Religion ranks #1 in creating wars

“Religion ranks #1 in creating wars.”

I have heard this charge made from time to time over the years, and it was brought back to mind because someone posted the above comment on Facebook yesterday. The lie is promoted by popular atheists such as Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins,[i] and is uncritically accepted by those whose bias it fits.

There have been religious wars, but the above assertion is patently false! Religion does not rank first in creating wars. Wars are primarily driven by things like expansion of territory, securing political power, and gaining or controlling economic resources. 

When considering the role of religion “creating wars” it has most often only been a secondary source rather than the root cause. Even major conflicts that involved religious differences were usually tied with other concerns, such as political sovereignty, etc.

Researchers relying on comprehensive historical data such as found in the 3-volume Encyclopedia of Wars (Charles Phillips, Alan Axelrod, editors. Facts on File, 2004) and the 5-volume The Encyclopedia of War (edited by Gordon Martel, editor. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) have concluded that only 6% to 7% of the wars listed in these works can be labelled “religious wars.” 

Realize that I am not saying that religion has never caused wars.[ii] However, I am trying to help dispel the myth that claims religion is the chief cause of creating wars. It is not. Not even close.

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[i] “Religious wars really are fought in the name of religion, and they have been horribly frequent in history.” Dawkins, The God Delusion.
[ii] For example, the Roman Catholic Church waged war (crusades) against the Waldenses based strictly on wiping out these people and their religion.

Biblical preaching

“[Sunday] morning millions of people around the world will gather, ostensibly, to worship God. Thousands of sermons will be preached, ostensibly ‘from the Bible.’

“Most of what is preached will be in flat contradiction of God’s word and a huge part of what is not will be meaningless sentimental drivel. There will be age old heresies repeated, stale pragmatism presented as current necessity, and new age psychology cloaked in Bible language. Some of what is preached will not even be intelligible.

“The preachers who love God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and who are led by the Holy Spirit, will simply preach the word.

“Preaching the word of God is not complicated. It is clearly defined by Ezra’s example as recorded in Nehemiah. Ezra read the Scriptures and explained the meaning of it to the people.

“This is what is often called ‘expository’ preaching, which simply means that a preacher is, by his words, to expose the meaning of the text of the Scriptures to his hearers.

“The concept of expository preaching has received much attention and approbation in recent decades. While the concept is good and legitimate, it is abused when men read the text of Scripture and then read their preconceived theology into the text.

“This practice is especially insidious because it leaves the impression in the minds of the people that the preacher is simply preaching what the Bible says, when, in reality, he is making his fake theology appear to be Biblical.”

Mark Osgatharp, Excerpt from Facebook post, August 3, 2025

Victory in Jesus

1 Corinthians 15: 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have sung the song Victory in Jesus as long as I can remember. However, until today (6/5/2026) I had not noticed the story about this song written by E. M. Bartlett. In 1939, Bartlett suffered a stroke, which left him partially paralyzed. It was during this time of trouble that he wrote his last and best-known song. Despite the critical condition of Bartlett at the time he composed the words and music of Victory in Jesus, the song is a bright number that emphatically looks back on salvation through the blood of Jesus and expectantly looks forward to some sweet day when we’ll sing up in heaven “the song of victory.”

It seems Victory in Jesus was first published in Gospel Choruses (Lawrenceburg, TN: James D. Vaughan Music Publisher, 1939, No. 104). It was popularized through shape-note song books, singing in church worship services, and recordings by popular singers.

1. I heard an old, old story, how a Saviour came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood’s atoning,
Then I repented of my sins and won the victory.

2. I heard about His healing, of His cleansing pow’r revealing
How He made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see;
And then I cried, “dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit,”
And somehow Jesus came and brought to me victory.

3. I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory,
And I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea;
About the angels singing, and the old redemption story,
And some sweet day I’ll sing up there the song of victory.

Chorus:
O victory in Jesus, my Saviour, forever!
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him.
He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing flood.

Eugene Monroe Bartlett was born at or near Waynesville, Pulaski County, Missouri on December 24, 1883 (or 1885).[i] He was the son of Hiram F. Bartlett and Elizabeth Atwell. At some time before the 1900 census, the family had moved to Sebastian County, Arkansas. (Hiram and Elizabeth had previously been in Sebastian County during the 1880 census enumeration, but has returned to Missouri.) Bartlett furthered his education at the Hall-Moody Institute in Martin, Tennessee, and William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. In 1913 he married Joan Tatum and they had at least two children. E. M. Bartlett died January 25, 1941. At the time of his death, E. M. Bartlett was a member of the Baptist Church at Siloam Springs. The Bartletts are buried at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Siloam Springs, Benton County, Arkansas.

With David Moore and John A. McClung, E. M. Bartlett partnered to established the Hartford Music Company in Hartford, Arkansas in 1918.[ii] In 1921 E. M. Bartlett started the Hartford Music Institute, a shape-note singing school. He also served as editor of a monthly musical magazine called The Herald of Song. Bartlett was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1973.

Bartlett’s Everybody Will Be Happy Over There is a popular shape-note convention song. He also wrote some humorous songs, such as Take an Old Cold Tater and Wait, a song about the country practice of kids having to wait to eat at the “second table” when the family had company. This song was recorded by country music singer Little Jimmy Dickens.

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[i] 1883 according to his World War I draft registration, but 1885 according to his tombstone. The 1900 census also has 1883. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas gives his marriage year as 1917, but records in Ancestry (if transcribed correctly) show he was married in 1913. This needs further research.
[ii] On his World War I draft registration, he called this company the Bartlett-Moore Music Company. This was apparently the original name.

