Rating: 
Summary: True Believers May Want to Skip This One
Review: It seems that it is only in recent years that we are beginning to see some literature that challenges the Christian Hierarchy with facts. Presented in this well researched book are some of the glossed over and disregarded facts about how Christianity has violently imposed it's World view on the "non-believer's". One learns how the Church helped create the Dark Ages; created the mistrust of the West by the Middle East which continues even today through the Crusades; violently suppressed woman and distorted sexuality while stealing wealth through the Inquisitions and Witch Hunts; sliced each other up when Protestants fought against Catholics and generally suppressed the creative and natural expression of life and spiritual expression to forward their own power-based intentions. If you would like an honest yet short cut version of the self righteous, arrogant and unbearably inhumane methods used to suppress those outside the circle of believers of the Christian belief context then this is a book worth reading. If you would like to further your education on the real roots of the Christian myth, then read The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Acarya S. which penetrates even more deeply into the facts behind the Christian mythology. If you would like to challange commonly accepted Christian concepts such as Hell, the Devil, sin etc. then read Conversations with God by Neale David Walsch. But, if you are a "true believer" and too frightened to cast yourself adrift to come up with your own answers to life's most pressing questions by letting go of unchallanged dogma, then I would avoid this book and the aforementioned ones too. You are only going to read them and find fault with facts and common sense logic which doesn't mix well with unquestioned "faith". Open minded? Unfulfilled quest for the truth? Read the book. You'll enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Poison
Review: Ms. Ellerbe is neither an accomplished author nor an open mind. Stating that her book is dedicated to "freedom and human dignity", she openly assaults the faith of billions of people with the same biased and aggressive mentality she is supposedly seeking to expose. Her work as an author is tragic, with generous examples of poor bibliographic technique, misquotings, and flagrant generalizations. Ms. Ellerbe should be embarrassed at such a horrible piece of poison in the name of dignity.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Historic Research! A Must Read!!!
Review: The author brilliantly depicts the many tactics and methods used to conquer the people and convert them to Christianity, telling a much needed to be told story of the truth behind the movement of Christianity. She does this with tact, fact, and well documented evidence! Anyone who is a practicing Christian, or wants to understand the background of the Christian religion, needs to read this book, and look at the historical facts. Ms. Ellerbe has done an excellent job of revealing little realized facts of history. I recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in religious history. I keep two copies of this book--one of them will never leave my library--because I never want to be without a copy. The other I bought purposely to loan out to friends. This is NOT a Christian bashing book.. this is an accurate historical account of the earliest activities within this movement in ancient times, and why Christians believe as they do today about many things, based on that ancient past.
Rating:
Summary: Rewriting History With a Pagan Agenda
Review: While much wrong has been committed in the name of religion, Ellerbe has attempted to rewrite history to fit her anti-Christian agenda. This book is not worth reading. Read Schaff, Cairns, or Noll instead.
Rating: 
Summary: A great start, but it has some problems
Review: This is a great book to start with to learn more about the controversial aspects of Christian history. This history includes the questionable formation of the Church from after Jesus's death to modern times, as well as the worst atrocities inflicted in the name of the Church. If you are looking for a good introduction, buy this book.
My criticism would be that in certain areas the author treads too far, and in other areas not far enough. The author is a woman, who obviously appears to be a liberal feminist (although not an extreme feminist). Her interest thus leads her to cover Christianity's supression and Inquisition of witchcraft. She does not cover in depth slavery, or colonialism, two of the most damaging Church sponsored activities in our history. She also spends the last chapter discussing our modern situation, and trying (too hard) to relate the actions of the Church to our current views of science, politics, and society in general. I think the conclusions she makes in the section are stretching it a bit.
Overall, I would recommend this book as a great starting point on the issue. It is also important for anybody belonging to a religion that is currently under attack by Christian fundamentalists!!
