The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-09-27
INTOLERANCE


world until Christianity began to
make it's influence felt. The heather
were generally polite to each others
gods. Each tribe or nation Dragged
on its own deities but seldom perse-
cuted another tribe or nation for any
such reason. The most elaborate and
liberal of ancient mythologies was
that of the Greeks; they had god for
everything they could think of, and
when they had exhausted the list they
were so afraid they had neglected
something that they erected shrine
to "The Unknown God" which had no
image, and which the Christians,
therefore, claimed was theirs. When
ever the Romans conquered nation
they took it's gods under their protec-
ton, and they had great temple in
Rome where every religion was rep
resented by an image and an altar.
The children of Israel were rather in
tolerant, but after killing out the
Canaanites, whose lands they wanted,
their intolerance was ingrowing
rather than outgrowing. They had
severe laws against any of their own
people who followed after false gods,
but it didn't seem to occur to them to
go out into the countries around and
butcher the heather. The Romans
were tolerant toward the Christians
at first, but when the Christians be-
gan to insist that all other religions
give way to theirs the Romans be-
came peeved, and massacres followed.
1t always makes religion popular
to prosecute it, Ga number of people
in this state had best remember that)
and the Christians grew in numbers
and power, and soon took charge of
the Roman empire. When they came
into power, they prosecuted the
heather more severely than the
heather had prosecuted them. Then
they split into sects, and prosecuted
each with a cruelty to which the
heather world had been stranger.
After awhile, they resolved them
selves into three great branches-the
Roman Catholics in the West, and the
Greeks and Armenians in the East.
They fought each ether for a century
or two, and then the Mohemmedans
came along. Their religion was hon.
estly that of the sword; man accept
ed it, or died or became a slave. In
the matter of massacres, the Mo-
hammedans seem to have had the
bulge on all other religions. They
killed Christians all the way from
the Indus to the Atlantic; then they
went into India and China and muir
dered Buddhists and Brahmans by
the millions. The Mohammedans were
not unnecessarily cruel about their
massacres, however. AS a rule, they
did not torture a man. They simply
killed him and then went on to the
next one. The Christians retaliated
to the best of their ability. They were
under disadvantage, as their coun-
tries were mostly those invaded. How
ever, they got in quite a few lively
massacres of their own, particularly
during the Crusades, when they but
Ichered so many Mohammedans in
Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine that
they began to have hopes of tieing the
score. Meantime, the Mohammedans
had split among themselves, but ii
unfortunately did not go far enough
tc decrease their numbers very much
During these blood-soaked centuries
Christians and Mohammedans We'd in
prosecuting the Jews, in which per-
secution the Christians were the most
vigorous, owing probably to the fact
that the Jews had more money than
anybody else. When the Spanish in
vaded America, they took their relig-
ion with them, and gave most of the
natives they met the alternative OF
being converted and enslaved or being
killed. Their progress in Mexico and
South America was like that of the
Mohammedans thru Asia and Africa,
About that time the Reformation be-
gan in Western Europe and brought
on more trouble. The Catholics had
been in power so long that they were
surprised at anybody not agreeing
with them and tried to suppress argu-
ment very much in the same fashion
the Romans tried 20 suppress Christi
anity over thousand years before
As the Protestants increased in mum
Der, they obtained control of several
countries and did considerable perse-
cutting themselves. Between persecu.
tion and repersecution, they had
Western Europe torn into bloody rags
for over two hundred years. 1t was
the remembrance of this bonfire Oh
hate, the ashes of which were still hot
when the American republic was
founded, that led our wise forefathers
to prohibit in our constitution all re-
ligious tests. If you don't think this
little sketch of religious history is
correct, you can confirm it all out OF
the Encyclopedia Britannica as we die
last night.