Beech Tree News Network

I have a friend who is an English professor.  He teaches full-time at a community college and part-time at a state university.  He is very hard-working and very southern.  He pronounces the word “aunt” as “ain’t” when referring to his mom’s sister, and he likes beans and cornbread, as well as chicken and dumplings.  As all good teachers do, he expects a lot from himself and from his students.  His class is not an “easy-A.”  At the end of each semester, he calls me with a list of quotes from the teacher evaluations his students submit.  His favorite so far said, “I thought this class was going to be a piece of cake.  Little did I know that I was going to be the cake and Mr. _____ was going to eat me for breakfast!” 
    He has a life outside the classroom.  Most of his friends live in Nashville, and he travels there often to spend time with them.  I expect him to find a job in that area one day.  Right now, he lives and teaches where he does because his mother is there, and he is very devoted to her.  My friend is one of the most decent human beings I have ever known.  He is also gay.
    Last week, when Omar Mateen unleashed all hell on the patrons of the gay night club, Pulse, my friend was heart-broken.  “It’s hard to wrap my head around the idea that someone can hate me just for who I love,” he texted.  I was heart-broken for him. 
    The British comedy group, Monty Python, has a skit in their collection entitled, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”  It is a comic bent on a very dark period in Spanish history.  During the reign of Catholic monarchs, King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella (circa 1480), a tribunal was established in order to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdom.  Royal decrees were issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews, Muslims, Protestants and any other non-Catholic religions to convert to Catholicism or leave Spain and its territories.
    Nearly one hundred fifty thousand persons were charged with crimes against the church and imprisoned; three thousand were found guilty and executed.  The first six convicts were burned at the stake.  By 1483, Jews were expelled from all of Andalusia, a Spanish holding.  The reason given for the expulsion was that Jews were trying to seduce faithful Christians away from the Catholic faith.  The Muslims and Protestants didn’t fare much better.  They too faced expulsion and persecution.  All guilty parties were given the “opportunity” to renounce their perspective religions and embrace the Catholic faith, but there were harsh penalties for “back-sliders,” usually involving burning at the stake (Wikipedia>wiki>Spanish_Inquisition).
    When I saw the breaking news on TV about the shooting at the gay club in Orlando, the first thought that ran through my mind was, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”  The next thought was, “I don’t know why not, people have been slaughtering each other over differences for centuries.”
The Bible encourages us to, “Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins.” (I Peter 4:8, NIV).  Revelation speaks of a “new heaven and a new earth” in which there will be no more tears and no more death.  I look forward to that state of being, and I really hope it’s not dependent on humanity learning to be tolerant of one another or I’m going to have a long wait.