LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dabroots)

Just a wee bit off topic -- A big (literally) book from a few years ago worth your consideration is James Carroll's Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews--A History. It's pertinent to consideration of the darkness in Chrisitanity because it explores the origins and development of anti-Semitism through the agency of the Roman Catholic establishment. In turn, the reader can catch a whiff of how the perceived need to reject, condemn and punish deviant thinkers has become an integral part of Christianity, in general, over the centuries.