Explanation: It’s a common fantasy of fascists and other far-right goons that if only a society were ‘homogeneous’ in such a way as they prefer, it would be a peaceful utopia.
Examination of any societies which attempted to enforce homogeneity, regardless of sect, generally reveals the exact opposite conclusion. Few things flare up the conflict engine like trying to suppress the beliefs of others, and once one genocide is done, the net narrows in order to start the next - or more ‘schismatics’ arise, which has the same effect.
As the Late Roman pagan writer Ammianus Marcellinus once noted in regards to sectarian disputes, “No beasts are so vicious towards one another than Christian towards Christian.” One suspects that applies to any worldview which regards belief as mandatory.
… ironically, the painting shown is of the pagan Greek Titan Cronos devouring his sons.
For bonus points, Medieval Europe was actually comparatively broad-minded towards Black folk, as there wasn’t a strong conception of racism in the modern sense. “Aethiopes” were different, sure, but so were those gruesome Fr*nch and D*nes! To white folk in Medieval Europe, Africa was a distant and exciting place, but fundamentally still filled with human beings who were not really much different than you or I (the occasional ‘here there be monsters excluded’, of course - what region does not have its fair share of boogeymen to scare the children with?)
Some of those medieval misconceptions, still, were quite curious - a 13th century AD German poet wrote of a mixed-race man with literally half-white and half-black skin, split down the middle! He’s still described as handsome. He gets a good and holsum (by Christian standards) ending in the poem - converts, marries a Christian German girl, and goes back to his homeland to convert them to Christianity too, since they all only worshipped Jupiter (???) because they’d never heard of this Christ fellow.
Regarding the painting, while that is a common interpretation, what it was meant to depict, if anything, is unknown; it was found after the painter’s death with no information about it.
To boil this down to the most crude, simplistic phrasing possible: Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one, and they all stink.
Lol, darker skinned people and non-Christians* are the least of my worries as an European. The far right shit just falls apart when you actually interact with people.
What’s the Pakistani guy working at the kebab shop gonna do to me? Give me a little bit more food than the standard portion size because I’m nice to service workers? The horror! Surely we must deport him!
* Actually I’d prefer if everyone was an atheist like myself. Just one less tribal thing for people to get emotional about. But most people seem to keep their religion to themselves around here, so that’s the second best option.
Indigenous North Americans: … we’ve been here for over 10,000 years and we didn’t have continent spanning mass genocide until you guys arrived
That’s just cultural enrichment.
if your religion has more than one defenestrations in its histories perhaps it needs a newer testament ?
A guy named Joseph Smith tried, it didn’t stick except one little corner of the world
When half the church leadership is part of the same two or three families that are the heads of state, political alliances exist. Then some upstarts come up with a plan to destabilise the church, and one starts off by attacking the big banker (their name incidentally was originally Fucker) well, HERETIC! Stakes and all.
