The Battle For God

Below is a blog correspondance from Healing Rabbi. He often keeps me straight. Below his remarks are my response.

On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 20:50:35 -0800, HealingRabbi wrote: More people have been killed by Islamists since 2001 than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined! "The Spanish Inquisition, in its 350-year lifespan had 4,000 people put to the stake." I would say to this that not a single Jew was killed by the Spanish Inquisition. The Nasorean faith was called Marranos in Spain and according to this articles many more died than just in the official inquisition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrano

Another source gives these numbers: Some statistics of large death tolls are given by historians such as Will Durant, who, in, The Reformation (1957) cites Juan Antonio Llorente, General Secretary of the Inquisition from 1789 to 1801, as estimating that 31,912 people were executed from 1480-1808. He also cites Hernando de Pulgar, a secretary to Queen Isabella, as estimating 2,000 people were burned before 1490. Philip Schaff in his History of the Christian Church gave a number of 8,800 people burned in the 18 years of Torquemada. Matthew White, in reviewing these and other figures, gives a median number of deaths at 32,000, with around 9,000 under Torquemada [1].

R. J. Rummel describes similar figures as "most realistic," though he cites some historians who give figures of up to 135,000 people killed under Torquemada. This number includes 125,000 who are claimed to have died in prison due to poor conditions, leaving 10,000 sentenced to death. The Spanish Inquisition maintained extensive records that are now being sifted through by historians. They paint a very different picture of sentencing patterns to traditional historians, although, like any historical document their accuracy can be disputed. Geoffrey Parker analyzed 49,000 trial records between 1540 and 1700, representing one third of the total, and found 776 executions. This suggests a total of about 2,250 in the period reviewed. Earlier records are less well preserved but do not support the usual picture of a bloodbath.

In The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, Henry Kamen does not believe more than a thousand executions took place in the earlier period (p. 60). However, he points out that the Inquisitors' activities were heavily slanted towards Jewish and Muslim communities who would have suffered far more than most from their activities. Recent work, sponsored by the Catholic Church, also points to a significantly lower death toll. Professor Agostino Borromeo, an historian of Catholicism at the Sapienza University in Rome, writes that about 125,000 people were tried by church tribunals as suspected heretics in Spain. Of these, about 1,200 - 2,000 were actually executed, although more killings were performed by non-church tribunals. Some historians and Spanish scholars suggest that that the death toll has been exaggerated over time as part of the anti-Spanish Black Legend.

What ever the number is, the number of Nasoreans that died was huge. James Carroll in Constantine's Sword documents the situation well. Islamic Terror attacks have killed 4,247 people since Sept. 11, 2001!!!

I am not sure what your point is here. Islamic terrorists are not following Islam. I grant you, I would like to see more condemnation from the official leaders of Islam, but these terrorists do not represent the majority of Muslims who by the way live in Indonesia, Malaysia and India. More civilians were killed by Muslim extremists in two hours on September 11th than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland: I am not sure what you are trying to say here. There is no question that Christians are not as violent now as they were even 300 years ago. Islamic terrorists have murdered more people since 2001 then the Ku Klux Klan has in an 84 year period (1885-1968-)

Again what relevance does this have to anything. Whether the Ku Klux Klan killed one or 100,000 would not have made what they did right. Islam launched its own Crusades long before Christendom did! Jesus never used violence; neither did he call his disciples to use it. There is significant evidence to the contrary. The Dead Sea Scrolls represent the movement from which Jesus sprung. There is strong evidence that he, James and John the Baptist were the leaders of a significant guerilla movement.

Joel Campbell in his books documents a takeover of the Temple itself by Jesus and his followers. Jesus was crucified between two of the guerrillas who had participated in this takeover and he was executed for treason having proclaimed himself King of the Jews. A similar act of declaring oneself the king of America and leading a violent revolt against the government would surely bring the same result today. If Islam was the aggressor in its own Crusades, long before the Europeans responded with their own."

Back to the social issues of your question: in America you are allowed to believe whatever is valuable. Unfortunately relativist value tends to exploit the Constitutional Rights in this nation. Yet as long as it is not an in your face exploitation I still believe in the freedom of expression of contrary faith and philosophical systems. If it steps over the edge and affects my rights, I tend to get a little irritated. For the record I am a libertarian and a Constitutional lawyer. My defense of constitution has brought me renown among lawyers in Kansas. I believe that the Bill of Rights is absolute not an after thought. I support all 10 of the Amendments, not just the popular ones. I oppose government spying with listening devices as a violation of the 3rd Amendment. I believe that parents should be allowed to raise their children according to their own beliefs in accordance with the Ninth Amendment and I believe that the States have rights that should be restored as they were illegally taken from them during the Civil War. Further, I grant you that Islam is pushing my buttons too. I am finding it hard not to want to declare war on them. But, I remember that it is not Islam, but Arab and Persian Muslims who are doing these dastardly acts.

I have a blog in which I point out the violent nature of 21st century Islam. As you can guess, once in a while I get a Muslim blogger who disagrees with me. I found this other blog that has ran into the same situation.

The response to 20th and 21st Century data is often the quoting of violence performed in the name of Christianity in the past. The point was not justification of so-called Christian fringe groups but to demonstrate that Islamic adherents tend to go over the top in comparison.

If you ever visit that other blog of I use - SlantRight - I have to mention you will notice my disdain for the adherents of Islam. Indeed I use the moniker "Mohammedan" and "Mohammedanism" frequently. The reason for this is I have no respect for the religion of Islam. To be clear, I believe Christ came for the Salvation of all humanity, Arab and Iranian Muslims are no exception. God so loved the World that He gave His Son to all humanity of the world. However, my opinion is that a guy named Mohammed establish a death cult for reasons of self-aggrandizement and plunder. He used religion to control his empire. The world is seeing the result of that empire policy today. Therefore I call the adherents of Islam - Mohammedans.

I guess that catagorizes me as an Islamophobe (though I think that term is a misnomer - I don't fear Islam, I dislike the religion not the people).
I am going to publish these comments of ours on a blog, but not this one. I am attempting to keep The Way blog a Christ Centered blog and my other ones tend toward politics.

I actually don't buy the guerilla movement theory you mention. Although I do believe Jesus and John the Baptist were part of a militant pacifistic movement within Judaism before the Lord's Holy Spirit anointing and the 40 days in the wilderness. I can buy that much of the theory but that is all.

I welcome your critique at all blogs, because I am aware that my emotions often push me beyond the edge of what should be Christian faith. At SlantRight I have a friendly Muslim adversary (Izrafil) who often brings back according to his responses.