the bible - no wonder 'we' swear on the bible, page-88

There is a huge difference between Jesus and the Church.
Jesus is the head of the "church" and the Church is refered to as the "Body of Christ".
The body consists of peaople like you and me, ie not perfect.
The only difference between believers of the faith and non believers is that believers understand the need for Christ in their lives to help them from the sin that corrupts the human being.
Wars and violence in the name of religion is just that, man fighting over some leagalistic belief that man himself has conjured up through listening to his selfish self rather than following Jesus and the way Jesus walked here on earth.
Jesus never once sought out violence, never once judged anyone, never once sinned though he understood and was tempted.
This is because Jesus had a direct link to His heavenly Father through prayer and relationship with His Father God.
You may be asking now why would i need Jesus or God.
n short,Scripture tells us thatthrough the fall of Adam and Eve, sin entered the world and Scripture also shows us that sin cannot dwell in the presence of God, it is simply burnt.
Since we are born under sin there is no escape, we all can know that sin in our lives as we all may say "oh im a good man" etc, but deep down we all know what we are capable off given certain circumstances coming together in our lives.
So since sin cannot dwell in the presence of God, Jesus sent His only son into the world as a final sacrifice, Jesus was holy and perfect, and he carried our sin away on the cross through his sacrifice.Now we are not entering into Gods presence in our own will but on the back of Jesus who we ask to become our Lord and Saviour.He will carry us to be in the presense of God whenever it is our destined time to leave this earth, something none of us can escape.
So forget about religion, Jesus despised religion, calling the "religious" pharisees a Pack of vipers because he knew their heart and what they were doing was all for show and not with a heart for good.All this talk about religion, wars, man etc is just that, Jesus had nothing to do with any of this, He came to show us the way, died for us because He loved us and gave us a free gift of eternal life.
Many i know will not believe this, thats fine but importantly dont knock it until you have understood the Gospels(Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and understod what it means to be in Christ and what Jesus did for us.
Remember Jesus could have walked away from the cross, He had the chance when all he had to say to Pilat was he was not the Son of God and then Barabas the murderer would have been sentenced, But Jesus chose the Cross for You, me and evryone on this planet, gave us a free gift and its the best gift possible.
I hope this helps just someone.
Cheers
Rob