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{"id":6875,"date":"2016-10-20T08:16:32","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T12:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/?p=6875"},"modified":"2016-10-20T15:49:49","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T19:49:49","slug":"the-crusades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/10\/the-crusades.html","title":{"rendered":"The Crusades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Few periods in history have been boiled down to a bumper sticker level of knowledge than the Crusade<\/a>s. \u00a0It\u2019s one of those periods that everyone has heard of, but knows little about. \u00a0 When I teach adults and talk about this period in the larger context of Islamic invasions, I\u2019m taken by how few have heard that Islam ever tried to invade Europe. \u00a0Or anywhere else for that matter. \u00a0 They usually have some vague \u2018Didn\u2019t Islam convert by the sword?\u2019 notion of history, which itself isn\u2019t accurate. \u00a0But then they are amazed to hear that, from almost the beginning all the way up to the late 17th century, forces from the Islamic world pressed into Europe in an attempt to sweep the continent. \u00a0 In that context, you have the Crusades. \u00a0Far more than the History Channel once described them, as an excuse for a bunch of Tony Sopranos to get loot and power. \u00a0 They were a long, complex historical phenomenon that lasted slightly less time than\u00a0the United States has been a nation.<\/p>\n

Mr. McClarey is right, this isn\u2019t exactly an in depth study. \u00a0It\u2019s a Protestant pastor coming to grips with the history vs. the Monty Python versions. \u00a0As I said about my own conversion to Catholicism, part of what helped me was the growing realization many Protestants had that constantly trashing Catholic history in our secularized, non-Christian world didn\u2019t work. \u00a0Too many hear that as affirmation from Christians that the Church in general was always a wicked institution, not that \u2018those Christians over there are the problem.\u2019 \u00a0So let this be a good place to start rethinking what we think we know about the period.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"