[Sylvander]

Hello Kay.

I believe it was a Pope who popularised the word "Propaganda" to describe the propagation of the Catholic faith. I may be wrong.
My Etymology says:
PROPAGANDA - committee of cardinals charged with the foreign missions of the church,
18th Cent. systematic scheme for the dissemination of a doctrine or practice,
19th Cent.Italian (Spanish, Portugese)"propaganda", extracted from the modern Latin title "congregatio de propaganda fide" = congregation for the propagation of the faith; feminine gerundive of Latin "propagare" = propagate.

i.e. "Propaganda" is that which propagates ideas and beliefs [originally faiths].

MY DEFINITION of:
"In-form-ation" is that which gives "FORM" to ideas and beliefs with-IN the mind.
But propaganda is that form of information which is intended to PROPAGATE quite specific ideas and beliefs. The purpose is not purely informative. Was it ever?

Modern propagandists use three types of INFORMATION so far as I am aware.
1. Truth. [This is called WHITE PROPAGANDA]
This is not truth for it's own sake. It is using truth to achieve the desired goal. You can hurt someone quite badly using truths if you so desire.
2. Half truths or little white lies or lies by ommission or "being economic with the truth".
[This is called GRAY PROPAGANDA]
3. Great big whoppers of lies.
[This is called BLACK PROPAGANDA]

I read a rather good book called:
"History of Joseph Smith by his mother Lucy Mack Smith".
She's the mother of the man who formed the "Mormon" faith.
It tells rather well the story of when they were trying to propagate their faith and the attacks from members of the established faiths.

"Free thinkers" were the most hated and attacked but there is a LONG history in the UK of the burning and drowning of "witches" and Catholics burning Protestants and Protestants burning Catholics.
Why is that?
Didn't Jesus say that you should love your neighbour as yourself?
And that if a man should take your jacket you should give him your shirt also?
And if he should smite you on the cheek you should offer the other cheek?
Did he not die on the cross to demonstrate the point?
Is it better to kill to avoid dying or to die to avoid killing?
He showed where he stood on that one!
Which would you do?
So how can someone who professes to be Christian kill anyone or anything?
"Thou shalt not KILL" is now; "you shall not MURDER".
That's what it says in the Jehovas Witnesses version of the Bible.
So now you can kill provided "man born of woman" has sanctioned it.
Oh, musn't forget. This isn't any old person. It's someone deemed to be special so he, she, they are in a position to sanction killing.
It seems that if your gang is big enough and powerful enough, it can start making it's own laws and sanction anything it likes.
And why do soldiers receive a blessing before they are sent out to kill?
Maybe I'm missing something here but it looks like they are betraying their own faith.
Perhaps you'll explain to me why it isn't.