'“The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical,” former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) told a South Carolina audience yesterday. “And that is what the perception is by the American left who hates Christendom."'
And, y'know … historians.
The Crusades (of which there were several, for different reasons and different goals and different participants) were many things, and nobody wore solely a white or black hat in the fray. But to claim that they didn't include — and were often about — aggression is laughable.
The wars between "Christendom" and the Islamic world over Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, were similarly a mixture of blame and bad behavior on all sides. I think it's possible to see that — and to see how religion, blended in with politics and jingoism, led to centuries of bloody fighting (that arguably continue today).
Rick Santorum is a pandering dolt. #ddtb
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Rick Santorum: The Crusades Get A Bad Rap! | TPMDC
Jillian Rayfield February 23, 2011, 3:34 PM. If you were worried there wouldn't be a 2012 candidate touting the pro-Crusades platform, then today is your lucky day! “The idea that the Crusades and…
Well, you have to think that a great many people that might vote for him are probably un-educated (thinking about my schooling in TN here). If they can say that the early periods of time (think Jurassic, Cretaceous) amount to the 7 days God took to build the world….then this isn't much of a stretch either.
Dave, Dave, Dave…
How can you call proselytizing “aggression”? Is it their fault that the heathens refused to convert to Christianity even at the point of a sword?
You probably overreact to the Spanish Inquisition’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” too.
/sarcasm off
To be fair, the Crusades were not all that interested in proselytization. They were much more about taking territory (and booty) and kicking the heretics / infidels out.
And also to be fair, the Spanish Inquisition wasn’t about about proselytization, either. It was about rooting out people who had lied about being converted.
Which makes little difference, except pedantically.