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No, my argument is that all people in all time have done waged wars but the Church tried (and still tries) to teach people NOT to. I have no idea what you mean by "wars of venality and covetousness" but no, the Church has not used its bureaucracy to amass vast wealth and power in predatory fashion, it did not rapaciously steal land and treasure from those it purported to shepherd, and the truth about the Inquisition is very, very easy to find out -- the Inquisition was not run by the Church, but by the state. Clerical inquisitors ran its trials, and they were much preferred to secular trials, because Inquisitors were more fair, more interested in the truth, and more merciful. Medieval countries didn't have prisons, death and disfigurement were frequent punishments everywhere - as true in pre-Christian days, and the Renaissance, and the 1700s and 1800s. That's not because of the Church, that's because of human nature. Christian countries were not, and never have been, worse than other countries around them. People converted because Christian life, though imperfect, is better.

The Church, many of its bishops and priests and lesser clergy, and even some of its popes, have been bad and sinful men. Some of them obviously are now too. But this view of history is simply false.

Oct 31, 2023
at
11:55 PM

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