Religion
In reply to the discussion: Whether Jesus existed historically [View all]Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)The Christian religion we know today was established in the 4th century and was entangled with the Roman government - it was the opposite of a grassroots revolutionary political movement. Since becoming the state religion of Rome Christianity has been predominantly a conservative force in western civilization. In the slave economy of the Roman Empire, it was a religion that instructed slaves to obey their masters and wait for their rewards in heaven. In feudal Europe it proclaimed the feudal order to be ordained from god, and again instructed the peasants to be obedient in this life so as to be rewarded in the next. The conquest of the americas included the forced conversion of millions, and again the ideology of christianity justified the rule of the few over the many. Despite occasional outbreaks of liberation theology, from the abolitionists to the civil rights movement, to the revolutionary priests of latin america, the record is pretty consistent.