It was almost 900 years ago that a pope lived by the name of Innocent. Like many popes before him, he used his office to lead Christians into holy war against non-Christian groups. I am sure you have heard the slogan, "If you can't beat them join them." The Christians of this era lived by a different slogan, "If they won't join you, beat them." Crusades of this type raged throughout Europe and extended to the Holy Land. Thousands were killed in the name of Christianity.

The kind of horrible influence these crusades had on society and on the name of Christianity is evident in the most curious and the most tragic of the crusades. It happened during Pope Innocent III's reign. It was called the Children's Crusade. In the spring of 1212, children, ages 12-18, gathered behind a boy from Cologne named Nicholas. Like the lost boys in Peter Pan, these children banded together without adult supervision. They had been influenced by generations of fighting ancestors. These children set out on a journey to the Holy Land with the idea that they could reclaim the church of the Holy Sepulcher, the place where Jesus is believed to have been born, a place that had fallen into the hands of the Muslims. Unbelievably, they left without any intervention from the adult population. Only the King of France tried to stop their efforts. Tragedy followed. They never made it to their destination. It is reported that they were provided with transportation on merchant ships. Two of the ships sank. It is believed that the other children were carried off to slave markets in North Africa and Egypt. Others died of deprivation or violence. Some were fortunate enough to make it back home.1

This true story is a terrible example of children modeling behavior of their parents. They were doing what they thought was right. They were modeling what they thought was Christian behavior. The religious establishment condoned their efforts. They were lost boys indeed. What a tragedy!

Now move back in time 2000 years before this Crusade and visit another unfortunate time when religious men were modeling ungodly traits, setting unholy examples for adults and children alike. The religious men were priests for the nation Israel. This was a time when worship involved a yearly pilgrimage to the Tabernacle. According to their religious law, a family was required to carry an animal to sacrifice on the altar at the tabernacle each year as a means of atonement for their sins. It was a very holy event, a family event, a time for one generation to teach the next about the high price of sin and how one might be atoned of his or her sin through the offering of a sacrifice. People would come with heavy hearts but leave feeling light and happy because they had done what was pleasing in God's sight. The burden of their sins had been lifted.

The priests were the religious leaders established by God to be the mediators between God and the people. They were there to assist the people with the sacrifices and pronounce the forgiveness of their sins. A system had been developed so that the priest could keep part of a sacrifice for himself and his family and for those who assisted in their work. This was how the priest earned his living.