What about all the evil done in the name of Christianity?

To dismiss Christianity because of evil done in its name is to confuse abuse of truth with truth itself. It’s like blaming medicine for malpractice or light for the shadows it casts. Let’s unpack this thoroughly—with Scripture, philosophy, history, and unflinching clarity—to expose the fallacy of this objection.

**BIBLICAL BACKING

Evil done “in the name of Christ” is not evidence against Him—it’s evidence against those who falsely claim Him.

1. Jesus Foretold Religious Hypocrisy and False Disciples

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven… Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
—Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV)

Jesus explicitly condemns those who use His name but practice evil. This means atrocities committed under the banner of Christianity violate Christ’s teaching, not fulfill it.

2. True Christian Conduct Is the Opposite of Evil

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
—Matthew 22:39
“Do not repay evil for evil… live peaceably with all.”
—Romans 12:17–18
“Let all that you do be done in love.”
—1 Corinthians 16:14

Where Christian truth is truly followed, love, humility, justice, and peace abound—not violence, greed, or coercion. Evil done in Christ’s name is not Christianity gone wrong, it is human sin disguising itself as religion.

3. God Will Judge Hypocrites and Abusers

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! … You are like whitewashed tombs…”
—Matthew 23:27
“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea…”
—Luke 17:2

Scripture makes it clear: false religion is more damnable than open rebellion, and God will bring justice to those who pervert His name.

**PHILOSOPHICAL REASONING

The objection, “What about evil done in the name of Christianity?” is a category error—it confuses the abuse of a worldview with the truth of a worldview.

1. Misuse Does Not Invalidate Use

  • Logic Example: If someone counterfeits money, we don’t blame the existence of money.

  • Moral Example: If someone lies while claiming to speak the truth, we don’t condemn the concept of truth.

🔒 Conclusion: Abuse of a thing is not an argument against the thing itself. Evil done in the name of Christ is a perversion of Christianity, not a reflection of it.

2. Judging Christianity by Its Worst Followers Is Intellectual Dishonesty

You don’t judge a philosophy by those who fail to follow it, but by those who most truly embody it. Judge Christianity by Jesus—not the Crusaders, inquisitors, or slaveholders.

And by that standard, Jesus is flawless.

“He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.”
—1 Peter 2:22
“Father, forgive them…”
—Luke 23:34

3. The Standard Used to Condemn Religious Evil Comes From Christianity

The moral outrage people feel at religious hypocrisy itself assumes a Christian moral framework:

  • Why is it wrong to kill or oppress in the name of God?

  • Where does that moral law come from?

You don’t get objective moral standards from atheistic naturalism or Darwinian survival. The very fact that we all condemn evil in the name of religion proves that a moral lawgiver exists—and that we’re made in His image.

**HISTORICAL/THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT

Yes, people have done evil in Christ’s name. But that is not the whole story. In fact, the most profound advances in justice, human dignity, and charity came from Christ-followers, not their enemies.

1. Evil in the Name of Christ Was Often Political, Not Theological

  • The Crusades were largely retaliatory against Islamic expansion, often driven by European kings, not theology.

  • The Inquisition was driven by institutional corruption, not Scripture.

  • Slavery was opposed and dismantled by Christian abolitionists (Wilberforce, Newton, Douglass), not by secularists.

“The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice”—because the Gospel bent it.

2. The Church Brought Hospitals, Literacy, Abolition, Human Rights

  • Hospitals were first created by Christians in Rome and Constantinople.

  • The modern university system was born out of Christian monasteries and cathedrals.

  • Christian ethics dismantled slavery, promoted women’s rights, and birthed modern science through the belief in a rational, moral Creator.

📚 Even atheist historians like Tom Holland (author of Dominion) admit: Our modern values exist because of Christianity, not in spite of it.

3. Compared to Other Worldviews, Christianity Stands Alone

  • Atheism, when followed to its consistent end (as in Soviet Russia, Maoist China, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia), produced millions more deaths than all religious wars combined.

  • Islam, when enforced by the sword, subjugated entire peoples.

  • Paganism glorified power, infanticide, slavery, and conquest.

Christianity is the only worldview that says, “Love your enemies… do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27), and where God Himself dies for sinners.

**REAL-WORLD ANALOGY

Imagine a man forges a prescription and poisons someone. Do you blame:

  1. The doctor who wrote real prescriptions?

  2. The hospital that healed thousands?

  3. Or the criminal who abused the system?

Christianity is the hospital. Jesus is the Great Physician. Sinners forge His name, but that doesn’t make Him guilty. Don’t reject the cure because someone else faked the label.

**CLARITY

Let’s close the back door on this objection:

  • Jesus never taught the violence, oppression, or hypocrisy committed by wolves in sheep’s clothing.

  • Christianity condemns religious hypocrisy more fiercely than any atheist ever has.

  • God will judge those who used His name for evil far more harshly than skeptics ever will.

  • The Bible is not guilty—those who ignore it are.

To reject Christ because of Judas is to betray Him twice—first by treachery, then by unbelief.

“See that no one leads you astray… many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.”
—Mark 13:5–6

Jesus warned you about them. Don’t fall for the same deception. Judge Christianity by Christ, not by the counterfeits who invoke His name.

Christianity is not invalidated by those who misuse it—it is vindicated by the fact that even its worst enemies have to borrow from its moral code to accuse it.

No lie told in God’s name can erase the truth written by His hand.