The word inquisition is defined as a thorough investigation. That process is needed to arrive at the truth of any given event.

However, THE Inquisition, as we refer to it historically, was not a pure process. It was bent and perverted to force individuals, under penalty of physical torture, to arrive at the prescribed truth as determined by those in power.

History has provided us with countless examples of man’s inhumanity to man based on their own rabid belief system. There are fringe groups that become attack dogs and are willing to run over the personal dignity and honor of anyone in their path.

It should cause every one of us to take a step back and pause.

Religion is defined as a belief, activity, or cause pursued with fervor and devotion. All of the harm of fanatics comes when their minions are whipped into feverish zeal for their cause and pursue any means to accomplish it.

Historian Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote:

“We are in a new Inquisition. Self-appointed censors try to stamp out any idea or word that they don’t wish to be aired – in the pursuit of a new race, class, gender and environment orthodoxy. … Unfortunately, the Obama administration has been part of the problem, not part of the solution. … All of that them/us rhetoric has given a top-down green light to radical thought police to harass anyone who is open-minded about man-caused global warming, or believes that gay marriage needs more debate, or that supporting Israel is a legitimate cause, or that breaking federal immigration law is still a crime and therefore ‘illegal.’ Our civil liberties will not be lost to crude fascists in jackboots. More likely, the death of free speech will be the work of the new medieval Torquemadas who claim they destroyed freedom of expression for the sake of ‘equality’ and ‘fairness’ and ‘saving the planet.”

God Himself endowed us with free will. We need to hang on to that inherent freedom with a strong grip.

He is not eager for us to become automatons, but instead wants us to be able to discuss issues and concerns in order to conduct thorough investigation.

May we be unwilling to surrender our own freedoms, but may we become more and more skillful in an expression of our thoughts, seasoning them thoroughly in the grace and love of God!

Psalm 56:13 New International Version (NIV): “For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling,
 that I may walk before God in the light of life.”