CARTOON: And now, some facts

The philosophical satire drawing and caption in the Jan. 14 issue of The Press has grouped all Christians as religious extremists. The satirist seems to have little knowledge of two periods in history, i.e. the “Inquisition” and “Crusades.” From 80 A.D. through much of the 200s A.D., the Roman Empire rained havoc on Christians in and around Rome. During the 300s A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine realigned his thinking and embraced Roman Catholic Christianity.

The Inquisition began during Constantine’s reign from 306 to 337 A.D. He declared that the law of the Byzantine Empire would be patterned after Biblical laws as interpreted by the Roman Church, and that any deviation would be considered as “heresy” to the law of the land. During the “Middle Ages” the Inquisition operated chiefly in France, Germany and Spain. Rulers of these and other countries used the law as their authority to do away with opposition parties and other religious groups.

The Spanish Conquistadors were especially brutal in their slaughter of the Incas and Aztecs. In Europe, the punishment for “heresy” became so severe that many individuals could no longer support the philosophy and dissenters began the “Reformation,” the foundation of Protestant Christianity. Since the Reformation, the Catholic Church has highly condemned the Inquisition as a violation of the standards of international law and justice. Later in time, our Founding Fathers enacted the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to insure freedom of religion. It should be noted that the great majority of the framers of the Constitution were learned men professing Christianity.

The Crusades were European Christian military actions, beginning in 1096 A.D., to recapture the land of Palestine, which had been overrun by the Muslims in the 300s A.D. This was land that Jesus and his Apostles traversed, spreading the teachings of Christianity. There were four major and several minor campaigns. The most tragic being the “Children’s Crusade” of 1212 A.D., when thousands of French and German children between the ages of 10 and 18 died in their quest to reach Jerusalem and free Palestine of Muslim rule. When Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492, various church leaders determined that their time would be better spent Christianizing the new world rather than fighting wars in Asia. World Book, Vol. 4, 1159-1162, 1989 edition.

LEONARD BRANT

Post Falls