Some Questions for Believers

[Mudhammam]

That is the crux of the issue... Authoritarianism, and whether or not a religion embodies these policies or not. In the example of biblical christianity authoritarianism is not the role of the church. The fact that it can be found in The church should tell an honest person that the church was used as an excuse for such behavior.

Setting aside the horrors that resulted from an authoritarianism compounded by the unfortunate marriage of religion and politics found on page after page in the OT, which is incorrectly endorsed rather than condemned by the writers of the NT, the role of the Church is -oftentimes- presented as a conquest of hearts and minds through a message of fear and intimidation. When Jesus and his apostles, whether literally or metaphorically, paint skeptics and critics of the faith as wicked enemies who ought (even promised) to have stones tied around their necks and tossed into the sea, slain before the king's feet, hurled into a lake of fire for eternity, or exercised from family and the community on account of behaviors or beliefs Church officials find disagreeable, it's not difficult to understand how some would inevitably contextualize the "love and peace" bits and act exactly as Nietzsche declared out of a sense of duty to protect the flock from the "wolves" and "vipers."