10 Worst Things Religions Have Ever Done

10 Worst Things Religions Have Ever Done

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today were looking at grave misdeeds done by people throughout history all in the name of what they claimed was a higher power.

The Branch Davidian Disaster (1993)

Founded in 1955 by Benjamin Roden, the General Association of Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists are widely regarded as a doomsday cult. Roden died in 1978 and his wife Lois assumed his place as Davidian prophet. That was until 1981, when Vernon Howell who changed his name to David Koresh arrived, amassing growing influence in the organization until 1987, when he spun off his own sect of Davidians. Koreshs Branch Davidians assimilated the original group by force, and in 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms attempted to raid the Mount Carmel Center ranch. The ensuing 51-day standoff and firefight resulted in the deaths of four ATF agents, as well as 82 Branch Davidians including 28 children.

Abuse In the Catholic Church & Its Cover-Up

In 1992, Irish singer Sinéad OConnor appeared on Saturday Night Live and, in one of the shows most controversial moments, tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II. She claimed that it was in response to the Catholic Churchs concerted efforts to cover up disturbing cases of abuse against minors by those in its ranks, including priests, nuns, and more. OConnors career took a heavy blow, but over time, her protest has been regarded as highly prescient. More and more cases of stomach-churning misconduct were exposed over the years, most notably by the Spotlight division of the Boston Globe newspaper. Their reporting led to five Catholic priests being convicted and sentenced to prison in 2002.

Thirty Years War (1618-48)

This devastating Central European religious conflict saw as many as an estimated 8 million deaths over its three-decade span, both military and civilian. The war was spurred on by the 16th century rise of Protestantism in Europe, which was perceived as threatening centuries of Catholic dominance. It began in earnest when Emperor Ferdinand II, the Catholic king of Bohemia (aka the modern-day Czech Republic), was replaced by Frederick V of the Palatinate, a Protestant. From there, what had started as a civil war within the Holy Roman Empire snowballed into a regionwide conflict. The Thirty Years War forever altered the social and political trajectory of Central Europe, and all because Ferdinand had intended to stomp out Catholicism.

The Mass Deaths of Jonestown (1978)

For context, the actions of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple led to the single largest, deliberate loss of American life until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Jones, a preacher whod formed his cult in Indianapolis in 1954, had moved it to a rented plot of land in Guyana, owing to increasing backlash to allegations of abuse and violence. These allegations became especially pronounced as the movement moved further and further away from mainstream Christianity. On November 17, 1978, an investigative visit by U.S. congressman Leo Ryan turned deadly, when security guards killed Ryan and four others. That night, Jones commanded his 918 congregants to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, while he and his personal aide Annie Moore allegedly took their own lives.

The Establishment Of the Canadian Residential School System (1876-1997)

In the time between the so-called Indian Act was passed in 1876, to the time the last school shut its doors in 1997, irreparable damage was done to Canadas Indigenous communities. Without their families consent, children born to Indigenous families were forcibly placed into harsh, punishing boarding schools, where their cultures, identities, and histories were stripped from them in the hope that they would assimilate. The residential schools had a disturbingly high mortality rate, possibly in the thousands, partially attributed in the years since to insufficient measures to curb the spread of tuberculosis. Although the Canadian government and Catholic Church have apologized since, the detrimental effects of the residential school system have trickled down through the ages, and remain a black mark on the countrys history.

The Troubles In Northern Ireland (1960s-98)

While scholars and historians are quick to dispel notions that this ethnonationalist conflict stemmed primarily from religious tensions, its inarguable that they played an integral role in its escalation. Essentially, Protestant Unionists and loyalists butted heads with Irish nationalists and republicans. The unionists wanted Northern Ireland to remain a part of the United Kingdom, and the nationalists vociferously supported the founding of a United Ireland. The conflict turned deadly, and over several decades, just over 3500 people were killed, over half of whom were civilians. The Troubles may not explicitly have been divided along religious lines, but those lines formed the basis of the conflict to begin with.

The Litany Of Disturbing Allegations Against the Church of Scientology

Oof. Where do we even begin with this one? As youre probably already aware of, L. Ron Hubbards new religious movement has seemingly been a lightning rod for controversy since its December 1953 inception. While the organization is protected under religious grounds in some countries, like Australia and the United States, others, like France, have labelled it an extremist cult. Over the years, the church and its members have been found guilty of domestic espionage, coercion, and fraud. Its also repeatedly intimidated those who have dissented from its ranks, as well as its secular critics. Perhaps most disturbingly of all, rumors persist of rampant human trafficking, as well as other forms of abuse, by officials within the church.

Witch Trials In the Early Modern Period (1400-1775)

One of the most damning religious panics of all time, this dark era of human history saw 100,000 people prosecuted for witchcraft, of whom as many as 60,000 were executed. Peaking in the 16th and 17th centuries, and taking place primarily in Europe and North America, friends, families, and neighbors turned on each other. Most of the accused were women, and the crimes they were charged with are theorized to have stemmed from war and food shortages people needed someone to blame. Most infamous of all were the Salem witch trials on American soil, which were the result of growing tensions between the Puritans and Church of England supporters.

Crusades (1095-1291)

The Crusades were seemingly the religious wars to end all religious wars. Largely engineered by the Latin Church, the Crusades consisted of a series of military operations in the Holy Land, located between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River. The Crusades were intended as a way for Christianity to retake Jerusalem and the larger Levant as a whole, ripping it from Muslim rule. The effort to control the geographical region took a serious hit in 1187, when the sultan Saladin and his Ayyubid army recaptured Jerusalem and restored Muslim dominance. Despite the war and bloodshed, the Latin Churchs attempts were ultimately for naught, having failed in its original goal.

Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834)

The old Monty Python joke has a ring of truth to it: truly, no one expected the Spanish Inquisition. At one point, the Catholic Church was known to carry out Inquisitions, a form of ecclesiastical court in which justice would be served solely on its Christian terms. Prosecuting such violations as heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, and the aforementioned witchcraft, the Spanish Inquisition was an exceptionally trigger-happy period. Its most devastating moments came in the form of the Alhambra Decree, which outlawed Judaism and Islam under the Spanish monarchy. Hundreds of thousands of people were forcibly converted to Christianity, expelled from Spains territory entirely, or even executed.

Which moment in our video shocked you the most? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!