The Inquisition
08:30 Jan 18 2006
Times Read: 560
The Inquisition was an institution of the church for a good stretch of time [and is still going on today to some effect]. It was developed to stem "heresy", i.e., any people who thought differently that the church. The Inquisition was zealously carried out by Generals, priests, and monks. And oh yes, they had the support of the secular authorities. What you don't know is that the Dark Ages were dark because the papacy was at the height of its monstrous glory. Ruling over kings and queens and encouraging recusancy towards any ruler that did not bow to the church.
The Church have tortured and killed for centuries. These are disgusting crimes
that are sickening to even list, but thousands, maybe millions, endured these for the gospel's sake. If YOU were before the Inquisition and they wanted you to say Jesus
is a piece of bread, would you do it? Many people held out for what they believed in. They resisted to the savageness of the church. Here are a just
a few of the tortures they went through--
Skin flayed off of head, face and body
Nipples pulled off
Fried alive in pans
Bound to pillar head down and roasted
Mouth slit back to ears
Crucified upside down
Put in cauldrons of boiling oil
Thrown out of windows upon upward facing spears
Bodies gored through mouths with pikes
Arms cut off
Torturous slow burning e.g., burn soles of feet, then up to ankles, mid-calf, etc. until dead
Bellies burnt until bowels fell out
Women stripped, hung from tree by their hair and scourged
Tourniquet placed on head and twisted until eyes came out
Ears bored out
Tongue cut out
Set down (by pulley) into a fire by degrees
Thrown to dogs
Hung up by the heels and choked with smoke
Smothered in caves on mountains
Hearts pulled out, which the papists gnawed with their teeth.
Some roasted upon spits over a soft fire
Some had their bowels pulled out
A smith had his brains beaten out on his anvil with a hammer
Some had sharp instruments forced under their nails and other body parts
Some racked until their bowels broke out
Some had their throats cut with butcher knives
Knocked on the head with axes
Naked women left hung up by one leg on trees until they died
Some slain and their body parts set on stakes for 30 miles stretches
Some had their noses and breasts pulled off with red hot pinchers
Some had their flesh torn with the claws of wild animals
Murdered in a church during sermon
Some hanged by one foot, their hands and breasts in the water
Some hung up by one hand with weights of lead at their heels
Two tied together and slain
Some were torn in pieces by horses
A legion of soldiers cut some to pieces with swords
Some had boots of boiling oil put on their legs over a small fire.
Some hung up on trees by the middle til they died of hunger
Women's bellies ripped up and their children trod underfeet
Just to name a few....Remember, love thy neighbor......
America: NOT a Christian Nation!!!!!
08:29 Jan 18 2006
Times Read: 561
No one disputes the faith of our Founding Fathers. To speak of unalienable Rights being endowed by a Creator certainly shows a sensitivity to our spiritual selves. What is surprising is when fundamentalist Christians think the Founding Fathers' faith had anything to do with the Bible. Without exception, the faith of our Founding Fathers was deist, not theist. It was best expressed earlier in the Declaration of Independence, when they spoke of "the Laws of Nature" and of "Nature's God."
In a sermon of October 1831, Episcopalian minister Bird Wilson said, "Among all of our Presidents, from Washington downward, not one was a professor of religion, at least not of more than Unitarianism."
The Bible? Here is what our Founding Fathers wrote about Bible-based Christianity:
Thomas Jefferson: "I have examined all the known superstitions of the word, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth."
-- Six Historic Americans by John E. Remsburg, letter to William Short
Jefferson again: "Christianity...(has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. ...Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus."
More Jefferson: "The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.
Jefferson's word for the Bible? "Dunghill."
John Adams: "Where do we find a precept in the Bible for Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines and Oaths, and whole carloads of other trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days?"
