On Christian violence

Christianity has been, along with other religions, a force that has legitimised violence in many parts of the world and through many centuries. When we talk about violence and religion, I tend to remind myself and others that whatever causality toward violence on the part of Christian faith is there, it’s part also of a larger mix of political, economic, cultural, and other factors and they all bleed, so to speak, into one another. But it is definitely the case that Christian faith has had a history of legitimising and supporting violence. Especially when Christian faith – and that’s true of other religions as well – has tied itself too closely with either party, so to speak, in power, the state; or [an] ascendant and aspiring group toward power.