Are we as a people genuinely taught to hate, and will we ever change? Take this into .
consideration, America is just about the most violent country in the world, and we justify our .
actions by saying we"re free, free to speak our minds, free to assemble and free to choose our .
own religious preference. Think about that, we"re free. We misjudge our limitations, and we also .
misinterpret our rights at times. Despite the harsh reality of some of the crimes society commits, .
a great deal of people have tried to seek refuge and justification in their beliefs. With this time .
that has been allotted to me, I have chosen to discuss religion, and severe crimes that have been .
and are being committed in its name. .
Religious violence has been going on for centuries within the church. Religious .
figures have even been known to misuse their authority. Keep in mind that all .
actions taken by the church weren't particularly violent; since in Biblical terms the Church is .
supposed to promote peace, but ramifications of certain actions taken by these eminent religious.
figures posed results of catastrophic proportions. Take the first Inquisition, it was established by .
the Roman Catholic Church and the office of the pope in the middle ages, and was stimulated by .
seeking out and punishing persons that the Church felt, were guilty of deviation by exiling them. .
With the dawn of Christianity as the governing religion by the Roman emperors, deviants were .
considered enemies of the church because of their religious preference. The church at this point .
considered violence and physical penalties wrong and thus exiling them was what they felt was .
just. Keep in mind that I"m not justifying the Church by saying they were completely innocent with .
their beliefs and actions because this was still a terrible misuse of power, but there were far .
greater instances in which the church was in the same situation and the result s were .
