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Emily Norris
Ms. Jessica Morton
UWRT 1102
8 November 2016
Annotated Bibliography
Krueger, David. "Christianity and Violence." Religion Compass, vol. 7, no. 7, 2013, pp.
243-251, http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=f030b9c7-c6af4f4d-9941-7b37f22aeaea%40sessionmgr106&vid=1&hid=128. Accessed 08 Nov. 2016.
In this article, author David Krueger discusses the history of violence and Christianity
and how it goes against that of what the bible actually says. Krueger references Matthew 5:39
that says But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. Krueger goes into
more detail about the life of Jesus Christ as he mentions that Jesus was never violent towards
others even when he was condemned to death and brutally attacked. Krueger goes back in history
to talk about the publication of The City of God by St. Augustine and his opinions that say God
was actually talking about inward feelings of violence rather than physical violence when he said
to turn the other cheek. St. Augustine goes on to say that violence is okay if it is just (referring
to Christians being able to join the Roman military). Krueger talks about The Crusades and
present events of today where Christians act out in violence. He talks about Reverend Paul Hill,
who in 1994 murdered an abortion provider saying that this was just because he was saving
hundreds of babies lives. Krueger ties up his article talking about all of the nonviolent Christian
movements and groups i.e. The Religious Society of Friends and that pacifism does not have to
mean passive-ism.
This source seems extremely credible as Krueger provides an extensive
bibliography of sources and clearly demonstrates his knowledge of both historical and current
events of the history of Christian violence. Krueger shows absolutely no bias in his text to prove
that his purpose is to inform and not to persuade. This source can be compared to another article
by Nancy Nason-Clark as they are both

Mercer, Jean. Religion and Child Development: Absense of Evidence in a Report by

Bartkowski et al. American Humanist Association, 28 April. 2007,
http://americanhumanist.org/Parenting/mercer. Accessed 08 Nov. 2016.
I stumbled across this article while doing some research and it really stuck out to me. I
have never before read something thats sole purpose was to falsify the data of another source. In
this article, Mercer goes into detail about a longitudinal study about early childhood done in
2007 by three researchers Bartowski, Xu, and Levin. This study observed children in the homes
of both religious and non-religious parents and came to the ultimate conclusion that religion is
good for kids. Mercer spends the rest of the article going into more detail about the study and
pointing out all of the flaws. After digging through this text, I can agree with Jean Mercer about a
lot of the issues with the study. This source comes from a site ran by the American Humanist
Association, which I discovered is basically a group of people who do not believe religion is
necessary. The tag lines Good without a God and Advocating progressive values and equality
for humanists, atheists, and free thinkers sit at the top of every web page. This really sparked
my interest about who our author is. I found that Jean Mercer has a PhD as a developmental
psychologist and that her most recent published work is one that she was a co-author of titled
Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion. This gives me a
lot of insight as I realize that Jean Mercer is most likely not religious at all. This somewhat
reminds me of Michael Ungar and his article because as I was reading I couldnt help but think
Mercer was a little biased. I am not entirely sure how biased I can call this article, however, as it
is clear that real research has been done on this study that she is critiquing. She also has a list of
references and is obviously educated on developmental health.

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Nason-Clark, Nancy. "When Terror Strikes at Home: the Interface between Religion and
Domestic Violence." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 43, no. 3, 2004,
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.14685906.2004.00236.x/abstract;jsessionid=5CD3008353CA0CF8F6D747953C363CCC.f03t
04. Accessed 08 Nov. 2016.

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In this article by Nancy Nason-Clark, two important questions concerning
violence and religion are raised. First, Nancy explains how people who grow up in religious
households can better cope with hardships ie. being victims of violence. Next, she discusses
many studies both in America and in other countries that show there is no specific evidence of
Christian husbands being more violent than non-Christian husbands. While her article focuses
mostly on domestic abuse, this source proves to be very helpful in reference to violence stemmed
from religion and coping mechanisms. Nancy Nason-Clark does an excellent job tying up her
article with Suggestions for Expanding the Research Agenda, where readers can choose to go
about further research and aim high for the future of changing domestic abuse in the court system
and elsewhere. I will use this source to show how people who grow up in religious homes are
better able to deal with tough life situations. Nancy says that people who have faith are able to
better become empowered to face problems and flee from abuse while those who are not so
spiritual typically do not have that type of support that they need to cope with hardships. This
source compares with Christianity and Violence by David Krueger as it is filled with history
and real historical events that are involving both Christianity and violence towards others. Like
David Kruegers article, I find this article to also be very credible. Nason-Clarks extensive list of
sources prove to all be scholarly and backed up in other places. She continually demonstrates a
non-biased viewpoint throughout the text. For example, one the second page of her article
Nason-Clark does a wonderful job of explaining the viewpoints of Marie Fortune (and others)
without putting in her own opinions.

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Sherwood, Harriet. "Religious Children Are Meaner than Their Secular Counterparts,
Study Finds." The Guardian, 06 Nov. 2015,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/religious-children-less-altruisticsecular-kids-study, Accessed 10 Oct. 2016.

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This article found from The Guardian claims that religious children are typically meaner
than children who are not raised in faith. It includes a study that took place in several universities
around that world that researched Christian, Muslim, and non-religious children to see if there is
a relationship between religion and morality. Almost 1,200 children, aged between 5 and 12, in
the US, Canada, China, Jordan, Turkey and South Africa participated in the study and the
conclusion was shocking. Despite the popular assumption that children with faith are more
altruistic towards others, this study found that having a basis of religion actually gives children a
sense that they can be more judging of those who are different or who behave badly. This article
will be helpful as a whole to my research because it touches on the fact that religion may make
people feel superior to others based on their good behavior and that children could grow up to be
close-minded or un-accepting of others. This article is similar to my first source by Dave
Krueger. In that article, he talks about Paul Hill, the reverend who killed an abortion provider. I
believe this could have a connection to the fact that children who believe in God and know from
right and wrong might feel that they can take it upon themselves to act mean towards others
because they are superior. It seems to me that many people who claim to be religious actually
twist religious views into making them able to come down hard on others. This article is
unbiased as most of it is simply laying out the study and all of its information. Author Harriet
Sherwood does a great job of explaining the study and the conclusions that came from it. It is
unclear, however, how qualified this author is. Her title at The Guardian is Religion
Correspondent. Upon researching her name I did not find much about her background or
education. This could mean that The Guardian simply protects the privacy of its employees;
however it could also mean that she may not be the most educated source for subjects as such.

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Ungar, Michael. "Does Religion Make Children Resilient?" Psychology Today, 26 June
2014, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/nurturing-resilience/201406/does-religionmake-children-resilient. Accessed 08 Nov. 2016.
In this article, author Michael Ungar writes about children he observed in Nepal
and mentions the abuse of the Aboriginal children in Canada, The United States, and Australia.
He says that in general, religion makes children very resilient to over coming problems
depending on their situation. He lists many examples that include religious relationships,
celebrating religious holidays, advocating for children, etc. He adds that religion can easily have
an adverse effect on children when the religion is tied with abuse like with the Aboriginal
children who were forced to practice Christian principles and leave their culture. This source
connects with Nason-Clarks When Terror Strikes at Home as both authors make the claim
that children who grow up in a religious background have an easier time overcoming problems,
or being resilient, as Ungar would say.
I have a few issues with this source. Ungar opens the article explaining some time he
spent in Nepal and goes on to tell what he observed there. This makes it clear that most of the
article is based on opinions he formed while on this trip. There is no works cited page or any
mention of a source that he may have used to aid him in writing this article. This definitely
lowers his credibility and leads me to believe that this article could have traces of bias
throughout. I have no way of telling if the author actually went on these trips and witnessed these
behaviors in the children. There is no way to back up this information other than to just trust him.
In the tenth paragraph, Ungar even quotes I am admittedly biased towards religious experiences
that model for children tolerance and love for others. Ungar goes on to reveal that he himself is
religious, which just adds to the fact that he may indeed be spilling out his opinion with little to
no research involved.