An honest reckoning

Has Christianity Done More Harm Than Good?

It is a fair question, and it deserves an honest answer that weighs both sides. The harm is real: crusades, inquisitions, the defence of slavery, antisemitism, colonial abuses, and the cover-up of abuse. The good is also real: the first hospitals and universities, the abolition movement, vast works of charity, and the very idea that every human being has equal, inviolable dignity. The ledger runs deep on both sides, and thoughtful people weigh it differently. But there is a deeper question the tally cannot settle.

The harm, without flinching

We have set out the worst of it in detail elsewhere, and we do not take it back. Christians waged the Crusades and ran the Inquisition. Christians defended and profited from slavery. Christian teaching fed centuries of antisemitism. The church was entangled in colonial conquest and cultural destruction. Clergy abused children and institutions hid it. Any honest accounting starts by refusing to look away from this.

The good, without exaggeration

The same faith also built enduring good, and it would be just as dishonest to erase it. Christians founded the first universities of the medieval West and much of the hospital and hospice tradition. Christian conviction powered the abolition of the slave trade. The modern idea of universal human rights and equal human dignity grew, historically, in large part from the claim that every person bears the image of God. Countless schools, orphanages, famine relief efforts, and works of care were built by believers acting on the words of Jesus. Historians weigh these ledgers differently, and it is an honest, contested question, not a settled score.

The deeper question

A tally of the institution's record, however carefully kept, still cannot answer the question underneath it: is Jesus who he said he is? Christians measure everything, their own history included, against him, and he taught that a tree is known by its fruit and that God asks for justice, mercy, and humility, the very things his followers have most betrayed when they did harm.

Weigh the record honestly, by all means. Then weigh the one whose name it was all done in, because that, in the end, is the real question.

Frequently asked questions

Has Christianity done more harm than good?

Honestly, the ledger runs deep on both sides. The harm is real: crusades, inquisitions, slavery's defence, antisemitism, colonial abuses, and abuse cover-ups. So is the good: the first hospitals and universities, the abolition movement, vast charity, and the idea of universal human dignity. Thoughtful people weigh it differently.

What good has Christianity done in history?

Christians founded much of the medieval university and hospital tradition, drove the abolition of the slave trade, built countless schools, orphanages, and relief efforts, and helped shape the modern conviction that every human being has equal, inviolable dignity as one made in God's image.

Does the good outweigh the harm?

Historians weigh it differently, and it is a genuinely contested question rather than a settled score. But a tally of the institution's record cannot answer the deeper question underneath it: whether Jesus is who he claimed to be. That is the question Christianity finally rests on.