Inquisition Denial

I saw recently were the Vatican has put out a report that the Inquisition wasn’t that bad. It was mostly bad press that made it look bad. How do you give good press to torture and burning people alive? I noticed this report came out after George Bush’s visit to the Vatican maybe his spin people got together with the Vatican’s spin people and gave them a few pointers.
(Nothing like a little rewriting of history to fit these times.)
I’ve always admired the incredible audacity the priest of the Inquisition used to rationalize burning people alive at the steak. They figured if they tied someone to steak and set them on fire it was then up to God whether the person died or lived. Since no one ever surirved being burned at the steak I guess they deserved it in God’s eyes including old Joan Of Arc.
Odd how God kept changing sides during that war first sending messages to Joan to inspire the French then going over to the English side and burning Joan to death at the steak for being a witch, for listing to him in the first place.
But the priest of the Inquisition were nothing special, through out history and right up to the present the holiest of men and women have been able to rationalize any act of violence to achieve God’s will. It appears the stronger the belief the easier to rationalize the act. From the Priest who gave aboslution to the Chilean soldiers as they threw people out of helicopters over the ocean in the 70’s to the Ayatollahs who guarantee a honoured place in heaven to the suicide bombers of today.
I know, you say, these people are just the fanatic fringe but when your on the outside looking in it's hard to tell just where the fringe begins.
So what about the evils of the godless, who we got, Stalin, Mao, and PolPot and their fanatic followers and all the evil done in their names. Yes there is evil there also. But maybe the truth is it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God, Mao, or the Great Pumpkin as long as the belief is strong enough in it’s own self-righteousness any evil is possible. And there's nothing more righteous then live up to the will of God.
What drives people, like me, about religion is the hypocrisy to talk peace while committing murder.