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Saddle-Up your High Horse! Time to Shoot Down Myths about Crusades, Inquisition & War on Women
Aleteia ^
| February 8, 2015
| SUSAN E. WILLS
Posted on 02/09/2015 7:40:58 AM PST by NYer
Conservative media were in an uproar last week over the Presidents remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. He said that we see faith being twisted and distorted
sometimes used as a weapon and lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ."
Nearly everyone took the statement to mean Catholic pot, dont call the Muslim kettle black. And they were quick to point out that the terrible deeds in the name of Christ were committed 600 to 1000 years ago when everyone was kind of medieval anyway. End of story. Only its not.
The Crusades
Were the Crusaders plunderers and butchers, distorting Christianity, as the popular view claims? No. Scholar Thomas F. Madden historian of the Crusades and director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of St. Louis has waged his own one-man crusade since 9/11 to debunk the popular myths about Catholic Church-sponsored atrocities of the 12th to 16th centuries.
With enormous energy, the warriors of Islam struck out against the Christians shortly after Mohammeds death. They were extremely successful. Palestine, Syria, and Egypt once the most heavily Christian areas in the world quickly succumbed. By the eighth century, Muslim armies had conquered all of Christian North Africa and Spain. In the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks conquered Asia Minor (modern Turkey), which had been Christian since the time of St. Paul. The old Roman Empire, known to modern historians as the Byzantine Empire, was reduced to little more than Greece. In desperation, the emperor in Constantinople sent word to the Christians of western Europe asking them to aid their brothers and sisters in the East.
That is what gave birth to the Crusades. They were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense.
Madden describes the two goals set by Pope Urban II for the Crusades: to rescue fellow Christians in the Middle East who were living in slavery and servitude under Muslim rule and to liberate Jerusalem and other places made holy by the life of Christ. Far from being a distortion of Catholicism, the Crusades went to the very heart of the faith, he explains. Quoting a letter from Pope Innocent III to the Knights Templar: You carry out in deeds the words of the Gospel, Greater love than this hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends.
The Inquisition
Pretty much everything we know about the Inquisition is also bunk. In 1998, Pope St. John Paul II, Madden explains, opened up the archives of the Holy Office
to a team of 30 scholars from around the world. Their 800-page report was released in 2004. It confirmed the discoveries of many historians from their earlier research in other European archives: the popular view of the Inquisition is a myth.
In the Middle Ages, heresy was a crime against the state, punishable by death. It wasn't the Church who put heretics to death; Pope Lucius III established the Inquisition precisely so that state claims of heresy would not be tried by civil judges who were ignorant of doctrine and indiscriminately found people guilty. Through the Inquisition, accused heretics could be evaluated by competent theologians and in almost all cases be spared a death sentence. While kings, according to Madden, saw heretics as traitors who questioned their authority by divine right, the Church saw them as lost sheep who had strayed from the fold. Most people accused of heresy by the Inquisition were either acquitted or their sentences suspended. Those found guilty of grave error were allowed to confess their sin, do penance, and be restored to the Body of Christ.
Unrepentant or obstinate heretics were excommunicated and given over to secular authorities.
Despite popular myth, the Inquisition did not burn heretics.
The simple fact is that the medieval Inquisition saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.
Much later, however, when Inquisitions were taken over by civil authorities, the forgiveness and mercy shown by the Church no longer prevailed.
The War on Women Redux
The War on Women is included here as the latest baseless canard against the Church. Because Catholic teaching opposes abortion and contraception, the Church has become the prime target of radical feminists, progressives, libertines, academia, the media, the Administration and others.
When Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI stated that condoms were not the solution to the AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa, he was called horrifically ignorant and was blamed for the continents AIDS deaths (as if all AIDS deaths were occurring among observant Catholics who rejected condoms in obedience to Church teaching the very group at lowest risk of AIDS as they'd be likely to abstain from sex before marriage and remain faithful to their spouse).
By opposing Obamacares assault on religious freedom by forcing Catholic institutions to provide contraceptives in their employees' health coverage, the Church is accused of waging a war on women. By opposing taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood the countrys most prolific killer the Church is accused of conducting a war on women.
In the last election cycle, candidates who defended the religious freedom of Catholic institutions and individuals to not be forced to provide benefits they considered immoral, on First Amendment grounds, were also part of the war on women, a false narrative that some believe will be resurrected in the next election cycle.
Obamacare, and not the Church, is in many ways the real villain in the war on women. Contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilization all serve to disrupt the healthy functioning of a womans reproductive system and carry numerous risks, not the least of which is this: A 2011 survey looking into work/life balance, found that the unhappiest profile among white-collar workers is a 42 year old, unmarried woman with a household income under $100 thousand, working in a professional position (i.e. as a doctor or a lawyer). Yet, the sterile career woman unencumbered by husband and kids is precisely the model to which that the National Organization for Women and the Fund for a Feminist Majority think women should aspire.
Theres another obvious reason why critics of the Catholic Church should find a different target for their vitriol. The Church is arguably the single largest charitable organization on planet Earth feeding, clothing, sheltering, healing, educating, and ministering to the needy of the world for almost two millennia.
So is it too much to expect that the President and media would do a little fact-checking from time to time?
