tens of thousands of innocent women in the history of Christianity: (Exodus 22:18) YOU SHALL NOT PERMIT A SORCERESS TO LIVE. Do women, or anyone else who cares about the problem of equality, need better proof of the damage done by Christianity – based on the alleged "Word of God"? TERTULLIAN (church writer) said: You (women) are the gateway to hell. Each of you women is Eve, you are the seductresses of forbidden fruit. You are the first to violate divine law. MARTIN LUTHER declared: If a woman is exhausted and eventually dies from childbirth, it does not matter. Let her die from childbirth, she is there to do it.
Such statements and "teachings" prompted the 19th-century feminist Elizabeth Stanton to write:
"The Bible and the church have been the biggest stumbling block in the path of women's emancipation." The Bible is a manual for the subjugation of women. The Bible clearly establishes the suppression of women. The Bible determined the inferior position of women, for their "uncleanness", their transgression, God assigned her a servant relationship to man as her master. According to the Bible, a woman is property: She is owned by her father, who has the right to sell her into servitude, even to sacrifice her.
The Bible sanctions the rape of women during war and in other contexts. Women are subject to the Mosaic law, "VIRGINITY CHECKS" as brides, must suffer fits of rage from a man's jealousy, and once married, a man can divorce them at any time. A typical expression for them in the Bible is "harlots" (or even worse). They are described as beings controlling evil, even diabolical forces to seduce a man. Contempt for the female body and a woman's unproductive ability are cornerstones of the Bible. Isolated examples where a woman is presented as a role model are stereotypical and often inappropriate. The heroines of the Bible are usually celebrated for their OBEDIENCE and FIGHTING SPIRIT. (Genesis 2:22) Woman created from Adam's rib (Gen 3:16) Motherhood is a curse for sin, and marriage is a commitment (Gen 19:1-8.) Lot offers his two virgin daughters to be raped by a crowd of people (instead of two angels who visited him) (Exodus 20:17) degrades woman to PROPERTY on the same level as "an ox, a donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor" (Exo 21:7-11) According to the "Word of God," a father can sell his daughter as a slave for sexual purposes (Exo 22:18.) Witches must be killed (Exo 38:8) Women can only serve at the entrance to the tabernacle of the testimony. (Leviticus 12:1-14 / 12:4-7) A woman who gives birth to a son is unclean for 7 days, women who have daughters are unclean for 14 days. (Lev 15:19-23). The period of menstruation is unclean. (Lev 19:20-22) If a master has sexual intercourse with his married female slave, the female slave will be whipped (only in the English original?!) (Num 1:2) The census applies only to men, (Num 5:13:31) Barbaric incantation by priests, as a way of verifying whether a woman has been unfaithful to her husband, in which the woman is subjected to terrifying incantation procedures, and finally must drink some concoction that (ALLEGEDLY) causes her to suffer bitter pain, her womb to swell and her hips to become lame if she was indeed unfaithful. (Whoever wants to, let them believe!) (Num 31:18-19) Virgins become spoils of war for soldiers. (Deuteronomy: 21. 11-14) A handbook of rules for rape (Deut 22:5) It is forbidden for women to wear men's clothing and vice versa (Deut 22:13-21) Barbaric "proof of virginity" (EX POST) if a dissatisfied husband requests it – even after a long period of time! (Deut 22:23-24) A betrothed woman who is raped by someone in the city will be stoned (along with the rapist) (Deut 22:28-29) If a woman who is not betrothed is raped, she must marry the one who raped her. (Deut 24:1) If a man dislikes his wife, he can send her away from the house. (BUT THE OTHER WAY AROUND IS NOT POSSIBLE!) (Deut 25:11-12) If a woman tries to separate two brawlers by grabbing one of them by his private parts, her hand must be cut off.
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GIERDANO BRUNO
Who was GIORDANO BRUNO?
On February 17th of this year, the civilized world commemorated with solemn respect the 400th anniversary of the burning at the stake of a victim of the Inquisition in Rome's Campo de Fiori. This scientist suffered a martyr's death by burning, stripped naked and with his tongue pierced by a nail, as the Inquisition did to all it declared heretics. This victim was Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), a Renaissance philosopher, scientist, and poet, who had to endure death by burning as a heretic for spreading Copernicus' heliocentric theory (according to which the Earth revolves around the Sun). This contradicted the Word of God (the Bible), according to which the Earth is flat, the Earth is the center of the entire universe, and the Sun and stars revolve around the Earth. Copernicus (1473-1543) published his theory in 1543, but the book was printed only shortly before his death, thus he escaped a similar fate to Giordano Bruno. However, the church condemned Copernicus' theory as heretical because it was contrary to the Word of God. Copernicus was put on the Index, where he remained until 1822 (almost three hundred years). Another scientist, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who advocated heliocentrism, also failed to convince the church of the priority of scientific knowledge over "revealed truths." He was brought before the Roman Inquisition in 1633 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He escaped death by burning only by being forced to retract his opinion and never again defend Copernicus' theory. And so, in June 1633, Galileo Galilei, under pressure from the Inquisition, uttered this false oath: "I, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei of Florence, at the age of seventy years… must retract my erroneous opinion that the Sun is the center of the world and is immobile." SCIENCE HAD TO WAIT ANOTHER HUNDRED YEARS until the (former) Dominican monk Giordano Bruno (who had since shed his monastic habit) arrived. But he surpassed his predecessors with views that were ahead of their time and "brought" his views closer to the discoveries of Einstein and even to current knowledge about the universe. GIORDANO BRUNO was born in Nola – near Naples. He became a Dominican monk, but due to his disagreement with doctrinalism, he left the order, which caused resentment and even fear of persecution, forcing him to travel from place to place. His temporary places of residence were numerous: Geneva, Toulouse, Paris, London, then Paris again, Marburg, Wittenberg, Prague, Helmstedt, and Frankfurt. Finally, the Italian nobleman Moncenigo convinced him to return to Italy, but he soon handed him over to the Inquisition, which tried him for heresy in 1592 and burned him at the stake on February 17, 1600. His progressive views, which were ahead of his time, are evidenced by a quote from his book "De la Causa, principio et uno" (On the Cause, Principle, and Unity): "This whole world, this star, which are not subject to complete destruction, which nature knows nowhere, are renewed from time to time, while their parts change. There is no absolute collapse and ascent, nor any absolute position in the universe… but the position of each body is relative depending on other bodies. Everywhere there is a constant change in position throughout the universe, only the one who observes it appears to be at the center of all events. But this scientifically revealed truth refuted the views proclaimed by the church: If the earth moves, heaven cannot be UP THERE, and hell cannot be DOWN THERE! For this "heresy" and for his poetic imagination, which has proven true to this day, Giordano Bruno was imprisoned for eight years in a dark dungeon and finally roasted alive over a fire until he died. Late in the 19th century, a statue was erected in Rome in Campo de Fiori in honor of Giordano Bruno. Every year, progressive people from all over Europe, and even from other continents, come to this statue to pay their respects – regardless of their faith or beliefs. Respect for Giordano Bruno has also become a touchstone of democracy and freedom of expression. This is evidenced by the fact that these annual celebrations take place in Catholic Italy and were banned ONLY DURING Mussolini's FASCIST era! This year's round anniversary celebrations were also significant and dignified with extensive international participation, lasting three days from February 17 to 19, and culminated in a large demonstration in Campo de Fiori. Sources: – Rationalist International, No 31. New Delhi – The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume III TITLE[ [NBSP]] HOME