That Good Old Book of Life

That good old Book of Life
For centuries has stood
Unharmed, amid the strife,
When earth was drunk with blood.
And wouldst thou harm it now,
And have its truths forgot?
Skeptic, forbear thy blow,
Thy hand shall harm it not!

Second stanza of No. 492 in Sacred Melodies for Social Worship by Hiram Mattison (New York, NY: Mason Brothers, 1859).

Concerning babies and abortion

In “Canaanite Child Sacrifice, Abortion, and the Bible,” Henry B. Smith, Jr. offers several considerations from the Bible concerning babies and abortion.

• Conception is a gift from God (e.g. Genesis 21:1-2; 30:22-23; Judges 13:3-5; 1 Samuel 1:20).
• God is the Creator of the Unborn (e.g. Job 10: 8-11; 31:15; Psalm 139:13-16; Isaiah 44:2).
• The Unborn Responds to God (e.g. Luke 1:15, 41-44).
• The Continuum of Identity or Personhood, i.e. the unborn person in the womb and born person out of the womb is the same person (e.g. Psalm 139:13-16; Jeremiah 1:5; Luke 1:35; Galatians 1:14-16).
• Prohibitions against Unlawful Killing (e.g. Genesis 9:6; Exodus 1:15-18; 20:13; 21:22-23; Amos 1:13).

Our own worst enemy

Abraham Lincoln gave this speech when he was a young lawyer and a representative in the Illinois State Legislature. He considered his time as the inheritor of blessings from the founders, and that those inheritances were being eroded. I included the previous paragraph before the one I bolded (to give a bit of context and introduction) . Certainly, times and military prowess have changed in the nearly two hundred since Lincoln’s speech. Nevertheless, his observations are up-to-date. We are still our own worst enemy.

The hits (against Jesus and the Bible) just keep coming

It seems you never can know all the crazy “theology” that lurks out there in the interwebs. (And often I wish I didn’t know.) I noticed someone on Facebook referring to the servant in the story of Matthew 8:5-13 as being a “sex slave.” To that person making this claim, it is an important perversion of story because “Jesus heals the Centurion’s sex slave and doesn’t complain about the homosexuality.”[i] The crank further asserted that he preferred to follow “actions directly taken by Jesus” rather than any condemnation of homosexuality found elsewhere in the Bible. Yes, and many prefer to (and do) follow the “Jesus” of their own imagination rather than the Jesus of the Bible. If the Bible doesn’t support your position, just make stuff up!!

So, as I checked on this, I found this view exists beyond this one crank. The anemic argument seems to hinge on a nonsensical claim that the use of the term pais (παῖς) in the Greek to describe the servant means that the servant was a male sex slave.[ii]

Even if that were admitted for argument’s sake, it does not logically lead to the conclusion that the promoters of homosexuality need to get to – that this act of healing affirms the lifestyle of the person healed. Through healing, Jesus showed his power and his compassion, and demonstrated he was the promised Messiah. Every act of healing doesn’t mean that Jesus affirmed everything the people healed believed or practiced.

The use of the word παῖς does not suggest a sexual relationship.[iii] In the ancient Roman world there were sex slaves. However, to assume the centurion is using the servant/pais as a sex slave just because he is a servant is like assuming that an employer is using an employee as a sex slave just because he has an employee (and some employers abuse their employees), or like assuming a husband is abusing his wife, just because he has a wife (and some husbands abuse their wives). It is simply creating whatever one wants to have and believe out of whole cloth. Make-it-up-as-you-go theology won’t hold water. There are a couple of thousand years of history in which Christians have defined and regarded homosexual sex as sin.

John Byron, Professor of New Testament Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary, noted that the uses of παῖς in the Greek New Testament do not in any way suggest a homosexual relationship.

“The Greek noun pais is used in the New Testament twenty-four times and has a range of meanings that include ‘adolescent,’ ‘child,’ and ‘servant.’ … it appears numerous times and it always refers to a ‘servant.’ There are no occurrences of the term anywhere in the Bible that can be interpreted referring to the junior partner in a homosexual relationship.”[iv]

This argument – and any argument for a so-called “gay-affirming” Jesus – is an argument from silence. The advocate of this assertion must create places to insert words and meanings that do not exist in the Bible. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of God showing grace to sinners. It is not a message of affirming their sins, but a message that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus did not come to excuse sin, but he did come to seek and to save that which was lost.[v] Like God with Adam and Eve, Jesus did not wait for the lost to seek him (Romans 3:11). He went looking for them.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

John 1:29

…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

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[i] Such an interpretation just as much suggests that Jesus in the healing was not “complaining” about but rather was affirming the same-sex sexual abuse of a minor servant by an older master in the position of power. The logical end of such ragged theology will prove too much even for most promoters of homosexuality.
[ii] It is correct that the noun παῖς is masculine in this case (nominative, singular, masculine).
[iii] To counter such nonsensical arguments – for people willing to compare scripture with scripture, God also inspired Luke to tell the story using a different word for servant, doulos (δοῦλος). Luke 7:2-10. So the Bible revisers need to deal with that fact as well.
[iv] John Bryon, “Did Jesus Heal a Centurion’s Same-Sex Partner,” The Biblical World, August 9, 2012, https://thebiblicalworld.blogspot.com/2012/08/did-jesus-heal-centurions-same-sex.html

[v] Not specifically a healing, but when Jesus forgave the woman taken in adultery, he did not excuse the sin of adultery, but said rather, “Go, and sin no more.”

My two bits

“Jesus paid it all; and he doesn’t want my two bits. He doesn’t want anything I do, and he doesn’t want my commitment – because he’s found out I lied about that two or three times! And don’t you look at me that way, because you’ve done the same thing. Thank God tonight for a Saviour who did it all.”

J. Vernon McGee, From “The Power of the Word of God,” preached at Shadow Mountain Community Church, San Diego, California