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Democide

My apologies for accidentally erasing my article on “Democide”. A number of you have asked for that article but as it is a very interesting topic, I will put down some thoughts on the subject and point you in the direction where you can obtain more information.

“Democide” is actually a term coined by R.J Rummels, a political scientist, for “the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide and mass murder”. Rudolph J. Rummel has an BA and an MA from University of Hawaii and a PhD from Northwestern University. He has taught at University of Indiana, Yale, University of Hawaii and now serves as Professor Emeritis of Political Science at the University of Hawaii. Through his undergraduate term papers, MA Thesis, Ph.D. dissertation, and academic career, R.J. Rummel has focused his research on the causes and conditions of collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination. After 15 years of research, Rummel finished his final work in 1998, “Power Kills”, which had begun with his case studies of “Death By Government”. It is from this statistical research that I wish to address these thoughts.

There are many things that people hear or believe that are mythopic in nature. Statements that if said enough, individuals tend to believe, even though they are not true, because they have no available information to prove the contrary. Individuals who are hostile to religion, atheists, anti-religious or individuals with a religious bias often use the argument that religion in general (Christianity more specifically) is a bane to mankind as evidenced that more have died in the name of religion than any other mitigating factor. Is that a true statement? The point is the loss of even one life is a tragedy but with numbers like this we need to get an accurate perspective. Let’s look at some of the facts.

Christian Crusades
1095–1272 1,000,000
Albigensian Crusade
1208–1249 200,000
Thirty Years' War
1618–1648 5,750,000
Witch Hunt
15th–17th Century 100,000
Spanish Inquisition
16th–18th Century 350,000
Which comes to 7, 400,000 deaths.
This obviously is not an exhaustive list. So, for the purpose of this article, let’s add another 3,000,000 to account for the expansion of Islam starting in the 6th century. That would bring the total up to 10,400,000 that have died in “religious” conflicts, in this case, primarily Christianity.

Now let’s compare that to non-religious “democide”, just in the past 100 years.

Sudan 10/56–3/72 400,000–600,000
South Vietnam 1/65–4/75 400,000–500,000
China 3/50–12/70 38,000,000 (under Mao Tsedong)
Iraq 6/63–3/75 30,000–60,000
Algeria 7/62–12/62 9,000–30,000
Rwanda 12/63–6/64 12,000–20,000
Congo-K 2/64–1/65 1,000–10,000
Burundi 10/65–12/73 140,000
Indonesia 11/65–7/66 500,000–1,000,000
China 5/66–3/75 400,000–850,000
Guatemala 7/78–12/96 60,000–200,000
East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh) 3/71–12/71 1,000,000–3,000,000
Uganda 2/72–4/79 50,000–400,000
Philippines 9/72–6/76 60,000
Pakistan 2/73–7/77 5,000–10,000
Chile 9/73–12/76 5,000–10,000
Angola 11/75–2001 500,000
Cambodia 4/75–1/79 1,900,000–3,500,000
Indonesia 12/75–7/92 100,000–200,000
Argentina 3/76–12/80 9,000–20,000
Ethiopia 7/76–12/79 10,000
Congo-K 3/77–12/79 3,000–4,000
Afghanistan 4/78–4/92 1,800,000
Burma 1/78–12/78 5,000
El Salvador 1/80–12/89 40,000–60,000
Uganda 12/80–1/86 200,000–500,000
Syria 4/81–2/82 5,000–30,000
Iran 6/81–12/92 10,000–20,000
Sudan 9/83–2003 2,000,000
Iraq 3/88–6/91 180,000
Somalia 5/88–1/91 15,000–50,000
Burundi 1988 5,000–20,000
Sri Lanka 9/89–1/90 13,000–30,000
Bosnia
5/92–11/95 225,000
Burundi 10/93–5/94 50,000
Rwanda
4/94–7/94 500,000–1,000,000
Serbia 12/98–7/99 10,000

Cambodia 1975–1979 2,035,000
China (KMT) 1928–1949 10,075,000
China (PRC) 1949–1987 77,277,000
China (Mao Soviets) 1923–1949 3,465,000
Colonialism
1900–Independence 50,000,000
Congo Free State
1885–1908 est C20th 3,480,000
total of 10,000,000
Germany 1933–1945 20,946,000
Japan 1936–1945 5,964,000
Pakistan 1958–1987 1,503,000
Poland 1945–1948 1,585,000
Mexico 1900–1920 1,417,000
North Korea 1948–1987 1,563,000
Russia 1900–1917 1,066,000
Turkey 1909–1918 1,883,000
Vietnam 1945–1987 1,670,000
Yugoslavia (Tito) 1944–1987 1,072,000
U.S.S.R. 1917–1987 61,911,000

Incredible isn’t it. Over 232 million in the last 100 years. Not only are these non-religious democide, many of them are specifically atheistic. Communist and Marxist ideologies that as part of their indoctrination teach atheism, have been the largest mass murders in history. Below are some of the bloodiest dictators of the millennium.

Vladimir Lenin
1917–1924 4,000,000
Pol Pot
1968–1987 2,000,000
Joseph Stalin
1929–1953 43,000,000
Mao Zedong
1923–1976 77,000,000

Just these four communist dictators alone are responsible for the deaths of over 126 million people. As you look over the countries, see how many of them occurred during a communist coup.

Here is the point. Those atrocities done in the name of Christianity were done by evil men in direct contradiction to every teaching of the Christian faith. A proof of the Christian life is not the words that he speaks…it is the live that he lives. You can tell a tree by the fruit that it bears. We all have occasional bad apple..which is why God prunes us. To make us healthy. But a tree that has all bad fruit….has bad roots. Anyone can hold a wooden cross, carry a Bible or speak eloquent words. But what are the words that their lives proclaim.

But those atrocities and mass murderers done by godless men, by those with philosophies of atheism and Marxism, did those acts without being contradictory to their core beliefs. Now does that mean that anyone that is an Atheist or a Communist is a mass murder, of course not. So, please don’t write me offended. You may have strong morals, a wonderful family and credit to the community. But how much easier is it to do wrong when you have no accountability, no standard and no eternal consequence. Communism teaches anything is acceptable as long as it benefits the state. Power corrupts….absolute power, corrupts absolutely.

The fact is those who proclaim that the greatest carnage to the human race has been done by those who waved the banners of Christianity do so out of ignorance of the facts of history...or do so to push a personal philosophy or agenda.

More information and study can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide There is a listing of major works on the topic.