Originally Posted by scoony
In early Christianity, folks were forced to convert or die. Kind of sounds sort of familiar.


Until Constantine they were largely persecuted and believed in persecuting no one. Making Rome officially Christian eventually led Christians to an about face to persecute others. However the whole church did not go along with this state religion movement and in turn they also were persecuted--but they were the ones which were most accurately modeling Christ. It was the same all down through the Middle ages--state established Christianity persecuting and suppressing dissent --- which included free church Christians--i.e. the followers of Jesus' teachings and life.