The Newport Daily Express

Inquisition

The time has come for an inquisition.

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not calling for a repeat of those murderous proceedings of the 4th, 12th, 13th, and 16th centuries when the Roman Catholic Church rounded up heretics and fisted punishment to all who fit the bill. The Vatican now decries those bad times, and rightly so. God forbid a replay of churchmen gone mad with political power lust.

What I’m suggesting is a time of introspection, an inquisition with a small “i.” The time is right for Christians in North America to begin asking serious questions about the basic tenets of the faith. Time to become informed. Time to find out if you really believe all that religion stuff, or if decades of church life have been nothing more than a Sunday-goto-meetin’ dress up charade. Why now? Because millions of Americans say they believe one thing or another, but when questioned about their “faith,” they display little or no foundational knowledge. If you doubt it, ask any religion reporter.

Questions fired at citizens who participated in national balloting a few years ago, questions about religion, showed that many who professed to be Christians had little understanding of the faith. Blank stares appeared when people were quizzed about Mormonism, Judaism, SDA-ism, Scientism, Islam or Secular Humanism.

All this leads us to another question: Is it possible to believe something you don’t understand? Does life-changing belief, a faith that would cause a person to put his or her life on the line in defense of truth, arise from warm and fuzzy feelings? I don’t think so. Life changing – life yielding – faith is born of God, supported by face value evidence appearing everywhere in the natural world, by history’s record book and by The Book.

You can bet real money that Christians in China, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia are into personal inquisition. Not a day passes without an e-mail dispatch from one of those nations hitting my computer, telling of Christians being jailed or killed because of an expressed belief in God. Members of Christian churches in Persia and Arabia are arrested for possessing a Bible. Some disappear without a trace. Don’t try starting a church in Indonesia if you wish to continue breathing.

Here in the United States the picture is distressing too. Given all the church scandals that eat newsprint every day, there is little doubt a deadly cancer is growing within American Christendom. The spiritual disease is called “sandy-bottom religion.” Millions say they believe, but cannot tell you why, falling prey to hucksters, showmen and fast buck religionists. Too many church people are standing on the shifting sand of today’s fuzzy-wuzzy good feelings movement.

Yes, it is time for an inquisition. Get started.

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2021-06-11T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-11T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://newportvermontdailyexpress.pressreader.com/article/281603833408191

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