>And I'd think that if people did a detailed study of the history of the Crusades (and how it all started with something that sounded well-meaning, but quickly got out of control -- long before they even came close to reaching the Holy Land -- and mostly due to lack of education*), even Christians would probably find usage of the term Crusader to be distasteful.
Two historical observations :
The major recruiting pitch was that going on a crusade would buy you forgiveness for even the most terrible lives of sin. Not surprisingly, the ranks were soon full of some pretty impressive sinners.
The most vicious of the crusades had nothing to do with Muslims or the Holy Land. The Albigensian Crusade to stamp out the Cathar heresy in Langue d'Oc had many attractions, including the nice weather of southern France, geographic convenience and bonus that also made pogroms against the Jews so popular - a righteous justification to take the property of people who were doing pretty well.
A well-known and telling anecdote that sums up the Christian charity of the undertaking was told of the Papal Legate as the crusaders were about to enter and sack the Cathar stronghold of Beziers. When asked how they could separate the righteous from the heretics he said "Kill them all, God will recognize his own."
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
