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July 22, 2007

The Crusades? Get Over It!

Interesting column by Philip Yancey.

In addition, Western Christians feel deep guilt over the Crusades, even though, as Sanneh says, Arab historians give the Crusades (which they refer to as the wars with the Franks) little notice. These incursions, mostly rebuffed by the Muslims, pale in comparison to the Mongol invasion under Genghis Khan.

Sanneh urges Western Christians to move beyond the guilt of the past. The global picture has changed, after all. Although the worldwide percentage of Christians has declined only slightly, from 35 percent in 1800 to 33 percent today, the geographical shift has been immense. While Christianity lost 800 million adherents in the 20th century—mostly in Europe and the former Soviet Union—explosive growth in places like Africa and China replaced them. (Sanneh acknowledges that this explosive growth occurred only after colonialism ended.)

Seventy-five thousand people a day become Christians, according to some estimates, and two-thirds of them live in Africa. These buoyant new believers do not carry around burdens of history such as the Crusades and the Inquisition. They experience the gospel as Good News and celebrate it in new and creative forms.

A nice reminder that the good news is still the good news, no matter what culture it touches.

Posted by slublog at July 22, 2007 07:26 PM

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Comments

The only thing I see that was wrong with the Crusades is that on the way to the Holy Land, a lot of those gung-ho knights liked to kill Jews. That wasn't good, but the rest was ok.

Posted by: Mr Minority at July 25, 2007 07:22 PM

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Posted by: Link Building at January 16, 2011 09:49 PM