TOPICS: Catholic; History; Islam
KEYWORDS: aleteia; crusades; inquisition; obama; susanewills; thecrusades; thewaronwomen; women
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1
posted on
02/09/2015 7:40:59 AM PST
by
NYer
To: Tax-chick; GregB; SumProVita; narses; bboop; SevenofNine; Ronaldus Magnus; tiki; Salvation; ...
2
posted on
02/09/2015 7:41:27 AM PST
by
NYer
(Without justice - what else is the State but a great band of robbers? - St. Augustine)
To: NYer
Obama may have just jumped the shark with this comment...
3
posted on
02/09/2015 7:42:23 AM PST
by
MrB
(The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
To: NYer
4
posted on
02/09/2015 7:42:57 AM PST
by
KeyLargo
To: NYer
5
posted on
02/09/2015 7:44:12 AM PST
by
Baynative
(Did you ever notice that atheists don't dare sue Muslims?)
To: NYer
The resides were in response to Moslem aggression...
President Thomas Jefferson laid in a response to moslem aggression once again targeting Northern Africa in 1805...and again after the War of 1812...where the US Marines get part of their hymn...
And once again we responded to growing moslem aggression stemming from the 60’s...70’s...and do throughout the 80’s..until 9/11....
...and yet we should believe any word from a fraud and infiltrator....????
No listens to him anymore....they know what he is...
6
posted on
02/09/2015 7:48:22 AM PST
by
BCW
(ARMIS EXPOSCERE PACEM)
To: NYer
They say, “Elections have consequences”.
Yes, they do and the worst consequence is having this fool stand before the United States, unobstructed and unopposed, telling obvious lies, supporting evil and attacking good. I see complete darkness in his soul. These are very bad times for our nation. GOD, forgive us.
7
posted on
02/09/2015 7:50:27 AM PST
by
ryan71
(The Partisans)
To: NYer
8
posted on
02/09/2015 7:50:42 AM PST
by
barmag25
(Cruz 2016)
To: MrB
We should be thanking Obama for bringing this up.
Western civilization should be embracing the crusades and all they stood for. We should be embarking on a new crusade using every single weapon that God and 20th century physics has given us.
9
posted on
02/09/2015 7:52:34 AM PST
by
Former Proud Canadian
(When you accept that Obama is a muslim, all things become clear.)
To: NYer
Yeah, the truth is out there but the BS keeps getting shouted. I flik on the radio a few minutes ago and the new idiot morning team on 710 wor ny is going on about how religion, hands down, has slaughtered more people in the history of the world...blablabla. What possibly could the actual source, in the mind of the utterer, for such a belief? It’s unmitigated BULLSHIT.
10
posted on
02/09/2015 7:52:53 AM PST
by
TalBlack
(Evil doesn't have a day job..)
To: MrB
THAT COMMENT...and his "our religion" slip. when referring to ISLAM!!
11
posted on
02/09/2015 7:53:31 AM PST
by
MeshugeMikey
("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
To: NYer
. . . the unhappiest profile among white-collar workers is a 42 year old, unmarried woman with a household income under $100 thousand, working in a professional position (i.e. as a doctor or a lawyer).I don't doubt it, because it is precisely at that time she realizes she'd been had by the corrupt religion of liberal feminism and that she will never experience the joy of children or family.
12
posted on
02/09/2015 7:53:32 AM PST
by
Vigilanteman
(Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
To: NYer
. . . the unhappiest profile among white-collar workers is a 42 year old, unmarried woman with a household income under $100 thousand, working in a professional position (i.e. as a doctor or a lawyer).I don't doubt it, because it is precisely at that time she realizes she'd been had by the corrupt religion of liberal feminism and that she will never experience the joy of children or family.
13
posted on
02/09/2015 7:53:33 AM PST
by
Vigilanteman
(Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
To: NYer
Mr. Obama grew his nose to end up becoming a redwood tree.
14
posted on
02/09/2015 7:53:52 AM PST
by
Biggirl
(2014 MIdterms Were BOTH A Giant Wave And Restraining Order)
To: NYer
15
posted on
02/09/2015 7:54:06 AM PST
by
Skooz
(Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
To: MrB
16
posted on
02/09/2015 7:56:06 AM PST
by
MeshugeMikey
("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
To: NYer
The reference to the President and fact-checking in the same sentence seems ridiculous.
17
posted on
02/09/2015 7:56:52 AM PST
by
reg45
(Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
To: Vigilanteman
....Yet it never too late to have the joy of being an aunt, a friend of a married woman who needs her help with her kids, or a mentor to a young person.
18
posted on
02/09/2015 7:58:20 AM PST
by
Biggirl
(2014 MIdterms Were BOTH A Giant Wave And Restraining Order)
To: NYer
19
posted on
02/09/2015 7:58:58 AM PST
by
knittnmom
(Save the earth! It's the only planet with chocolate!)
To: NYer
The Inquisition still reflected a dysfunctional situation. Because someone was wrong with the church, shouldn’t have meant they were automatically wrong with the country. There should not have been anything for the church to need to fix here.
Today we have the opposite problem, states that are absolutely allergic to churches instead of asking them to take government affairs under their wing.
20
posted on
02/09/2015 8:00:37 AM PST
by
HiTech RedNeck
(Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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