Intriguing. I was watching The Name of the Rose, and I came up with an interesting thought.

In it, an Inquisitor comes and tortures a man to confess that a woman he was feeding was a witch, or something like that. He, a "Man of God" stands around and watches... almost delights, in the torture of another human being. It's extremely sadistic.

That got me thinking of a podcast I listened to once about people who take delight in a fetish--rope bondage. Then took my mind to some of the other fetishes and sadism that I've seen in people over the years.

An irony occurred to me.

Many people I know condemn the Catholic church for ungodly crimes. They accuse these people for being the hypocrits that they are. But what I realized is that those same people are the people today who condemn Christianity for persecuting people.

I'm still working this out in my head. So bare with me.

My supposition is that the Church was guilty. Not necessarily for ungodly behavior, but for letting these sadists assume important roles. For turning away from Godly behavior to allow deviants to run the Inquisition. That's what they were guilty of.

Some of those same deviants have found new "jobs" where they can delight in the work. Sorta like "You'll Be A Dentist" from Little Shop of Horrors. But I guess I was thinking that the error is to blame the Church rather than screwed up individuals who have usurped power.

The same could be said for the conservative Christian church of today. They hypocritcally persecute other faiths and condemn them to hell instead of letting God judge them. And in so doing, the Christian faith is weakened and other narrow-minded people step in to pounce on this weakness.

Okay, maybe this is just a 2 a.m. rambling, but I thought it interesting.