I agree with you peony. I don't think Jesus meant for his followers to forcibly convert all those that they met. The religion that he preached was one of love, and it would really stretch facts to claim that the Crusades were fought out of love for the Saracens.
After looking at the amount of damage that religious wars have inflicted upon our world, I'm really considering just giving up all distinctions between religions. I mean, isn't a "religion" just another way to "reach" God? Our goal is ultimately the same, it's just that we all have different methods. Why do they have to classify people based on that?
Christianity itself is a very beautiful religion. I'm not even Christian (I'm Hindu) and I still believe so. I think that all religions are beautiful. It is just clerics' interpretations of them that either beautify or mar those religions.
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But Melkor also was there, and he came to the house of Fëanor, and there he slew Finwë King of the Noldor before his doors, and spilled the first blood in the Blessed Realm; for Finwë alone had not fled from the horror of the Dark.
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