The Crusades in what is now Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, and Syria were a combination of many factors coming together including Byzantine need for troops, commercial hunger for markets, a sincere faith and belief that heresy needed to be combatted, and some element of an outlet for channeling elements eager for war to other lands (instead of next door). The City of Christ was in the hands of the Infidel (said the apologists); how could that be allowed to stand - ignoring, of course, the fact that it had been that way for 450 years or so prior to the First Crusade (A.D. 1099 - 1100) and even in the time of Christ Himself had been controlled by a foreign power, Rome.
And so, the Crusades of the East (not to be confused with the Crusades of The Reconquista of Spain or against the Balts in Prussia), 200 years of what essentially became a thin layer of Western Christian civilization (the Eastern Orthodox had been there all along, of course) punctuated with war an occasional bloodbaths (in the taking of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, the slaughter was so immense of Muslims that "...when Raymond of Aguliers later that day went to visit the Temple area he had to pick his way through corpses and and blood that reached up to his knees." - A History of the Crusades Vol.1, p. 287. Steven Runciman).
It is easy to look back on such things and realize that if spreading Christianity was the goal, perhaps that was not the way to do it (although arguably that was not the only point of The Crusades if you look into them. There was a lot of land and power and politics involved). It is harder to look at ourselves and realize we can have the same tendencies.
For myself, how often in the past have I thought to do something "for God", when I was either pushing my own agenda in His Name or seeking to succeed on my terms in such a way that I took moral or ethical shortcuts (it is more than I care to admit, honestly).
That is where Lewis' comment hits the hardest. Our job is not to succeed - a great temptation in a society and culture where success, especially measured in the world's terms - but rather to do right, to be a credit to God and to His message and His morality.
Should we work hard? Of course. Should we put our best foot forward? Absolutely. But we should never confuse our goal as that of first and foremost being successful. Our first goal is to be God's representatives on earth. "God's work God's way", as the saying runs.
The rest, as they say, is up to Him.
I have never contemplated this thought before, but I am woefully ignorant on the history of the crusades. Other than having heard them mentioned or parodied in a movie or two, I know next to nothing about them.
ReplyDeleteI have been struck with the same thought lately, but with a different time period and peoples. I'm listening to the audiobook Mayflower by Nathanial Philbrick, who covers the Pilgrims from their time in Holland through King Philip's War. The war was the result of the second generation pilgrims wanted more land. Their conclusion was to take it from the Native Americans by any means possible. The Native Americans, on the other hand, were feeling crowded out, and wanted the land they'd sold to the first Pilgrims back.
ReplyDeleteWhat has struck me, is the atrocities committed by the Pilgrims in the name of God. Much of it was quite vengeful and cruel. It seems humans are quite capable of anything under the guise of their religion.