BarbWire columnist Bill Muehlenberg thinks that while the church may have gone too far in killing, expelling, torturing, and imprisoning thousands of people during the Spanish Inquisition, at least it showed that at one point in history, Christians were serious about combating heresy.

“In many respects this was a real perversion of biblical Christianity,” Muehlenberg said of the killing and torture in a column this week. “But we should not throw the baby out with the bath water. Heresy is a vitally important issue, and must be dealt with.”

Muehlenberg, insistent that the Inquisition’s deadly consequences have been exaggerated, said that Christians today should remember the importance of fighting heretics: “[I]t can be said that Christendom back then took the issues of truth, orthodoxy and heresy seriously. Far too few believers today take such matters with the importance and earnestness which they deserve.