In the name of God

Note: Thoughts while commenting on a report by Sunsara Taylor titled,
Fear and Loathing at Philadelphia's BattleCry, on truthdig.com:

Seeing's as how we are tribal mammals ...

There are at least a couple of ways for us old farts to control the young'uns. We can be gatekeepers to the spoils of the hunt and we can be gatekeepers to sex.

So if we figure out a system where experience is worth more than energy, agility, and strength so we can be the boss and can hire, fire and promote ... and be protected while we do so ...

And if we start a religion where the people who have lost their sex-drive through old-age can get young people to feel ashamed of theirs ...

If success in a career becomes more important than fulfilling one's humanness ...

And all this gets internalized over a few thousand years so we don't have a clue as what our humanness really is ... (Like does anyone--what I should have asked is does any Northern European Caucasian male like me--really know what sexual fulfilment is for the human being? When I was growing up, men were still debating whether a woman could have an orgasm.)

C'mon folks, does anyone know what Calvin did in Geneva in the name of God? Look it up, for chrissake.

In the following "Luther" is Martin Luther, and "Calvin" is John Calvin, both historical heroes of Fundamentalist Christianity:

"And Luther and Calvin's intolerance was -- by their own admission -- the fruit of their Bible study. They agreed for instance that the Bible portrayed Jesus as concerned with how individuals could 'inherit eternal life.' Neither did Jesus deny that the laws of Moses remained in force, nor did he admit to his opponents that he had truly violated any of them. Neither did Jesus' command, 'Give to all who ask, asking nothing in return,' constitute practical advice concerning the laws and activity of a nation. So Jesus directed his teachings at individuals, not toward the setting up of laws and the governance of a state. Meanwhile, Paul taught that all rulers (whether Christian or not) were instituted by God and 'did not bear the sword in vain.' That left only the 'laws of Moses' as a list of God's most holy laws for governing a nation." (Emphasis added here.)

...

"The overthrow [in 1555] of the 'Libertines' [which was the name Calvin had given his major political opponents, though they called themselves "The Children of Geneva" -- E.T.B.] had given power to the Consistory, and offenders could now be punished with more success than formerly. Adultery, which, before Calvin's return [to Geneva], was [p. 359] punished only by an imprisonment of some days, or by a trifling fine, was now punished with death. An adulteress was drowned in the Rhone. Thus two citizens of the best families (Heinrich Philip and Jacques le Nevue) were beheaded. [p. 360]…

"There is great beauty in the earnestness with which the authority of parents is defended. In the year 1563, a young girl who had insulted her mother was kept confined, fed on bread and water, and obliged to express her repentance publicly in the church. A peasant boy who had called his mother a devil, and flung a stone at her, was publicly whipped, and suspended by his arms to a gallows as a sign that he deserved death, and was only spared on account of his youth. Another child in 1568, for having struck his parents was beheaded. A lad of sixteen, for having only threatened to strike his mother, was condemned to death; on account of his youth the sentence was softened, and he was only banished, after being publicly whipped, with a halter about his neck. [p. 361]…

"The military ordinance before alluded to declares that… the double crime of adultery should be punished with loss of life: simple adultery was to be punished with the iron-collar; witchcraft with only nineteen days' imprisonment; but the states-register names a great number of individuals who were drowned for this species of crime…"

...

"Calvin felt that he was especially elected to uphold the purity of doctrine… Many facts indeed tend to show that, at the first, any one who opposed the faith, or offended believers, or even ventured to take accused persons under his protection, exposed himself to great annoyances, complaints and processes. [p. 447]…

"Heretical speeches against religions might even place the offender's life in danger. Thus a woman, Copa of Ferrara, was sentenced in 1559 to ask mercy of God and of justice, and to be banished, with the order that she should depart within 24-hours, under pain of losing her head. This sentence was pronounced upon her because she had uttered certain heretical expressions against Calvin, and the directions of the Consistory… Some men who laughed while Calvin was preaching were put in prison for three days, and condemned to ask pardon before the Consistory. Numberless processes of this kind took place. In the two years 1558 and 1559 alone there were 414 such trials. [p. 448]"

- quoted from http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/history/death_penalty.html

And that is one small sampling out of Christianity's history. And the BattleCry folks are saying the rest of us have nothing to fear?