The following links were compiled by Jason Salamone.
The importance of “religious liberty” seems to be falling on deaf ears when it comes to the general public. And I believe here are a handful of reasons why (but not limited to)…
Over the years, the government-run public education system has not only taken the Bible out of schools, they have actually promoted anti-Bible and anti-Christian revisionist history.
Examples:
(A.) Howard Zinn’s book that many school teachers have used to teach children history with is deceptively titled, “the People’s History of the United States.”
It argues by citing a letter from a disgruntle shipmate that Columbus was a “mean evil guy” must mean he more than likely committed genocide on Native Americans.
http://custer.over-blog.com/m/article-11602057.html
http://www.arn.org/ftissues/ft9511/dsouza.html
(B.) The Crusades; the revisionist teaching that the Crusades were all about Christian domination via war, raping, and pillaging when it actually was the Muslims who were committing such acts. Christians who were on pilgrimages to evangelize found themselves with no other choice but to fight back, or be wiped off the map completely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0zudTQelzI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=1483
(C) Salem Witch Trials; pagans put to death for suspected witchcraft and pagan worship…liberal revisionist history tells us this was of mass genocidal level, but factual history shows that to be categorically false. Between June and September of 1692 five men and fourteen women were eventually convicted and hanged because English law called for the death penalty for witchcraft (which, incidentally, was the same as the Old Testament). During this time there were over 150 others that were imprisoned. Things finally ended in September 1692 when Governor William Phipps dissolved the court because his wife had been accused. He said enough of this insanity. It was the colony’s leading minister, by the way, who finally ended the witch hunt in 1693 and those that remained in prison were released. The judge that was presiding over the trials publicly confessed his guilt in 1697.
It’s interesting to note that this particular judge was very concerned about the plight of the American Indian and was opposed to slavery. These are views that don’t sit well with the common caricature of the radical Puritans in the witch hunt. In 1711 the colony’s legislatures made reparation to the heirs of the victims.
They annulled the convictions.
I guess the point is that there was a witch hunt. It was based on theological reasons, but it wasn’t to the extent that is usually claimed. I think last week the caller said it was millions and millions that were burned at the stake as witches. That certainly wasn’t the case in this country. It seemed that the witch hunt was a result of theological misapplication and the people who were involved were penitent. The whole witch hunt lasted only a year.
Sixteen people were hanged in New England for witchcraft prior to 1692.
In the 1692 witch hunt nineteen were executed. So you’ve got thirty-five people.
One hundred fifty imprisoned. This is not at all to diminish or minimize the impact of the American witch hunts, which resulted in thirty-five deaths. But thirty-five is not millions. It is not hundreds of thousands. It’s not even hundreds.
It’s thirty-five. This was not genocide.
(D.) The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition:
Respected non-Catholic historian Edward Peters, in his work, Inquisition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989, p. 87), states:
“The Spanish Inquisition, in spite of wildly inflated estimates of the numbers of its victims, acted with considerable restraint in inflicting the death penalty, far more restraint than was demonstrated in secular tribunals elsewhere in Europe that dealt with the same kinds of offenses. The best estimate is that around 3000 death sentences were carried out in Spain by Inquisitorial verdict between 1550 and 1800, a far smaller number than that in comparable secular courts.”
Ellen Rice comments: The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition, a 1994 BBC/A&E production . . .
“is a definite must-see for anyone who wishes to know how historians now evaluate the Spanish Inquisition since the opening of an investigation into the Inquisition’s archives. The special includes commentary from historians whose studies verify that the tale of the darkest hour of the Church was greatly fabricated.
In its brief 45 minute presentation, The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition provides only an overview of the origins and debunking of the myths of torture and genocide. The documentary definitely succeeds in leaving the viewer hungry to know more. The long-held beliefs of the audience are sufficiently weakened by the testimony of experts and the expose of the making of the myth.”
In 1567, a fierce propaganda campaign began with the publication of a Protestant leaflet penned by a supposed Inquisition victim named Montanus. This character (Protestant of course) painted Spaniards as barbarians who ravished women and sodomized young boys. The propagandists soon created “hooded fiends” who tortured their victims in horrible devices like the knife-filled Iron Maiden (which never was used in Spain). The BBC/A&E special plainly states a reason for the war of words: the Protestants fought with words, because they could not win on the battlefield.
The Inquisition had a secular character, although the crime was heresy.
Inquisitors did not have to be clerics, but they did have to be lawyers.
The investigation was rule-based and carefully kept in check. And most significantly, historians have declared fraudulent a supposed Inquisition document claiming the genocide of millions of heretics. What is documented is that 3000 to 5000 people died during the Inquisition’s 350 year history.
As the program documents, the 3,000 to 5,000 documented executions of the Inquisition pale in comparison to the 150,000 documented witch burnings executed in secular courts conducted elsewhere in Europe over the same centuries.
Henry Kamen of the Higher Council for Scientific Research in Barcelona said on camera that researching the Inquisition’s archives “demolished the previous image all of us (historians) had.”
Even Henry Charles Lea, the first major American Inquisition historian and no fan of the Catholic Church, says of the calculations of victims: “There is no question that the number of these has been greatly exaggerated in popular belief, an exaggeration to which Llorente has largely contributed by his absurd method of computation.” (A History of the Inquisition of Spain, volume 4, 517)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wd_EAmcFZc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
(E.) The (wrong) belief that Catholic priests are pedophiles due to their “repressive Catholic teachings” (making them the ultimate of hypocrites) rather than the homosexual Marxist infiltrators that they were, which has been testified by ex-KGB Communists Bella Dodd, etc.
(F.) A basic historical ignorance of the fact that the greatest mass genocides were committed under atheistic regimes where freedom of religious worship is criminalized and replaced with the government as the highest moral authority.
(G.) The lack of thorough explanation of why people corrupt Christianity, being that it’s the one true religion, in comparison to why the other religions (including atheism) corrupt people, which is why these other religions are false.
(H.) Jumping to argue “G” without clarifying “A-F” gives a perceived concession to the liberal revisionist history pointed out in A-F.
(I.) Nobody (myself included) seems to really know how to explain in a clear-cut layman’s terms way how our Constitutional rights are grounded in Judeo-Christian principles. But here’s what I believe is the best explanation that I have read thus far…
