When Christians First Engaged In Mob Violence

A recent Huffpost article fosuses on the many Christian symbols displayed at the January 6 insurrection. How did it come to this?

Author David Bercot, in his book, Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up? cites an account by Byzantine historian Socrates Scholasticus (380-450 CE) in which a mob made up of so-called Christians in Constantinople sets fire to a house where a government official was lodging, drags him through the streets of the city and brutally beats him to death. The person they murdered was an officer the newly Christianized emperor Constantine had authorized to deliver an order to depose their bishop, resulting in members of his congregation rising up in his defense. 

I couldn't help see some similarities to the January 6 insurrection. In both cases, participants in the violence believed they were on God's side, a necessary part of a crusade to carry out God's will. 

In the fourth century example, the emperor Constantine had only recently begun to champion the Christian cause, after having won a major military victory he attributed to a vision of the Christian cross with the words "In this sign conquer." While not officially identifying as a Christian himself until on his deathbed, the emperor is said to have had many of his troops baptized en masse and had the symbol of the cross inscribed on their shields. Almost overnight, Christians went from being a persecuted minority to the predominant and preferred religion, now supported by their emperor, and half-converted members throughout the Roman empire began to join the movement in droves.

Clearly in both cases, reliance on violent means to defend the faith and to protect the faithful were in direct contradiction to the teachings and example of Jesus, yet many church leaders became enamored with the status and power their new alliance with Constantine gave them, along with the large numbers of new converts it brought them. The resulting perverted form of Christianity became a means of the church gaining vastly more political power and control, and meant being identified as Christian becoming broadly popular throughout the realm.

Of course the fourth century mob, while feeling empowered by their new status as a part of a now prestigious majority religion, were at least at odds with their emperor regarding the appointment of their bishop, whereas in the case of many of today's members of the evangelical right, God's will and the will of a Christianized state are typically seen as synonymous.

If there is one thing we can learn from Christianity's embrace of political power it is that it is sure to corrupt the faith, and to corrupt it absolutely. 

For a terrifying example of this, take time to view this seven-minute clip of a US event in 1939.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxxxlutsKuI