But it's worth recognizing the most brutal elements of church violence were directed at "others": Jews, pagans, Muslims, even other sects of Christianity. The Church's persecution of "heretics" neatly folded into the state, as the diest god of "Providence," represented by the "all seeing eye" atop a pyramid, ultimately justified a violent "civilization" of indigenous people.
The "Christianization" of the crusades became "civilization,' which, more recently, became "spreading democracy." Where once Atheists resisted the crushing oppression of the Church, they used the same arguments to justify the invasion of majority Muslim nations and the oppression of Muslims at home...