Since When Was it a "Religion of Peace"?

"Love thy enemy" is commonly used by right-wing conservatives (mostly white of course) to try to paint Christianity as this compassionate religion while Islam is this war-mongering, hegemonic belief system that wants to "kill the infidels" and so on.

But looking at the history of Christianity, it was never touted as a religion of peace. From the beginning, Christians forced their beliefs unto people with a sword looming over their necks. The Unitarians were being killed by the Trinitarians, lands were colonized and Christianity was forced on the people. Religious wars like the Crusades and many others were started by the Christians and supported by the Church and the clergy. Killing for Jesus was not a sin, and the term "love thy enemy" really meant you loved him by killing him and taking over his land.

Today, the biggest supporters of war, ESPECIALLY against the Muslims are these white (or pro-white non-whites) right-wing Christian conservatives who insist Jesus was about love and mercy and forgiveness but since when did war become about love and forgiveness and mercy. How is blowing up a person or blowing his head apart with a high-powered rifle loving thy enemy? How is humilating him with sexual and physical torture as in Abu Ghurayb (Abu Ghraib in the mistransliterated version) a sign of Christian love?

It is not. History and even the teachings of the Bible support killing in the name of God. Reading Ezekiel 9 to Matthew 10:34, peace was never something that invalidated violence in the name of God. It has been recently that Christian fundamentalists used this "love, peace and forgiveness" as a tool of conversion, quoting only the passages of the Bible they want and ignoring the passages in the Old and New Testament that called for violence in God's name.

BUT REMEMBER, many of the verses in the Bible can be taken out of context. We need to read the verses before and after and know the story behind them. We cannot say that Christianity or Islam advocate killing innocent people because one misinteprets verses. Islam and Christianity have been misunderstood but now the war is now against Islam, now the MOST misunderstood.

And who could forget SLAVERY. Millions of Africans were stolen from their lands, brought to America and many of them forced to abandon their religions and traditions and adopt instead the religion and tradition of the slave master, i.e., Christianity.

Also, whites have used Christianity as a tool of trying to assert the white man's role of saviour of the world. Whites are a minority in the population of Christians, but nearly ALL of the missionaries who go to other lands and try to convert people to Christianity are whites. So do the math: whites minority; white majority in trying to convert the world. Something is wrong here...