Christians, why associate with a group that has such a bad reputation?

The government of the country in which I hold my citizenship has also done many things of which I strongly disapprove. But I haven't renounced my citizenship, because I still think it's a good country, even though some serious monsters have come out of it. As for Christianity, I think it needs serious reform. I keep hoping, perhaps erroneously, that I can influence some of that reform myself from within the system. Things are slowly changing. If I abandon ship, attempting to reform a group from the outside means very little. There are times when I get frustrated with the way in which Fundamentalists have essentially hijacked the religion, and times when it's wearisome to realize that some people think that the Crusades and Inquisition are all that Christianity was ever about, but still, I keep hoping to bring about change and raise awareness.

Hitler had promoted "positive Christianity", a movement which purged Christianity of its Jewish elements and instilled it with Nazi philosophy. Christ was Jewish.

Stalin was an atheist. Pol Pot was Buddhist. Does murder have anything to do with religion? Murderers and criminals are often willing to assume whatever identity seems to serve them best at that moment.

Crimes or evil committed in the name of any group remain crimes and evil. Every murderous leader acts in conjunction with a group faith system. Mien Kampf and the Communist Manifesto generated group faith systems as surely as did the Book of Mormon or the Koran.

Jesus said that you would know his followers by their love. Selfishness is the opposite of Christian Love. Followers of Christ were first called "Christian" at Antioch. Labels are imposed by others. Many simply adopt the label laid upon them by others. It is irrelevant, since any label taken or bestowed by someone else is not always accurate.

Evil knows no bounds and can assimilate into any group. Evil is a sociopath, incapable of love and capable of masking intent with charm. Don't be deceived.

This is the sort of horribly flawed logic I used during my "angry atheist" phase. Now I'm a calm and happy atheist :)

The catholic church did approve of Hitler, but it's more complicated than that. The church has had a checkered past, and fluctuated between being a political authority and spiritual authority throughout the middle ages and the early modern period.

"Every" serial killer didn't believe in god. A lot did, a few saw their acts as being in accordance with the wishes of a god. That doesn't mean all Christians today are associated with them.

The two very real issues with Christianity are:

1. A lack of difficulty. People have faith in a world beyond, Abraham didn't have that faith, he had faith that he could kill his son with his own hands, and by the absurd power of God, he would receive him back again-in the same life. We hedge our bets, we are cautious, we fear for ourselves and although we trust in God to help us, we have faith that after we navigate life's troubles on our own, with a little moral support, maybe a coincidental boon we credit to him, and it's God as someone to talk to. Then we have faith that after all of "this" we will have paradise. Abraham had faith that he would see with his physical eyeballs the fulfillment of God's promise.

2. You know what? I had something. Oh yeah! So, today Christians follow Christ right? But Christ flies in the face of more than half of the book he resides in. Christ is too powerful for the bible, he breaks all of th rules and unhinged all of the previous laws given by God. But we don't look at Christ like we should, we don't see in him th very way in which we relate to every person we come in contact with, we simply say: he died for our sins, and by his resurrection, I can claim heaven. The problems with this are manifold, but the largest one is scriptural consistency. In the entire bible, it is never explained why Christ's death atones for our sins, why we can be clean through him, what the death and resurrection mean. We've simply taken a bland, uninteresting guess and stuck with it.

Your statements are very true. This shows quite well that the TRUE Christianity stands out from ALL the rest. Jesus said this. (John 13:33-35) . . .. 34 I am giving YOU a new commandment, that YOU love one another; just as I have loved YOU, that YOU also love one another. 35 By this all will know that YOU are my disciples, if YOU have love among yourselves.”

So the things you describe are being committed by the false or apostate christians the Bible warns against.

(2 Thessalonians 2:3) 3 Let no one seduce YOU in any manner, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction. . .

(Proverbs 11:9) 9 By [his] mouth the one who is an apostate brings his fellowman to ruin, but by knowledge are the righteous rescued. . .

(Isaiah 9:17) 17 That is why Jehovah will not rejoice even over their young men, and upon their fatherless boys and upon their widows he will have no mercy; because all of them are apostates and evildoers and every mouth is speaking senselessness. In view of all this his anger has not turned back, but his hand is stretched out still.

That is the reason why you and the world lack such an understanding of reality--those you are told were christian werent in reality-- the true christians refused to kill their fellow man and especially they would have had to stand on both sides and kill each other as well on the orders of men, men like Adolf Hitler-- the true christians went to prision or in concentration camps and refused to kill. The false christian religions killed their own supposed brothers in Christ for Adolf Hitler and stood on the opposite side as well-throwing away the teachings Of Jesus to accomplish those acts.

The good and the bad exists everywhere and religion is no exception. To see Christianity, or for that matter any form of belief, in a bad light is not right. People has a right to whater beliefs they believe in and that must be protected - the only thing we all can hope for people dont use them for evil purposes..

You are the one who needs to stop lumping us in with the Nazis, Stalin and Mao. It sounds like you have a beef with God. You want to tell Him who to forgive? He knows hearts and minds. No one is getting away with false confession with God. Sin is sin my friend and it is not you who gets to decide what is sin. You only get to decide if you want to partake in it. Jesus challenged the crowd that threatened to stone the prostitute that if one among them was without sin to cast the first stone. No one could. But here is the rub He told her GO FORTH AND SIN NO MORE!!!! He did not tell her to keep sinning and go pick up you government check. Is that what you want? Christians to tell you sin is good and you get money just for breathing? There is work, responsibility, self-discipline and much more involved in living a good life. Christianity teaches all of that but we are in a world where sin and temptation are EVERYWHERE. Christians are not perfect but we serve a perfect God.

Dude, that was centuries ago. Not every serial killer was a Christian, not even near all. Serial killers dno't need a certain religion to kill. It involves other factors. Abuse, neglect, etc.

Christianty is named after CHRIST, so there is no point in changing who they are or what they are called!

First of all, most people who claim to be Christians are, in fact, not. Second, the Bible tells us that Christians will not be well thought of generally. It just goes with the territory.

Edit: Also, the Bible tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. (that means going to church.) We need the fellowship of other believers.

Countless millions? You must be referring to what the Catholic church did ages ago when they were killing Christians who didn't believe like they did. As far as the serial killers and child molesters who believe in God, Satan believes in God too. Believing in God and living to serve God are 2 different things.