Way back in the 12th century a powerful office of the Roman Catholic Church was created to search out and punish heresy through Europe and throughout North and South America where the Church had interests and political control. Actually, the inquisition was a group of offices that came into operation in different parts of the world. The “inquisition” grew in power and reach for hundreds of years, finally coming to an end from 1797 in Venice (by decree of Napoleon’s government), in Portugal in 1821 (in the wake of the Liberal Revolution) and in Spain and its colonies in the Americas by 1834. In Italy the inquisition was reinstated in 1814 with a new pope and remained very active until 1870, finally ending for good in around 1908, which is not all that long ago.
The inquisition became infamously brutal spreading terror amongst the world as it conducted trials of suspected heretics. Thousands of people were executed, imprisoned for life, even tortured into “confessing” their heresy – the majority were given some penance to serve, but repeat offenders were shown no mercy. The mere denial of any charge of heresy was never good enough for an enthusiastic inquisitor, and trials were rarely fair or based on any evidentiary substance. History’s pages are replete with many examples of the reach (read, “overreach”) of the offices of inquisition in response to the burgeoning Protestant Reformation, as well.
Thankfully, the dreadful and brutal tyranny of the Catholic Church’s inquisitors came to an end, but not before much cruelty, barbarism and bloodshed was perpetrated on ordinary people for daring to have a different point of view to the Church – and all in the name of God. How heaven must have shuddered over those centuries. Modern day commentators and historians rightly condemn the inquisition perpetrated by the Church.
Fast forward to present day Australia, and there are new, secular, albeit unofficial, inquisitors pointing their fingers at cultural and social “heretics”. This is no exaggeration, dear reader. There are many in our increasingly woke culture that refuse to live and let live, who refuse harmonious community and who object to any form of free speech that does not accord with their woke standards. Now, before you think I am overstating things a tad, let me give you just one example amongst many. Recently, seven players from the Manly rugby league club decided to omit themselves from a game when their club arbitrarily decreed that the whole team had to wear a gay pride jumper. This was not only stupid coercion (which, alone, was a foolish overreach by the club’s administration) but was an affront to those seven players’ Christian beliefs. And these seven made no publicity stunt over their omission, there was no grandstanding - they quietly and very respectfully (this confirmed by their coach) stated their reasons on the basis of their Christian faith.
But rather than respect the players’ freedom of expression of religion – and their freedom of speech – a nasty inquisition was mounted by journalist, Peter FitzSimons (with others joining the pile on). Not content to respectfully disagree with their stance, as the players had done, FitzSimons demanded (yes, demanded!) an explanation for the players’ stance. Here’s what he said, verbatim, “What the h--- is wrong with you blokes that you don’t get it? You are prepared to trash the entire Manly season on this issue alone? ... For what? ... Can we have a statement from the seven of you, to make clear your views, so we can all understand?” (emphasis mine). That’s inquisitorial language and behaviour in anyone’s book. This demand for a justifying statement is breathtakingly hypocritical from a wokeist who preaches tolerance and inclusivity.
Inclusion and diversity are fine ideals as far as they can sensibly go before someone’s rights are infringed in the process. There simply must be room for respectful divergence and disagreement without shrill wokeists demanding justification in the name of inclusivity and compliance from others whose views happen to differ. Do they not see how absolutely illogical their behaviour is? And by their very own standards? People of faith – or anyone else, for that matter – should not be subjected to public inquisitions that attempt to belittle, punish, damage or disgrace them. For many wokeists these days (many of whom have the privilege of a paid public soap box), diversity and inclusion have been turned into the weapons of choice of the new inquisition. These people are not interested in truth or tolerance, nor evidence in public debate, nor rights of any kind, if these are considered “heresy” by social and cultural engineers. For many of them, the very existence of a Christian voice, or worldview, is offensive.
The great irony today with the new woke offices of inquisition now in full swing, is that the ideals of diversity and inclusion which began as the promotion of the right not to be harmed by violent speech, the right not to be offended, or vilified, or to have one’s feelings hurt by someone else’s views (now enshrined in law), have been weaponised to attack Christians with impunity. The original goal of the Catholic Church’s offices of inquisition was the absolute, unquestioning compliance of the population. The new woke inquisitions demand the very same thing – and they’re no longer hiding their agenda. The new inquisition(s) are as inherently evil and anti-human as the church’s past versions.
Luke 21:12-19 (NIV)
[Jesus] “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of My name. 13 And so you will bear testimony to Me. 14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of Me. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life.”
Do not be intimidated by the new inquisitions.
Trust God. Trust His Word. Stand firm.
Think on these things.
Ps Milton
(Sources: The Australian [July 21st, 2022]; SMH, [July 26th, 2022]; A World History of Christianity, by Prof. Adrian Hastings.)