Historical Revisionism From the Christian Right

I am an active user on the social media platform known as Gab.  In this morning's email inbox was a long letter from Andrew Torba, founder and CEO of Gab.  He is a devout Christian.  The letter, which is purely a proselytization effort to convert Gab users to his religion, begins thus:

Freedom is rooted in the Christian worldview. There’s no denying this fact. As Christians our faith in Christ frees us from the chains of slavery to sin in a wicked, corrupt, and fallen world.

History shows us that Christians are the forefathers and defenders of all types of liberty including but not limited to freedom of speech...

No, Freedom is NOT rooted in the Christian worldview. There is not time now for a full essay -- perhaps I'll do that on this blog later -- but in reality, the Christian religion is obsessed with slavery, uses the language of slavery, and even exhorts its believers to become slaves.

In the Real World, it was the Enlightenment -- the antidote to Christianity -- that has set humankind free.

Now let us deal with the most egregious part of Torba's proselytizing email:

History shows us that Christians are the forefathers and defenders of all types of liberty including but not limited to freedom of speech...

No, history shows us the opposite. History is chock full of examples of Christians, and the Church, persecuting, destroying and even killing people - and burning their books - for saying the "wrong" ideas.

It was Christians who stripped Hypatia naked and dragged her through the streets until she died. Her crime: teaching that zero is a number. And being a woman mathematician.

There were no advances in the field of mathematics in the Western world for the next thousand years.

Michael Servetus, a polymath who made advances in the field of medicine and other sciences, was burned at the stake by Christians for "denying the Trinity."

Giordano Bruno -  philosopher, mathematician and poet, best known for his cosmological theories - was burned at the stake for, among other things, "holding opinions contrary to the Catholic faith."

Galileo Galilei narrowly escaped being burned at the stake, and was instead condemned to a lifetime of house arrest, for claiming that the Sun does not revolve around the Earth. His books were burned.

The works of Thomas Hobbes were burned and banned from publication because his ideas "might lead to atheism."

In our own time, Christians continue agitating to prevent anything and everything pertaining to evolutionary theory from being taught or discussed in public schools. That pretty much eliminates the entire field of biology.

And Christians continue trying to outlaw anything they call "pornography" - a word without a clear legal definition, and therefore means anything one wants it to mean. Consider that the Netflix movie "Cuties," which shows NO vagina, NO penis, NO breast - is considered "porn" and Christians are demanding that it be banned.

Don't try to tell me that "Christians are the forefathers and defenders of ... freedom of speech...", Andrew Torba. You're a fucking liar. And a hopeless addict.