Posted on 06/15/2004 2:12:56 PM PDT by Fifthmark
You can play off your misrepresentation of history all you like - I'll stick to what the historians say.
The same claptrap is used nowadays to defend the Islamist terrorists...it's the CULTURE, and we shouldn't judge, eh? The things done in the Inquisition are WRONG, no matter WHAT age they occur in. You would apparently prefer that no one say, "Never Again". No different from Holocaust deniers.
Your logic is ineffably flawed - because I consider the era in which the Inquisition took place, I am akin to a Holocaust denier? Laughable.
Funny, I always thought that Protestants belived in Jesus and the Bible. They just comitted the "sin" of not shopping for them at YOUR store.
Protestantism is religious rationalism whereby "belief" is derived from interpretation of Scripture and through keeping the customs of each particular sect. It does not stand up to intellectual or historical analysis.
And none must ever dare question it, right? Free Will must really cost you some sleep.
You can question it all you want, if you're so inclined. And no, free will doesn't keep me up at night, but thinking of the poor souls who abuse it and don't give God the respect and worship He deserves might.
It is not the Administration or even the President that you disagree with, let's not be coy. It is the entire Constitution. That document is one I swore to uphold against all enemies foreign and domestic...which now, apparently, includes YOU.
That's a rather rash judgment based on incomplete evidence, don't you think? I might disagree with the INTERPRETATION of a few points - such as the fabricated "right to privacy" extending to abortion, the "non-establishment" clause read as "separation of Church and State," and "freedom of speech" extending to the most vile forms of violence and pornography in music and movies, to name a few - and I would of course prefer the union, or at least the cooperation, of the Church and State as seen in Christendom, but I do not disagree with the entire Constution as you state.
Your words bother me because they go against the very essence of what this country was founded upon.
My preference is a Catholic country to a pluralist one. But I try to make the best of current situation.
BTW, you know exactly NOTHING of how I view the world. You just think you do...egotistical fanatics are like that.
The list of adjectives grows longer. I think we should both be wary of making assumptions.
Considering that your idea of "decent" apparently includes disdain for the Constitution, Liberty and Freedom, support for censorship of thought and word, and a relishing of cruelty and despotism, I'll take that as a high compliment. And as for your "house of cards", mine built the greatest, freest country in the history of the world. Yours repressed it for millennia.
I'd be interested in your working definitions of "Liberty" and "Freedom," which are probably similar to a working definition of hedonism.
And in that time, Christendom has comitted sins which it is now owning up to, consistent with its ORIGINAL teachings. You would have it revert back to its darkest days. In 225 years, America has accomplished things that those Inquisitors you ape could only have dreampt of, if they but had even that freedom.
The Inquisitors didn't hope for a pluralist country in which God would be but an afterthought for most of its citizens, so your revisionism falls flat.
Of course you would. Egotists are like that. Unfortunately, they only truly show you for what you are...a totalitarian.
That's it. After work, I will immediately place an American flag "Power of Pride" sticker on my car to redeem myself.
Irrelevant. The Church is free to kick out anyone who disagrees with its teachings. However, using violence on non-believers makes a church no better than the Islamists who blow up buildings and murder innocents.
The punishment was exacted by the State because it saw its end as consonant with that of the Church.
The state has no business furthering religious ends. Are you a fan of Sharia law?
Obviously, the vision of the world which underlies the logic of the Inquisition
There is no logic to the Inquisition. Only ignorant primitivism and medieval brutality. Anything else is rationalization.
I want the re-establishment of Christendom; you want a licentious society restrained by political solutions
Utter BS. You want a society where people are forced by the government to worship a particular way. You are free to practice whatever form of Christianity you desire. However, try and impose your religion on the rest of us and you'll find that Americans' 1st Amendment rights are well-protected by their 2nd Amendment rights.
http://www.tanbooks.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage/product_id/149/
Instead of posting knee-jerk reactions to the idea of a Church-State relationship, perhaps you could read and understand the history of Christendom.
Utter BS. You want a society where people are forced by the government to worship a particular way. You are free to practice whatever form of Christianity you desire. However, try and impose your religion on the rest of us and you'll find that Americans' 1st Amendment rights are well-protected by their 2nd Amendment rights.
Sounds like a vague threat of physical violence. Are you really that upset? You should step back and realize that, even if you are unaware, you have freely accepted a new religion under the form of "liberal humanism," imposed on you by the culture at large, which blinds you to the idea of a true God and the true worship due to Him.
Perhaps Pope Leo XIII's encyclical "Immortale Dei" will give you insight into how the Church has traditionally regarded its relationship with the State:
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/l13sta.htm
I am upset and it is a threat of physical violence against anyone, Christian, Muslim, Atheist or whatever, who would attempt to take away the rights of Americans to worship, or not worship, as they see fit.
You should step back and realize that, even if you are unaware, you have freely accepted a new religion under the form of "liberal humanism," imposed on you by the culture at large, which blinds you to the idea of a true God and the true worship due to Him.
The difference between us is that, even if I had the power to do so, I would not attempt to impose my religious views upon you. To be honest, I couldn't care less what you believed in, so long as you or others like you do not attempt to use force to impose your beliefs upon me.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but given the power to do so, I believe you would impose Catholic theocratic rule on this country.
Easily arranged -- I'll pay your travel costs to the Vatican if you promise to stay there.
No, I would promote Catholicism as the true religion while allowing those who wished to worship otherwise to do so. I am not suggesting a "New Inquisition" by which non-Catholics would be hunted down and converted - that is absurd. I believe the Inquisition in Church history is defendable if properly understood in a Catholic context, but I don't propose a reprisal of it because America is not a Christian nation and it is a means of defense, not restoration, as the article pointed out. The restoration will come eventually, but things must get worse before they get better. The "slouching towards Gomorrah" that America has been experiencing for the last half century is paying off in spades and we have only the rise of liberalism and naturalism to blame. The proposal of political solutions to moral problems is laughable - it is only through a return to God that we can oppose the errors of today.
Deal.
They would not let such a person stay at the Vatican.
The Church and its 'infallible' leadership, eschews the murder of jews and protestants, carried out by the Inquisitors of Europe.
Iran might take such an one.
How long did it take you to wrap your theologian's mind around the "infallibility" of a poor Pope's apology?
I'll start by giving him a Catechism of the Council of Trent.
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