Taken In
The young man was hungry and lonely. He realized as he adjusted his heavy pack that he was lost as well. All around, the city bustled with activity, everyone heading somewhere with great purpose. Weary with trying to find his way, he sat down, leaned back against a tree to rest, and closed his eyes. A shadow passed over him. Thinking it to be a dark cloud, he quickly opened his eyes and saw a beautiful, wealthy woman staring intently at him. Maybe she thinks I’m someone she knows, he thought. Starting to close his eyes again, he was startled when she walked confidently over to him and greeted him with a warm smile.
“Are you lost?” she inquired pleasantly. The man stumbled for an answer, wondering why such an alluring woman was taking an interest in him. “Uh, yeah, I guess so. I took a wrong turn somewhere.”
“You must be hungry. Why don’t you come home with me? We can have dinner and you can spend the night.”
Overwhelmed by her kindness, the young man said, “I’d love to go with you.” He wondered if this was the woman he’d always dreamed of finding.
“Good,” she said, and locking her arm in his, she began walking down a maze of streets and alleys, arriving finally at an ornate old house in the center of town. “This has been in my family for years,” she said. “Do you like it?”
“It’s quite impressive, but I feel out of place.”
As they entered the foyer, the woman said, “Now don’t worry about anything; you’ll be fine. Leave your pack here and make yourself at home. What would you like to eat?”
“Anything would be fine, but don’t go to a lot of trouble.” He didn’t quite know how to answer such an accommodating woman. He thought how fortunate he was to be taken in by her.
“It’s no trouble. I enjoy helping people out. I’ll just surprise you, then. It won’t take me long to prepare dinner.”
“Can I help you do anything?” the young man said.
“No, no. Just rest here. I’ll take care of everything.” She turned then and left him alone in the living room.
He looked around the spacious room, full of lavish furnishings, soft chairs, and couches covered with tapestries. He began to feel important and secure. Who could ask for anything more than this, he thought?
Drawn to the bookcase, he noticed an old box on one of the shelves. Pulling it out, he blew off the dust and looked inside, thinking it probably contained some old family mementos.
In the box were numerous newspaper clippings, tightly packed and yellow with age. Unfolding one, he read an account of a horrible murder. The second was about a grisly torture, and the third a bloody massacre. The descriptions seemed like something out of a nightmare. The young man was greatly perplexed at the contents of the box.
Why does she keep all this stuff anyway, he thought? She certainly doesn’t seem to be someone who would be interested in such gruesome accounts. He quickly put them away.
Just then the woman returned. She had changed clothes and was wearing a silky, loose-fitting gown. “Dinner will be ready soon,” she said. “Can I get you anything while you are waiting?”
The young man was stunned by her enticing attire and was still a bit shaken up over the discovery of the box. Stammering a bit, he answered her. “Uh well, I guess I’m fine. I ... I don’t think I need anything.”
She noticed his shaking voice. “What’s the matter? Oh, you must have found the box with all the articles, didn’t you?”
“Yes, how did you know?” he said.
“Everyone who comes here seems to find them. I keep forgetting to throw them away.”
“But, who did all those horrible things?” he asked.
“I did,” she said, off-handedly.
“You!” His heart began pounding, and he stammered in disbelief, “But ... but ... how could you be so cruel and heartless?” The woman did not answer him, but simply continued to smile sweetly. Beginning to feel trapped, he edged toward the door. “I think I’d better be going.”
The woman stepped in front of him, and gently took his arm. “You don’t understand. That’s all past. I’m not like that anymore. Those were violent times. Everyone was doing things like that. If you’d been there, you would have understood. You wouldn’t have thought it cruel or heartless.” Her words were spoken as smoothly as flowing oil and her voice was calm and sweet.
“Here, come sit down with me. I’ll explain it all to you. Those articles only tell half the story. I want you to know the truth.”
She led him to a couch and sat down close to him, taking his hands in hers. She said, “Listen, those people were really evil. They were the worst sort of men. They were liars. What they said made me look so bad. They were turning people against me and ruining my reputation. They wouldn’t listen to me, no matter how hard I pleaded with them to stop spreading their lies. I had to kill them. No one would ever have come home with me after listening to them.”
She slid closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. “Please don’t fret over the past. I’d never do those sorts of things anymore, and all their accusations have been laid to rest. It’s all forgotten. I’ve prepared a nice dinner for us. After dinner we’ll go and burn that old box. Then it won’t trouble anyone any more.”
Covering up the Past
If you were this man, would you feel secure in this woman’s house? It’s a long-established fact, regrettable though it is, that just like this woman’s victims, many people have been put to death, sent to prison and persecuted for their religious beliefs by the institutions of Christianity. I’m not going to horrify you with the historical details; they are easy enough to find, though they are a bit yellow with age. Doesn’t it make a knot twist up deep inside your guts to think that someone could kill or torture another human being because of what he believes about God? It’s really kind of sick, isn’t it?
The Catholic Church has often been blamed for the thousands of deaths that occurred during the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. Many people have used the details of her sordid past as a basis to reject her, wondering how God could actually be behind such slaughter. Many others choose to ignore the facts and write them off as “regrettable errors of the medieval mind”. Yet Catholicism alone cannot take the blame for such atrocities. Ungodly men in every religion have always sought to suppress the truth in unrighteous ways.
