Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jclark@sdcc6.ucsd.edu (John Clark) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: The Ongoing Inquisition Message-ID: Date: 10 May 91 07:30:53 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of California, San Diego Lines: 39 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article math1h3@jetson.uh.edu writes: + +The scriptures indicate clearly that the church must exercise judgement +with respect to obvious, persistent, and unrepenant sin. Jesus gave +instructions on this topic in Matthew 18, and in 1 Corinthians Paul +tells the Corinthians to excommunicate a man guilty of incest. The primary +difference between this kind of judgement, and the Inquisition, is that the +only punishment given in Scripture (NT) is expulsion from the fellowship of the + +The Inquisition, on the other hand, tortured people, and many died. In other +places the Catholic church (or the state, acting on the church's request) +burned people for heresy, notably John Hus. The 'Inquisition' did not kill people. It was the combination of the Inquisitors determining that a person was not of the faith, posibly by physical means, and then handing that person to the secular power to be 'punished' by secular law, which coincedently reflected 'canon' law, or is that cannon law. The secular power is the executioner, the church only 'excommunicated' the un-faithful. With this set up in mind one can easily see the reason for separation of church and state and the prohibtion against laws which support a particular religious position. + +The Lutherans took a strong stand against such practices in their Augsburg +Confession, Article 28, 'The Power of Bishops', or 'Ecclesiastical Power'. +They wrote: Unfortunately the Separatist of early U.S. history were not so inclined. +[Except for Luther late in life... As he got more temporal power, he +found it harder to resist using it to protect the Church. I think this says it all. The same is apparent of the early church after Constantine. -- John Clark jclark@ucsd.edu