Just recently, I viewed a television program that highlighted some of the details of the Spanish Inquisition. The show was an alarming account of fifteenth century Spain when the “Catholic Kings” attempted to extricate every last Jew or Moor from their midst. This was done by documenting the tattlings and gossip of maids who were present in every household, at that time, and who reported to “the authorities,” (that being the “Church”), any wrongdoing such as having witnessed the circumcision of a Jewish boy in a household, secret ceremony.
Files and files still exist that list the questions of the inquisitors at their tribunals, the answers of the accused, calligraphed by a “court” attendant, and the judgments made – for torture, for death by burning at the stake, for hanging, or for chopping off one’s head. Sometimes truth is more strange than fiction. These were actual events that happened to real people, difficult as that is to believe.
Humans have been persecuting others, for the beliefs they hold, for as far back as recorded history, it seems. Romans threw Christians to the lions. Witch hunts in Salem, Massachusetts are still a black mark on the history of the intolerant Puritans. However, the Spanish Inquisition perhaps topped the other purges of “infidels,” up to the time of the devastating events of Nazi Germany in the twentieth century.
In Contrast – Beauty All Around
As I stood doing my dishes this morning, I was looking out into my backyard where two robins were busily finding insects and worms on this rainy day. A patch of yellow wildflowers are blooming right outside the window. Maybe they are some kind of a weed. I don’t know their name. Beside them, are some pink Lily of the Valley flowers, an antique cultivar that I’ve not seen offered in any recent seed catalog. The Rhubarb plants in the distance are ready for me to pull some stalks and make a Rhubarb crisp, when it stops raining. I am surrounded by the beauty of Nature, even in the simple act of looking out my back window.
When I look at Nature, whether it is a sunrise, a sunset, a beach with tides going out and coming in, flowers, animals, or even babies, for me, it is not within the realm of possibility that there is no Supreme Being from which all of this wonder emanates.
Whether one calls that entity, “God,” “Jehovah,” “Allah,” the “Supreme Master of the Universe,” or simply the “Source,” it is a comfort to think that there is a “Divine Plan,” and “Someone Who Will Watch Over Me.” People celebrate this Being in song, and in prayer, yet we cannot agree on His name, or if one listens to the feminists, “Her” name.
I’ll leave you with one very radical thought. What if we set aside all the names – Methodist, Episcopalian, Jew, Muslim, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Shaker, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, etc.? What if we all just quietly and passionately believe our own thoughts, without having to try to convert others to concur with our thinking?
The greater benefit to humanity would be, in some instances, less war and more peace. God, as I envision Him to be, is about peace, not war. Again, you are welcome to believe anything you wish, even if your choice is to have no ideas about religion, at all.
In conclusion and in my opinion, Faith is about Faith. One can have Faith without having Religion. Religion is about dogma and the insistence of thinking about a Supreme Being in a certain, prescribed way that adheres to the same thoughts of like-minded individuals within a certain group of Believers.
I share these thoughts because I have struggled with trying to make sense of it all, for many years now. There isn’t a day that I do not think about this subject.
Don’t Let Jesus “See”?
In the case of the Spanish Inquisition, it is reported that a black veil was used to cover the crucifix of Jesus so that He could not “see” the torture being carried out in His name. If Jesus is truly the Son of God, He is ubiquitous (meaning He is everywhere and “sees” everything), so this idea of veiling the cross is ludicrous. Sometimes, humans “can’t see the forest for the trees.”
I don’t often weigh in on the subject of religion, but in this instance, I am compelled to make these statements. I respect everyone else’s views, and their choices in the ways that they worship. Religious tolerance, after all, is the only option that is reasonable.
Peace,
Pat
