Religious persecution

Horrible events have also been perpetrated in the name of religion. During the
Medieval Period in Europe, Christianity, in the form of the Catholic Church, was the
one “true” religion. The Church was the richest and most powerful institution in the
Western world at that time and its influence dominated the lives of all from king to
peasant. Yet despite its pervasive authority, there were people who refused to accept
the Church’s teachings. These people were called heretics.

The Church punished individual heretics throughout the Middle Ages. Special
Church judges called Inquisitors would visit a community and give a series of talks on
heresy. They would then ask the local people to report the names of those they
suspected of holding heretical views. Everyone reported had to appear in an ecclesias-
tical court before the Inquisitors. Those who readily admitted to charges might receive
a mild punishment, though sometimes their possessions were confiscated. Those who
refused to admit to heresy, however, were commonly tortured. The Catholic En-
cyclopedia describes some of the forms of torture used on accused heretics:

. . . flogging, burning, the rack, or solitary imprisonment in the dark
and narrow dungeons. The feet of the accused might be slowly
roasted over burning coals, or he might be bound upon a triangular
frame and have his arms and legs pulled by cords wound on a
windlass. Sometimes the diet was restricted to weaken the body and
will of the imprisoned man, rendering him susceptible to such psy-
chological tortures as alternative promises of mercies and threats of
death.8

Many confessed under these tortures, though many of them were innocent. Those
who admitted to heresy after torture were turned over to civil authorities to be put to
death.

In the fifteenth century in Spain the Inquisition insisted on the religious confor-
mity of all citizens. Formerly the Spanish had been among the most tolerant of
Europeans; Christians, Moslems and Jews had managed to live together. During the
Inquisition, however, Jews and Moslems were expelled from Spain, and those sus-
pected of being Moriscos, Christians of Moorish background, or Marranos, Chris-
tians of Jewish background, were dragged before the courts. Thousands were
arrested and tortured in efforts to force them to confess to being Jewish or Moslem
sympathizers.

A more recent example of persecution in the name of religion was the partitioning
of India in 1947. As the nations of India and Pakistan came into being, thousands of
Hindus and Moslems slaughtered each other because of their religious differences.
The struggles still go on in India today as the Hindus battle the Sikhs.

In Northern Ireland, Catholics and Protestants have been fighting for years and
the end does not appear to be close at hand.

America’s sad legacy

Certainly the participation of Americans in the slavery of Africans is a well-known and
shameful chapter in our nation’s history. Less well known is the fact that, during
World War II, the United States totally ignored the rights of thousands of citizens
simply because they were of Japanese descent. During the war a series of executive
and military orders forced Japanese Americans, especially those living on the West
Coast, into “relocation centers” where many were confined for periods of up to two,

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