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Originally Posted by SCUDSBROTHER
You have ignored the major point.The prophet of Islam(Mohammad) actually killed people who were nonbelievers in him.He told his followers to do the same,and that's why they hate to live with people of other religions(their own prophet told them to do away with nonbelievers.)You can blame all religions if it makes you feel better.You can find something violent in the Bible written by somebody other than the prophet that Christians base their salvation on.The fact is that Islam is the religion who's followers are presently killing others because they(OTHERS) don't believe in their prophet Mohammad.Moslems follow the words and actions of their prophet Mohammad(he himself killed nonbelievers,and encourages his followers to do the same,and that's what they are doing.)Christians follow the teachings of their prophet Jesus Christ(he killed nobody,and didn't encourage the slaughter of those that don't believe in him.)Please give me the name of a present day Christian group that encourages slaughtering people because they don't believe in Jesus Christ.I can give you many names of Moslem groups that encourage killing nonbelievers.We all saw that in Afghanistan,they wanted to kill one of their own Moslems who converted to Christianity. Christians and Jews kill others in self defense(this is what is going on now in Southern Lebanon.)Jews are targetting Moslems in Hezbollah.Why are Jews doing this?Is it because Moslems aren't of their religion? No,it is because this group of Moslems is shooting rockets at the people of Israel,and blows up buses in Israel.As far as Romans 1:31-32 goes,those are the words of an idiot called Paul.You can find a lot of people's words in the Bible,but you won't find Christ telling his followers to slaughter those who don't believe in him.You will,however,find that the prophet that Moslems follow,does encourage his followers to kill the nonbelievers.In fact he killed nonbelievers himself.A big difference.Those who don't want to see the difference will continue to be surprised at the violence used by Islamic groups.Read what their prophet said,and did.You will understand their violence better.
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Scuds, I don't disagree with your position on Paul on bit-- I think that while something amazing happened to him on the road to Damascus, he really could have used a good therapist, as the man clearly had some serious issues about sex and about women. But remember, the Bible, in its entirety, is the text of the Christian faith, and most Christians will say that you are not permitted to take it as a fast-food menu, picking and choosing what you like; that you take all of it or you take nothing of it. Mind you, half of those Christians are probably wearing cotton-poly blend shirts, which is against the New Testament, but see Paul and therapist, above...
My point is, you can't say "Christians who advocate violence aren't following their faith," because in fact, according to some interpretations, they are. And they would say that by limiting your intepretation to the four Gospels you yourself are not being Christian. Of course, I think you're in fine company; Thomas Jefferson's personal New Testament included every adage about living that Christ said, but he cut out every reference to Christ's divinity. (though I'm interested to hear your thoughts on Christ's reaffirming everything the prophets of the Old Testament said, which includes quite a bit about God's wrath on non-believers).
The Koran, if I am not mistaken, also has adages against not killing innocents-- and I thought its main verse on violence said only in self-defense. So one can argue that Moslems who do violence are also violating Mohammed's teachings. And what about the Serbian/Albanian massacres of the 1990's? Wasn't that Christians killing Moslems?
Any holy book is chock full of contradictions, because lots of different people went into creating each one (they've been arguing about Revelations' inclusion since they first compiled the Bible). I think before we start blindly pointing fingers at others' faiths, that perhaps we need to take a look at the world and ask ourselves why there seems to be such a rise in fundamentalist branches of all faiths, including American Christianity. Because I do believe fundamentalism breeds violence, regardless of the faith.