Religion:
JoT re Rick re "The Pope and Capital Punishment"

I'll take your word on the factual elements of your response, such as the Spanish Inquisition's victims. People in the US have an exaggerated view of the Spanish Inquisition partly because such a view has been good for Hollywood and for anti-Papists. I'm sorry to have inadvertently been part of that exaggeration, and I thank you for setting me straight. Readers who would like to hear a counter argument about how bad the Inquisition was will need to look elsewhere.

I understand through personal email that you do not condone killing people for their beliefs. That said, something you wrote still bothers me:

"[T]he vast majority of those sentenced to death could avoid execution by simply renouncing their crimes and swearing to return to the faith."

When a Christian defends the Spanish Inquisition on the grounds that its Jewish and Muslim victims could avoid execution by denying their faiths, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. At one time, it was Christians bravely cleaving to their faith that faced brutal execution in Rome's arenas. In the Spanish Inquisition, however, it was Christians killing people for refusing to renounce their faiths. Is that funny or is that tragic?

As to the popes' authority, you are right and I was wrong. The pope's late judgment against capital punishment doesn't prove that popes are fallible in dogmatic statements. It, along with the Church's late acceptance of evolution, merely suggests that popes are no longer worthwhile as experts on moral or spiritual matters. They now lag behind social progress where once they led the way.

—JoT
August 2003

top

Gay Pride Parade, Seattle, 2003

click for more