Church Militant: Difference between revisions

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* The Bishop of Durham fought in the Battle of Cressy with an enormous spiky mace. He, along with the [[Badass|Black]] [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|Prince]] actually broke the French line.

* Another example is Odo, half-brother of William the Conqueror and bishop of Bayeux (he might have commissioned that famous Tapestry), who was present at Hastings and had a number of other military adventures. He died during the First Crusade.

**It might be remembered that many of these were less Crusades and more Clergy that happened to have a secular "hat" in their collection taking part in normal power politics.

* Many modern militias in the Islamic world, for example Hezbollah, combine civil defense with religious education. Secretary-General Hasan Nasrallah was trained in Iran as a religious scholar. However, at least in Hezbollah's case the religious element takes a backseat to civil defense, and many Maronite Christians and Druze are members or supporters of Hezbollah. The Mujahideen and Taliban soldiers also ooze this trope, as do Al-Qaeda, Hamas, etc.

** On that note, some people accuse Islam to be a religion spread "by a sword in the left hand, and a Qur'an in the right hand". [[Flanderization|While it's not entirely true]], they had reasons for this; their power and fervor is such that they were able to take out the Persians completely and fight toe-to-toe against the Eastern Roman Empire.

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* [[wikipedia:1838 Mormon War|The Mormon War]]. Joseph Smith Jr. was once the leader of the militia (especially noteworthy is [[wikipedia:Zion's Camp|Zion's Camp]] ) and also the prophet and leader of the LDS church. After Smith's assassination when Brigham Young was prophet and leader of the LDS church they organized the [[wikipedia:Mormon Battalion|Mormon Battalion]] which is the only religious military unit in United States history and was part of the Mexican-American war.

* [[Sikhism]] is famous for this aspect. They express it in a more publicly accepted fashion then some groups, through such means as participation in regular military units and the carrying of symbolic weapons. Defense of the righteous is fairly central to the faith of Sikhism, which is understandable considering their history of being surrounded by militant Islamic factions and equally militant Hindus. They represent only about 2% at most of the Indian population yet make up nearly 15% of the army (and 20% of officers). Indian UN peacekeepers are usually called blue turbans due to the high probability they're Sikh soldiers (most male Sikhs do not cut their hair and keep it in a turban).

* Many Churches, Synagogues, or other similar religious institutions have a faux-paramilitary youth group like the scouts or some kind of copycat. This is a laughably innocent downplaying, not laughably because it is funny(it can be a splendid way to associate good conduct with esprit de corps in young people's minds)but because of the fact that it is classed with this trope. But technically it does belong.

* Many Churches, Synagogues, or other similar religious institutions have a faux-paramilitary youth group like the scouts or some kind of copycat. This is a laughably innocent downplaying, not laughably because it is funny (it can be a splendid way to associate good conduct with esprit de corps in young people's minds)but because of the fact that it is classed with this trope. But technically it does belong.

[[Category:Knight in Shining Tropes]]