When Christians try to exercise power as if it were God doing it, cruelty and suffering and tyranny follow swiftly. In short order, we get the steely-eyed monks of the Inquisition trying to drag the Moors and Jews of Spain into perfect orthodoxy, one fingernail at a time; we get the theocrats of Protestant New England hanging Quakers …; we get holy war, with weapons of ever-increasing sophistication. We get Guantánamo.
Francis Spufford, Unapologetic
Tagged: cruelty, Francis Spufford, Guantánamo, holy war, Inquisition, orthodoxy, power, random thoughts, suffering, tyranny