Rating:
Summary: Dark Side of Christian History
Review: The author, Helen Ellerbe, has left a large crater on the face of the purported pure Christian Church. In her book, she presents arguments that contradict the teachings of the Christian Church. These arguments are ones that the Christian Church would never want the public to know about. She lets the reader know how the Church has used its power to suppress human spiritualism in the attempt to gain control of the world. First, she explains the church was born out of the teachings of Peter. In this part of her argument, she explains how the teachings of Peter were nothing more then skillful adaptation of existing religious philosophies. In the second portion of her argument, she explains how the Christians changed or slightly modified their position to meet the needs of the Romans. For example, the Christians adopted elements of paganism to gain more of a following and to suppress the masses for control. In the third part of her argument, she explains how the Church grew larger by changing its doctrine and position, over few hundred years, to increase its authority over the people of the Roman Empire. Next, she explains how the Christian Church took control over the Roman Empire after the spilt of the Empire in the fifth century. In this portion of the argument, she shows how the Church began using cruel tactics to suppress the masses. For example, medical treatment had to be approved by the Church in order for it to be used. Bleeding was approved; however, the uses of proper hygiene or mass sanitation practices were not approved for medical purposes. Bleeding killed many. The church explained the deaths as an act of God's will. The Church knew that proper hygiene would prevent the spread of disease.
The next portion of the book and argument explains how the Christian Church decided to spread its power and control to lands outside of the Roman Empire. This was done by brut force. In the process many people perished to the swords of the Crusaders. For example, in 1099, the Crusaders went to Jerusalem and massacred both Muslims and Jews. The whole town was filled was beheaded woman, children, and defenseless men. The last part of her argument was done in the context of the Reformation and its aftermath. The author shows how the Church tried to keep control over people during the split of the Church. For example, the Church would accuse women for being witches on the grounds of an unusual facial mole. The Church explained the mole as being a sign of the devil. In other instances, people were found guilty of witchcraft for not strictly following the doctrines of the Church. In both cases, the victims meet death by cruel infliction of pain.
Helen Ellerbe presents us with a basic argument. The Christian Church has used whatever means to suppress human spirituality in the attempt to control the world. Her argument is clearly a strong inductive argument that is fair in its context. She merely presents evidence to suggest probable grounds for the truth of her conclusion. The only logical fallacy that she commits is the appeal to authority. She gives evidence that is purported by questionable historians. Other than this the argument is good one that should be examined by everyone; however, someone who is highly educated on the subject matter might find the book simplistic.
Rating:
Summary: the Dark Side of Ellerbe's research
Review: Mrs. ELlerbe purports to put forward a well articulated and researched book on all the offenses of Christianity. There are hundreds of books in this genre and Ellerbe's is undoubtedly one of the worst. The majority of her sources are secondary or tertiary, and following her trail of research is very near impossible, she only throws in a sprinkling of primary resources to strengthen her credibility. Mrs. Ellerbe is indeed poorly informed about the crimes and transgressions of Christianity, and it is unclear to me why she picks some of the issues she does since there are larger and more far reaching issues she could have tackled. Asll in all Mr.s Ellerbe's book is a poorly researched piece that can only mislead those without the time to check her references, and if you want a book about the crimes of Christianity there are far better ones out there.
Rating:
Summary: A must for those who think they know about Christianity
Review: This book is a must read. The Church is in an awful space right now. When you build on sand, you're bound to crumble. It took 2000 years, but at least the truth is coming to light!
Rating:
Summary: OH MY!!!
Review: This book tells you so many things that churches don't want you to know about. It doesn't only the atrocities of the Catholic Church (Inquisition, Crusades, etc.) but also the thoughts of the Reformers. It shows how the church was mainly interested in power and control more than spiritual matters.
Rating:
Summary: Very good and quick read
Review: This book is for even the Christian. It is very historical and non-biased. It does not attack the Christians it attacks the church for propagating the evils that history has shown can come from organized religion. Quick read ... because it will only take about 8 hours of reading time to complete. Good book ... becuase it has plenting of notes and references for further research.
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