On the twelfth day of Christmas, our True Love gave the world: liberation in the communist bloc.
Sometimes we may be too close to history to see it. For example, we often hear skeptics talk about the Inquisition, which killed a few thousand innocent people thousands of years ago, and completely forget about the tens of millions of victims of communist inquisitions. We hear the cries of the few who suffered a millennia ago, and they drown out far greater horrors practically next door.
We also fail to hear the thankful cries of millions from our own generation, as Chesterton wrote of the liberation of an earlier gang of freed captives:
"Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds,
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.
"Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free!"
The Gospel has, as this series shows, done civilization many services. One we often forget because it is too close: Christianity undermined Big Brother in his many guises, especially throughout that third of the world that was communist. Marxist brainwashing was relentless: attacks on "enemies of the state," and lying flattery of despots and thugs, assailed citizens in school, newspapers, on television, walls, over loudspeakers, through history and science texts, even on maps and history books. The Church gave people a break from the propaganda. In place of hate, believers praised God and shared one another's burdens. In place of the grey monotony of social-realist architecture and "art," the Church provided beautiful, uplifting music, incense and colorful processions, beautiful ancient architecture (when it wasn't blown up by the communists), comfort, cheer, and hope.
This story is told in many books. I choose In God's Underground, by the Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand, as just one of many good selections. See below for other choices.
Mystic. Philosopher. Loving husband. Worried father. Proud member of the Jewish race. Creature with nerve ending that ache when you hit them and who hungers when you starve him. Social being who hallucinates apart from human voices, and hungers for sex and companionship as well as food. Martyr who stands up to tyrants and warns them to repent. Lutheran pastor with a weakness for jokes. Richard Wurmbrand may have been a 'voice of the martyrs,' but after reading this sensitive, deeply honest autobiography, what impresses me the most is the degree to which his voice is also the voice of humanity. I found it challenging to see how, as a well-read Christian in tough times who faces all the temptations I do, he integrated the various facets of his humanity with his faith.
In a literal sense, faith made Wurmbrand a free-thinker. Embracing a religion that fits the full complexity of life, miracles as well as madness, and sharing a broad and often painful experience with a knowledge of several spiritual traditions, he was free to think on many questions and come to unexpected conclusions both whimsical and sober. There are many modern names that could be added to the list of heroes of the faith of Hebrews 11. Wurmbrand tells some of their stories, including his own.
Other books: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Gulag Archpelago. Sergei Kourdakov, The Persecutor. Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler. George Weigel, The Final Revolution. Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ.
5 comments:
"For example, we often hear skeptics talk about the Inquisition, which killed a few thousand innocent people thousands of years ago..."
Well, a few hundred thousand, but who's counting? The real question is, what is the acceptable number of innocent deaths due to an inquisition?
"Christianity undermined Big Brother in his many guises..."
...even as it created Big Brother in other guises: the Pope; the Archbishop of Canterbury; Patriarch of Constantinople; Patriarch of Moscow; etc., etc.
"Christianity also aided in the overthrow of both Naziism and Communism."
Yes, well, except that there were plenty of Nazis who were Chrisitans, including der Furher himself. And why was it that Pope John Paul II felt it necessary to appologize for the Holocaust? Oh yeah, it was because the Pope of the day, Pius XII, failed to sepak out against it when it might have done some good.
As to Communism... Not sure what business it is of any religion to be medling with economic systems anyway. Maybe if the churches were to start paying taxes I'd feel differently about that one.
Anyway, Happy New Year, David. I'm just getting warmed up. :)
Dr. H: There is, of course, no acceptable number of innocent people to murder, thus the word "innocent." But historians like to get numbers right, and thousands is correct, "hundreds of thousands" is false. (Though not as false as Bertrand Russell's "millions.")
I doubt you believe Hitler was a Christian yourself; one comes to recognize the pro forma from the heart-felt, after a while.
Pius XII did quite a bit to save Jews, whatever diplomatic language he used. A lot more than FDR did, and at a much bigger risk.
Yes, have a Happy New Year. You might enjoy some of these books, too.
No David, "thousands" is not correct, nor is millions: both these numbers are revisionist history.
Of course no one knows the precise numbers, since the Church didn't bother recording most of the unexceptional cases. But bear in mind that there were a number of Inquisitions tied to the Church. Many historical works focus primarily on one or the other of these (ie., the Spanish Inquisition). Collectively, "the Inquisition" lasted from ca. 1230 - 1860, and spanned most of Europe and much of the New World.
