You know what we need over there? Separation of church and state. Have a secular nation, and let people practice whatever religion they want. But if we can't manage it in America, no way we'll be able to manage it there. (Canada and certain European countries, on the other hand, do seem to be able to manage it.)
Daniel - Thanks for correcting me there, I was working off of somewhat vague memory of what went on in that time. Thanks for posting that; understanding the actual history should give us all some better perspective.
Now, since you raised a few questions about what I said regarding Jesus, I'll give you a few references that, if nothing else, shed doubt on the Christian claim of history: Matthew 10:34, Luke 12:51, and Luke 22:36, all from the Bible, and all quotes of Jesus. I'm not quoting them here as for potentially inflammatory stuff like this, I feel it's better if Christians who might get mad go out and see for themselves exactly what it says.
(And no, I'm not saying all Christians are like this, but some are, so I'm being cautious because of them.)
Basically, these all directly contradict the idea that Jesus was a peacemaker. If they idea of him as a peacemaker was true, why would they have been included? The church had plenty of opportunity to edit it, and would have gotten rid of them if they were false. Now, if he actually said these things, then the rest is probably a fabrication to make him appear peaceful. These were left in because they're true, and there were too many pushing for the truth to omit them. The rest were in because they painted Jesus as a peacemaker.
As for their blaming the Jews--I didn't say it was a very successful attempt. And personally, if the theory of Jesus being a messiah-guerrilla is correct, the fault of his death lies at his own hands. He committed an act of war and attacked a governmental institution, a crime punishable by death. And death he got for it.
A few more corrections to what I said following Jesus' death, after checking some source material: The key here is that after his death, many of his followers had visions of him (probably dreams). The gospels already had the idea of a messiah who ressurects to finish his duty, so they took these as signs that he would come back. This is why, unlike other messiahs who were abandoned after failing, the Jesus cult stuck around. In 68 AD, after a miserably failed war against Rome and the ascent of the two Roman generals of that war--Vespasian and Titus--to the rulership of Rome, the cult changed. It was now more practical to claim to be peaceful rather than warlike; if they were warlike, they'd have been slaughtered immediately. This is the era in which the gospels were written. Of course, enough of Jesus' actual disciples were still living that knew the truth that elements of what Jesus actually said slipped in.
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