Pope Urban II Essays (401 words) - Crusades, Christianization

Pope Urban II Pope Urban II had called the Christians to join him in a Holy War to reclaim the Holy Lands as an act of Christianity, but there were many activities that took place that weren't characteristics of Christianity. The Crusades were a smokescreen for Pope's craving for power and control. The Crusades were the idea of Pope Urban II, a wise Frenchman. On November 18, 1095 AD, Pope Urban II opened the Council of Clermont. Nine days later, the Pope made a very important speech just outside the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. In his speech, he asked the people to help the Christians' effort to restore peace to the East. The Crusades had originally been to help the Churches in the East, but the now it was to reclaim the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem from the Muslims. Pope Urban II stayed in France until September 1096 in hopes of providing leadership for the First Crusaders. Urban had originally hoped for the crusading army to be composed of mostly knights and other warriors, but his speech had already began spreading throughout the west, and many people of different social classes started joining the crusading army. (Foss, Michael. pg. 23) Because of this Urban lost all control of the army, which led to the slaughter of Jews in northern France. These poor people also caused strain on the armies supplies and discipline. They were never trained and they were poor, so they couldn't bring anything and were poorly disciplined(Foss, Michael. pg. 24). The entire crusading army had planned on reaching the city of Constantinople, but because of their lack of supplies and training the vast majority of them were slaughtered before they got there. The few troops that did reach Constantinople split up into two groups. One group tried to capture Nicaea, a key city that blocked the road of their supply routes. This group was unsuccessful. The other group was attacked near the city of Civetot in October. The few survivors retreated to Constantinople and joined the second wave of Crusaders. (Phillips, Jonathan. pg. 59) Religious beliefs were a major motive of the crusaders. In Urban's speech to the people of Clermont-Ferrand, Urban guaranteed the complete forgiveness of all sins to any crusader that lost his life in the name of the Crusades. Urban also proclaimed "It is necessary that you bring to your brothers in the East the help so often promised and so urgently needed. They have been attacked, as many of you know, by Turks and Arabs... Churches have been destroyed and the countryside laid waste.

Religion In Public Life Essays - Prayer, Spirituality, Free Essays

Religion In Public Life Essays - Prayer, Spirituality, Free Essays Religion In Public Life Prayer in school has been the topic of the century, Is it right to pray in school, stated a Texas teacher. The society as a whole believes it is wrong, but there is some people that thinks it would be a good addition to our school. Maybe it will lower school violence. Yeah, right, whatever! Come on people, be a little intelligent. Our country has had violence before we created prayer in school. Religion will probably make it worse. Sociologists has taken a look at this issue. They perceived it preposterous. Sociologist think if we had prayer in school, might as well force us to read a bible and say amen every time a teacher finishes a sentence. Prayer in school is ridiculous and absurd. Sociologists opposes school prayer for a number of reasons. To begin, it is unconstitutional and a clear violation of our First Amendment. Remember, that amendment contains the Establishment Clause which prohibits the government fromestablishing religion. Simply put, secular institutions like the publ ic schools should NOT be a forum for religious ritual or indoctrination. And do a majority of people support school prayer? Often, those results depend on exactly how the question happens to be asked. Surveys suggest that most people reject the notion of mandatory prayer. But even if the overwhelming majority thought that prayer was, somehow, a good idea, that does not make the practice ethically just or constitutional. Sociologists also points out, in opposing school prayer, that prayer is not efficacious. School prayer is obviously a form of religious indoctrination; it teaches children that there are invisible, supernatural entities which can be implored and appeased through mumbling prayers or reading from holy books. Many people believe that just because there is a bible, does it mean we have to take it seriously. If we wrote a book and put it in a time capsule and send it back 4000 years ago it will become a religion. What about school initiated prayer? Before getting excited about student initiated prayer, ask yourself: which students are doing the initiating? Student populations often reflect the diversity of the culture. Some students may wish to pray in class or at official school ceremonies like graduation exercises or sporting events, but are they being fair to other students who may not wish to pray? Lately, there have been court cases involving this very question. It is clear that even in areas such as Utah where a school may have a high percentage of students from the same religious background, not all students feel comfortable with this bogus student led religious ritual. If you see a huge group of people praying will you join them? The survey says 1 out of 4 students say yes. The reason is, they want to keep their friends. Sociologists believe teen peer pressure is why this is the way it is. What about a moment of silence? What for? Why do we need a moment of silence? School prayer boosters have sometimes proposed this as a way of establishing a legal precedent which, they hope, will eventually lead toward explicit and vocal school prayer. Over a decade ago, the Supreme Court struck down this type of proposal; legislation of this type often calls for the moment of silence to be used for meditation or prayer. Besides, consider the declining number of hours that students are in school each year. Every moment should be used for useful and educational instruction, not meditating! The whole idea of this is if we create some way to do this, without violating any rights, it wont effect any one. But yes it does, even a moment of silence is basically saying you must do this or else... Our government has always stood by the First Amendment, For one reason. The First Amendment creates an issue with how to stop certain things from happening. There is a lot of power in the First Amendment. But, our government exercises this right narrowly. We are always battling with the First Amendment. There is a lot of culture in this issue. One main reason we live in America is because we wanted the right to believe in a god, many gods, or no god(s)