Is the Catholic Church persecuting people?

 I often hear complaints against the Catholic Church mainly because of things that occurred during the crusades and the Inquisition.

What bothers me is that many people seem to overlook or ignore all of the persecution, suffering and the crimes against humanity at the hands of atheist governments, carried out by people who were fighting God and His church.

Every one of us is able to understand the crusades and the Inquisition and the reasons for their place in the history of the world. If you dig deeper into the subject and put aside all presumptions and hostile attitudes you may see that some good came about as a result of those events. From a purely historical standpoint those events look quite different than what you may imagine after hearing from certain factions that distort the truth to align it with their own personal views.

I don’t see ordinary people making the connections between atheism and genocide; between Hitler, Stalin and their war with God, His church and humanity. It’s not the Christians who persecute the world, who kill innocent people, who smash human life as if it has no value. The persecution comes from societies and leaders who are atheist, who don’t acknowledge the existence of God and consequentially, don’t acknowledge that human life has dignity, value and meaning.

Yes, most or at least a great number of atheists that you may encounter or that you may know are good people. They care for others; they are great neighbors and faithful charity workers. But you can easily look back at how history has unfolded in societies that are ruled by Christian, Muslim or atheist leaders.   I challenge you to watch for and observe the logical conclusion which comes from history.