Also Adams: "The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity." Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 states: "The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
Here's Thomas Paine: "I would not dare to so dishonor my Creator God by attaching His name to that book (the Bible)." "Among the most detestable villains in history, you could not find one worse than Moses. Here is an order, attributed to 'God' to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers and to debauch and rape the daughters. I would not dare so dishonor my Creator's name by (attaching) it to this filthy book (the Bible)." "It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible." "Accustom a people to believe that priests and clergy can forgive sins...and you will have sins in abundance." And; "The Christian church has set up a religion of pomp and revenue in pretended imitation of a person (Jesus) who lived a life of poverty."
Finally let's hear from James Madison: "What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy." Madison objected to state-supported chaplains in Congress and to the exemption of churches from taxation. He wrote: "Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
These founding fathers were a reflection of the American population. Having escaped from the state-established religions of Europe, only 7f the people in the 13 colonies belonged to a church when the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Among those who confuse Christianity with the founding of America, the rise of conservative Baptists is one of the more interesting developments. The Baptists believed God's authority came from the people, not the priesthood, and they had been persecuted for this belief. It was they -- the Baptists -- who were instrumental in securing the separation of church and state. They knew you can not have a "one-way wall" that lets religion into government but that does not let it out. They knew no religion is capable of handling political power without becoming corrupted by it. And, perhaps, they knew it was Christ himself who first proposed the separation of church and state: "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto the Lord that which is the Lord's."
In the last five years the Baptists have been taken over by a fundamentalist faction that insists authority comes from the Bible and that the individual must accept the interpretation of the Bible from a higher authority. These usurpers of the Baptist faith are those who insist they should meddle in the affairs of the government and it is they who insist the government should meddle in the beliefs of individuals.
The price of Liberty is constant vigilance, folks. Religious fundamentalism and zealous patriotism have always been the forces which require the greatest attention.
The writings of Thomas Jefferson exist in 25 volumes. The references for this article were found in the book, Six Historic Americans by John E. Remsburg (who interviewed many of Lincoln's associates). Much of his work on Jefferson came from The Memoirs, Correspondence and Miscellanies from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 4 volumes ed. by Thomas Jefferson Randolph (the grandson of Thomas Jefferson).
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.
-- letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1780
If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Roman Church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. These found it wrong in the bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here and in New England.
-- An Essay on Toleration
OSCAR WILDE
Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
-- Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist, (1891)
Self-denial is the shining sore on the leprous body of Christianity.
-- Oscar Wilde. from Frank Harris, Oscar Wilde, (1918)
Medievalism, with its saints and martyrs, its love of self-torture, its wild passion for wounding itself, its gashing with knives, and its whipping with rods -- Medievalism is real Christianity, and the medieval Christ is the real Christ.
-- Oscar Wilde, "The Soul of Man under Socialism," in the Fortnightly Review, (1891), from James A. Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief
Thomas A. Wiseman, Jr.
U.S. District Judge
Use of the mechanism of government to enforce momentary majoritarian morality upon which there is no real consensus, creates greater divisiveness in society, disrespect for law and disrespect for the moral authority of the particular religion.
-- Thomas A. Wiseman, Jr., Address, Pulaski, Tennessee, December 29, 1985, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
The early Christian rules of life were not made to last, because the early Christians did not believe that the world itself was going to last.
-- George Bernard Shaw. Hotchkiss, in Getting Married.
RABBI DANILE POLISH
The public schools of this country serve the admirable function of bringing together on common ground students from a diversity of cultural and religious backgrounds. The introduction of public prayer into such a setting jeopardizes the sense of community and unnecessarily intrudes an emotional and divisive factor.
-- Testimony on behalf of the Synagogue Council of America September 8, 1980, U.S. House of Representatives. Quoted from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
JAMES KNOX POLK (1795-1849)
The 11th president of the United States (1845-1849)
Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between Church and State, and that in my action as President of the United States I recognized no distinction of creeds in my appointments to office.
-- from George Seldes, The Great Quotations (1067) P. 169, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
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