Christianity

The subtitle of this book is “The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe”.

The empire to which they are referring is the empire created by Charlemagne which was at the height of its power in the early 800s. He had managed to combine the territories of almost all of what we now consider Europe except for the far north and southern Italy and Spain and Greece. He managed to do this through cooperation among the nobles and the elite and it held throughout his life. He helped the spread of Christianity throughout what was previously pagan areas, e.g. the Saxons. Then not long afterward chaos ensued.

This history book details what occurs when fissures develop in what was once a stable social and political network and the bloody consequences of disagreeing on facts and reality. What happened?

For some time after Charlemagne’s death one of his son’s was able to hold the empire together by deftly giving bits of power to various sons and relatives. Once he died, a chaotic blood bath arose. Fathers and sons, brothers, uncles, nephews, everyone was killing or maiming each other for power. If they felt it was too unChristian to kill you, they just blinded you and sent you off to a monastery. If that did not work, then they would declare a female relative to be a witch and we all know what happened to witches. Meanwhile while jockeying for power, all these men declared they were doing what they were doing in the name of Christianity. If one brother won a battle, then he declared himself to be a better Christian than the one that lost. Even monks and bishops and the Pope became involved.

Then came the Battle of Fontenoy in what is now a part of France. Brothers against another brother with each leading more than 10,000 troops and in some cases as many total as 100,000. Watching was a noble who also commanded a huge army, but mostly he decided to just watch. The end result was a total bloodbath with one side violating the then current rules of battle. Normally, battles before this did not include a huge amount of killings in spite of what we now see in movies. This battle left thousands dead for the wolves, vultures, and other scavengers to eat, and the nearby streams ran red with blood. None of the warring brothers were killed so their fighting continued but no one ever really won and the great Frankish Empire created by Charlemagne fell totally apart. Some claim this battle was the beginning of the separation of a lot of Europe into what we now call France and Germany. Currently there is a marker at the place where the battle occurred. Regardless, Europe was never the same again for many centuries.

Note: Many find the world a very violent place today. Currently, wars and revolutions of one kind or another are occurring in many places in the world. Generally speaking, however, we do not find fathers and sons and brothers killing each other for power. We are seeing the consequences of what was once a relatively unified populace disagreeing on the facts and reality. Will we too fall into a dark ages like Europe did?

Yesterday, I learned several new aspects of the religious debates surrounding the teachings of Jesus, Christianity, Mormonism., and how Easter is viewed. Mostly, it followed a discussion on a post about Jesus, Good Friday, and Christian politics. Whether most modern Christians want to believe it, Jesus’ teachings were radical, revolutionary. However, most modern Christians pay much more attention to the teachings of the misogynist Greek, Paul. The debate centered on comments after this particular post about the politics of Christianity.

It centered on Mormon beliefs about Easter. According to the comments, Mormons do not use crosses because they focus on the teachings of Jesus and his life. They use these teachings and his life as a guide. I thought to myself: what a good idea. If the whole world followed his teachings, the world would be a much better place full of peace, equality for all, not just the powerful few, tolerance, understanding–the list is long.

The contention of many of the so-called Christians commenting is that true Christianity focuses on the death of Jesus and his subsequent rising from the dead, that what matters is that he died for their sins, and rose on the third day, that Mormons are not Christians because they focus on his life. Really?? Not only did I find this information new–and perhaps this is what many Christians believe–but astonishing. Although my family celebrated Easter in a big way, I was always taught that Jesus’ teachings held the center of belief.

I will admit that although I grew up in a mainstream Protestant, Christian denomination, I no longer consider myself a Christian. I firmly think (notice I did not use the word believe) the world would be a much better place if everyone followed the teachings of Jesus!!!! Religion, as most practice it, is ruining the world. Perhaps if everyone focused on Jesus’ teachings instead of arguing over who is right, we could attain some sort of mutual respect and peace. As Jesus taught:

-respect one another

-love one another

-share

-treat others as you hope to be treated

May your day be filled with joy and peace!!!