Your feel good story for today

Truly the Lord works in mysterious ways. Who would have thought that the dreaded, evil Spanish Inquisition, loathed by everyone, could have actually worked the will of God, somehow? Indeed, who would have thought that the horrific auto-da-fe, the "Act of Faith", in which some terrified, tortured victim was burned alive in public could actually be a very good thing, in terms of conventional modern morality? Well, my friends, this is truly proof that absolutely every cloud has a silver lining. Because, you see, in the early to mid seventeenth century, amongst the most important victims of the Spanish Inquisition, were actually, virtually all the major Portuguese slave traders in the world! It seems there was savage competition between the Spanish and Portuguese slave traders, and the Spanish crown had decided they had had enough of this, so they decided to sic the Spanish Inquisition on the Portuguese, and destroy this threat to their income, once, and for all. The Spanish Inquisitors were encouraged to be creative in finding evidence of heresy in these Portuguese slave traders, and, so they were! Even if they had never had a single Jewish friend in their lives, or had ever been to a Jewish synagogue, they were accused of "Judaizing" if they so much as were disinclined to eat pork, or to use lard in cooking! And, they were tortured into confessions for it, their entire property was confiscated by state, and they were burned alive before their own jeering, cheering slaves! If that isn't enough to put a big smile on your face, I don't know what is. #history #christianity #funny #capitalism