The best estimates given available evidence are that somewhere between 200,000 and 415,000 people died as a direct result of persecution by the various Inquisitions.
Of course some of these estimates include numbers which could arguably be assigned to other causes -- the Crusades, or various "holy wars", for example. Since the purpose of the Inquisition was to eliminate "heresy," deaths from such things as the Church's genocidal crusade against the "heretical" Cathars often get lumped in with the figures.
We can quibble over whether or not the Albigensian or Waldensian Crusades were, strictly speaking, part of the "Inquisition". But really, we would be quibbling over whether the Church killed a bunch of people under one particular set of edicts or another. The fact is, the Church killed them, regardless.
Hitler [shrug]. His mother was Catholic, he was raised as a Catholic, and he participated in all of the sacrements as a child. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, than makes him a Catholic. In later life he frequently promoted what he called "positive Christianity," and he frequently invokes God in "Mein Kampf".
Of course the old argument "what is a Christian" arises. Hitler said he was a Christian. Was he? Can we know for sure? We can only know what he said he was.
The same can be said for the pope.
"Pius XII did quite a bit to save Jews, ..."
Did he really?
Then what was John Paul II appologizing for?
Yes, have a Happy New Year. You might enjoy some of these books, too.
I have read a couple. Bibliophile that I am I'll probably check out a few more, as time permits.
Ah, here we are with another year of argument before us. Sharpen up the...um, keyboards. ;)
(Why does your blog insist on rendering me as "Anonymous Dr H" ?)
"No David, "thousands" is not correct, nor is millions: both these numbers are revisionist history."
Edward Burman, The Inquisition (of the Spanish version):
"Some authors say that 2000 peole were executed by 1490 . . . even the exagerrated claim of Llorente does not go beyond 32,000 . . . A reliable recent estimate by E. William Monter, based on newly analyzed docuemnts and the latest Spanish scholarly research, suggests that of 150,000 people tried between 1550 and 1800 by th Spanish Inquisition only 3,000 were actually put to death."
That includes the New World.
Wikipedia sets the toll of the Roman Inquisition at 1200, and of the Portuguese Inquisition at 1183, and of that in Goa at at least 57, probably more.
There were also Medieval inquisitions, but inquisitors usually did not have the ability to sentence people to death, I don't think. Sometimes they did anyway. Is that where you find "hundreds of thousands?"
"We can quibble over whether or not the Albigensian or Waldensian Crusades were, strictly speaking, part of the "Inquisition".
Apparently that is what you had in mind.
"But really, we would be quibbling over whether the Church killed a bunch of people under one particular set of edicts or another. The fact is, the Church killed them, regardless."
Yeah. Nasty enough. How many, though, I don't know. And usually I don't think that is included in the Inquisition. But I take your point.
"In later life he frequently promoted what he called "positive Christianity," and he frequently invokes God in "Mein Kampf".
Politically. I think it is far more likely he was "really" an atheist than a Christian. What I have read of Mein Kampf, furnished no evidence of his "Christianity," but did furnish evidence that he had been influenced by atheists.
But I never use that in my arguments against atheism.
"Pius XII did quite a bit to save Jews, ..."
"Did he really?"
Yes.
"Then what was John Paul II appologizing for?"
I don't know -- that's your story, not mine.
"Ah, here we are with another year of argument before us. Sharpen up the...um, keyboards. ;)"
This is the year you'll become a Presbyterian. Then we can finally use the instruments of the Inquisition on you. :- )
Quibbling over the numbers of the collective Inquisitions seems rather pointless, and you've met me halfway on the Albigensians et al, so Ill let that slide for now.
DM: Pius XII did quite a bit to save Jews, ..."
Dr H: "Did he really?"
DM: Yes."
Such as ... ?
Dr H: "Then what was John Paul II appologizing for?"
DM: "I don't know -- that's your story, not mine."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/65889.stm
Dr H: "Ah, here we are with another year of argument before us. Sharpen up the...um, keyboards. ;)"
DM: "This is the year you'll become a Presbyterian. Then we can finally use the instruments of the Inquisition on you. :- ) "
If you're waiting for me to become a Presbyterian to do that, I have no worries. ;)
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