Breaking Down President Obama's Point About Christian Crusades and Islamic Extremism

[hrmjustin]

Jay Michaelson

NEW YORK (RNS) The conservative Twitterverse is all riled up because at Thursday's (Feb. 5) National Prayer Breakfast (an event founded and run by the secretive Christian organization known as The Fellowship), President Obama said that Christians, as well as Muslims, have at times committed atrocities. His words:

Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.

This would seem to be Religious History 101, but it was nonetheless met with shock and awe.

"Hey, American Christians-Obama just threw you under the bus in order to defend Islam," wrote shock jock Michael Graham. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., called the comments "dangerously irresponsible." The Catholic League's Bill Donohue said: "Obama's ignorance is astounding and his comparison is pernicious. The Crusades were a defensive Christian reaction against Muslim madmen of the Middle Ages."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-michaelson/obama-crusades-islam-_b_6635750.html?utm_hp_ref=religion