[Vision2020] Follow up - Islam the religion of peace!

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Hi Andreas:

The most recent scholarship on the Taiping Rebellion dispels the notion that these guys were not really Christians.  

*the leaders were trained and baptized by Hong Kong missionaries;

*they read the Bible in a fairly accurate translation; 

*they consciously eliminated as much Confucianism and Daoism from their theology as they could ascertain; 

*they followed the eschatology of Revelations as accurately as any other Christian has; 

*they enforced the 10 Commandments strictly at the point of a sword; 

*they destroyed temples and idols unmercifully; 

*and they accused the Qing emperor of blasphemy. Even the Chinese Catholics did not do this.

In fact, they were more Christian than the Chinese Catholics who brought a lot of Buddhism into their theology.

They were certainly more Christian than the Rev. Moon, who didn't care that his religion was loaded with shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism.

For references see Jonanthan Spence's "God's Chinese Son" and Thomas Reilly's "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom."  Or read my essay at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/taiping.htm.

Thanks for your input and the dialogue,

Nick