Madam, - Gerard Arthurs (October 18th) expresses a common but very limited view of the significance of Christianity in European history. Christianity totally changed Europe for the better. Certainly, religious differences have been involved in many conflicts and wars over the past two millennia, but more often than not these differences have been exploited by the ruling élites to further their political goals. The notorious Spanish Inquisition was one of the first major subjects of propaganda, with grossly exaggerated and untrue accounts sent by English agents in Spain to bolster the resistance to Spanish expansionism.
We now take it for granted that looking after the weak, the sick, the widows and orphans is the mark of a civilised and developed society, but these obviously desirable services all trace their roots to people and foundations with a religious motive. Terrible things have been done in the name of religion, but most social benefits can be traced to groups or individuals acting with an overtly Christian motivation.
I do not understand why it should be considered divisive and unfair to give credit to the principal driving force in the social development of Europe, but not divisive and unfair to deny it.
Christians live in the world and can never claim, this side of the grave, to be anything other than thoroughly imperfect, but they can and should claim to be members of a movement that has left the world a vastly better place than before Christianity existed. - Yours, etc.,
PATRICK DAVEY, Dublin Road, Shankill, Co Dublin.