so much for the land of the free.
Has "The Spanish Inquisition 1478-1834" reached the US?

http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/WestEurope/SpanInqui.html

The concepts of an inquisition and inquisitorial procedure lie deep in the
roots of world history. Inquisitions were used during the decline of the
Roman Empire until the Spanish Inquisition's decline in the early 1800s. An
inquisition can be run by both civil and church authorities in order to
root out non-believers from a nation or religion. The Spanish Inquisition
was one of the most deadly inquisitions in history.

The Spanish Inquisition was used for both political and religious reasons.
Spain is a nation-state that was born out of religious struggle between
numerous different belief systems including Catholicism, Islam,
Protestantism and Judaism. Following the Crusades and the Reconquest of
Spain by the Christian Spaniards the leaders of Spain needed a way to unify
the country into a strong nation. Ferdinand and Isabella chose Catholicism
to unite Spain and in 1478 asked permission of the pope to begin the
Spanish Inquisition to purify the people of Spain. They began by driving
out Jews, Protestants and other non-believers.

In 1483 Tomas de Torquemada became the inquisitor-general for most of
Spain. He was responsible for establishing the rules of inquisitorial
procedure and creating branches of the Inquisition in various cities. He
remained the leader of the Spanish Inquisition for fifteen years and is
believed to be responsible for the execution of around 2,000 Spaniards. The
Catholic Church and the Pope attempted to intervene in the bloody Spanish
Inquisition but were unable to wrench the extremely useful political tool
from the hands of the Spanish rulers.

The Inquisition was run procedurally by the inquisitor-general who
established local tribunals of the Inquisition. Accused heretics were
identified by the general population and brought before the tribunal. The
were given a chance to confess their heresy against the Catholic Church and
were also encouraged to indict other heretics. If they admitted their
wrongs and turned in other aggressors against the church they were either
released or sentenced to a prison penalty. If they would not admit their
heresy or indict others the accused were publicly introduced in a large
ceremony before they were publicly killed or sentenced to a life in prison.
Around the 1540s the Spanish Inquisition turned its fire on the Protestants
in Spain in an attempt to further unify the nation. The Spanish
Inquisition's reign of terror was finally suppressed in 1834.

Sources:
Solsten, Eric D. Area Handbook for Spain. (Federal Research Division; 1990).
The New Encyclopedia Britannica. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc; 1994).
Eliade, Mircea, Ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion. (MacMillan Publishing Co;
1990).

The World Book Encyclopedia. (World Book-Childcraft International, Inc;
1994).


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On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 18:02:55 EDT, Wirt Atmar <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>From today's Associated Press:
>
>======================================
>
>Updated: 05:52 PM EDT
>Air Force Cadets Complain of Religious Harassment
>By ROBERT WELLER, AP
>
>AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (April 19) - Less than two years after it was
>plunged into a rape scandal, the Air Force Academy is scrambling to address
>complaints that evangelical Christians wield so much influence at the
school that
>anti-Semitism and other forms of religious harassment have become
pervasive.
>
>There have been 55 complaints of religious discrimination at the academy in
>the past four years, including cases in which a Jewish cadet was told the
>Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus and another was called a
Christ killer
>by a fellow cadet.
>
>The 4,300-student school recently started requiring staff members and
cadets
>to take a 50-minute religious-tolerance class.
>
>"There are things that have happened that have been inappropriate. And they
>have been addressed and resolved," said Col. Michael Whittington, the
academy's
>chief chaplain.
>
>More than 90 percent of the cadets identify themselves as Christian. A
cadet
>survey in 2003 found that half had heard religious slurs and jokes, and
that
>many non-Christians believed Christians get special treatment.
>
>"There were people walking up to someone and basically they would get in a
>conversation and it would end with, `If you don't believe what I believe
you are
>going to hell,"' Vice Commandant Col. Debra Gray said.
>
>Critics of the academy say the sometimes-public endorsement of Christianity
>by high-ranking staff has contributed to a climate of fear and violates the
>constitutional separation of church and state at a taxpayer-supported
school
>whose mission is to produce Air Force leaders.
>
>They also say academy leaders are desperate to avoid the sort of uproar
that
>came with the 2003 scandal in which dozens of women said their complaints
of
>sexual assault were ignored.
>
>"They are deliberately trivializing the problem so that we don't have
another
>situation the magnitude of the sex assault scandal. It is inextricably
>intertwined in every aspect of the academy," said Mikey Weinstein of
Albuquerque,
>N.M., a 1977 graduate who has sent two sons to the school. He said the
younger,
>Curtis, has been called a "filthy Jew" many times.
>
>The superintendent, Lt. Gen. John Rosa, conceded there was a problem
during a
>recent meeting of the Board of Visitors, the civilian group that oversees
the
>academy.
>
>"The problem is people have been across the line for so many years when you
>try and come back in bounds, people get offended," he said.
>
>The board chairman, former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, warned Rosa that
>changing things could prove complicated. He said evangelical
Christians "do not
>check their religion at the door."
>
>Other critics point to a series of incidents, including:
>
>The Air Force is investigating a complaint from an atheist cadet who says
the
>school is "systematically biased against any cadet that does not overtly
>espouse Christianity."
>
>The official academy newspaper runs a Christmas ad every year praising
Jesus
>and declaring him the only savior. Some 200 academy staff members,
including
>some department heads, signed it. Whittington noted the ad was not
published
>last December.
>
>The academy commandant, Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, a born-again Christian,
said
>in a statement to cadets in June 2003 that their first responsibility is to
>their God. He also strongly endorsed National Prayer Day that year. School
>spokesman Johnny Whitaker said Weida now runs his messages by several other
>commanders.
>
>Some officer commission ceremonies were held at off-campus churches. In a
>letter dated April 6, Weida said the ceremonies would be held on campus
from now
>on.
>
>Rosa and other academy leaders say some among the large number of Christian
>cadets - nearly 2,600 are Protestant, some 1,300 are Roman Catholic, and
about
>120 are Mormon - may not realize that evangelism is unwelcome among their
>fellow students. The corps of cadets also includes 44 Jews, 19 Buddhists
and a few
>Muslims, Hindus and others. There are 15 chaplains and one rabbi.
>
>Rosa himself intervened when Christian cadets began promoting "The
Passion,"
>Mel Gibson's movie about the crucifixion of Christ. He told cadets they
should
>not use government e-mail or other facilities to promote their personal
>agendas.
>
>Two of the nation's most influential evangelical Christian groups, Focus on
>the Family and New Life Church, are headquartered in nearby Colorado
Springs.
>Tom Minnery, an official at Focus on the Family, disputed claims that
>evangelical Christians are pushing an agenda at the academy, and
complained that "there
>is an anti-Christian bigotry developing" at the school.
>
>
>04/19/05 15:20 EDT
>
>========================================
>
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