Summary
William T. Cavanaugh addresses the question: is the Crusader a “real” Christian?
I think there’s a sense in which you have to answer yes and no to the question of is the Crusader really a Christian. On the one hand, I think, normatively you have to say no; if you’re a Christian, you want to say that this is a misunderstanding of what’s really at the heart of the gospel. But descriptively or empirically, I think you have to say yes, he’s a Christian, and we can’t simply wash our hands of responsibility by saying oh, Christians don’t do violence because if they’re really Christian they wouldn’t do violence. I mean clearly this is part of our history and we have to own that.
