After French neo-fascism, US ‘mainstream’ conservatives whitewash Spanish Inquisition

This Christian video says about itself:

The Spanish Inquisition

March 31, 1492 was one of the saddest days in history. [Spanish rulers] Ferdinand and Isabella signed an edict to remove all the Jews from Spain. This was in direct objection to scripture, as Paul said so well, “Dear friends, my greatest wish and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved” Romans 10:1. History began to repeat itself again…. A state church was established and the Jewish people as well as all unbelievers in the state church where rounded up and tortured. The top down dictation of religion was enforced. We know as Christians a morality must come from the heart, not from rulers, through force. Not everything done under the name of Christianity is Christian. We need to read his word and love others, not persecute. Change comes from the heart, bottom up, not top down.

First, the United States main conservative political conference invited not just President Trump and Vice President Pence, but also invited French neo-fascist Marion Maréchal-Le Pen.

Then, there was the British ‘mainstream’ Conservative Spectator weekly, praising Adolf Hitler’s World War II Wehrmacht.

Now, there is the ‘mainstream’ United States National Review. With a history of whitewashing anti-Semitism and racist segregation. And support for wars. Like George W Bush’s Iraq war, which they defended vehemently against, eg, Dear Kitty. Some Blog.

And now, from United States daily The Forward:

Conservative Magazine Defends Spanish Inquisition, Calls It ‘Ahead Of Its Time’

June 28, 2018

By Alyssa Fisher

The prominent conservative magazine National Review published an op-ed defending the Spanish Inquisition, lamenting that most opinions of it were formed by Elizabethan propaganda.

Ed Condon, a writer and practicing canon lawyer, argued that northern European kingdoms worked to “paint the Spanish Empire as constitutionally evil; not just a political, religious, and military rival but an existential threat to all that was good in the world.” The Spanish Inquisition, which he wrote became “byword for oppression and abuse dressed up as law”, became the lead example.

Condon claims that the Inquisition was “ahead of its time” and a “pioneer of many judicial practices we now take for granted.” He argued that the legal concept of “inquisition” is not sinister, but because it was a religious court based primarily on heresy trials, it gained the reputation of an “ecclesiastical thought police run by religious fanatics who trapped innocent laymen with theological technicalities.”

The inquisition led to the conversion or expulsion of Spain’s Jews upon penalty of death, an event that is commemorated on Tisha B’Av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. Those who converted were subjected to enhanced investigation by the inquisition, and “lived in fear of denunciation as ‘secret Jews’ and could have their property seized and their lives ruined”, Condon admitted.

But he added [that] the jails of the Inquisition were known to be hygienic and well maintained and not run as places of punishment. He acknowledged the inquisition’s use of torture, but said it is often placed out of context.

He concluded that while the Spanish Inquisition was not “something to be proud of or remembered fondly…it was also, by the standards of the time, in many ways superior to almost all other courts.”

Though Roman Catholic religious rightists may agree with Condon, Protestant religious rightists, with their tradition of seeing the pope as the Antichrist, will not.

This video says about itself:

The documentary explains the origins and aims of the Spanish Inquisition in the XV century, specially its persecution of “Conversos” or “Marranos” (cristianized Jews).

Dutch far-right Catholic author Robert Lemm also defends the Spanish Inquisition, Spanish 16th century King Philip II against whom the Low Countries revolted, and twentieth century Spanish dictator Franco.