Civil War Religion Essay

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Nobody wishes to go to war with another nation, the same nation, or any other type of organization that is fighting for what they believe in. For the same reasons though, when war is declared from one side to another, it is because both sides believe so deeply in what the change (or lack there of) that they want to see. Throughout history, there have been multiple wars waged on the grounds of religion. Of such wars, there are the Crusades, and the Protestant Wars of religion. The Crusades were fought for the Latin church to regain what they believed to be their Holy Land from Islamic rule, while the Wars of Religion were fought between the Protestants and Roman Catholics. Some people study the United States Civil War and think of it as a religious war in the same way. The Civil War had very religious reasons for why the United States citizens felt the way they did about the issues of that time period, such as slavery, states rights, and financial status. Each of these reasons were strongly backed up by religion as well. Although there are several religious underpinnings for the Civil War, I do not believe it is right to categorize it as a war of religion in the same way that the Crusades and Protestant Wars of Religion are, but rather to classify it as just a “religious war”; the Civil War was solely religiously charged, and could be justified by a religion, while the Crusades and Wars of Religion …show more content…

The term “religious war” can describe a war that has religious motives and is warranted by a certain religion, such as the Civil War, but isn’t directly about the religion itself. On the contrary, “wars of religion” are those that are fought based on the actual religion itself, where we see wars based on religious persecution, rule, freedom, reformation, etc., such as the Crusades Wars and Wars of

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