Ten Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Church

Every religion has its fanatics. Every religion has its martyrs. Every religion has its quirks, its bright points, its growing pains and skeletons in the closet. Christianity is no different. Below I have listed some of the Church’s forgotten moments and factoids. Hope you find it as interesting as I did.

1. Coffee was condemned by the Church as an invention of Satan until 1600, when Pope Clement VIII sanctioned its consumption, declaring that it was “so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall cheat Satan by baptizing it.”
2. Early Christians were considered incestuous because they called everybody “brother” and “sister.” Even their spouses.
3. Pope Alexander VI had four children whom he publicly acknowledged.
4. In the '90s, many churches condemned Rock and Roll (even Christian Rock and Roll) as satanic. According to christwire.org, each instrument has a corrupting effect upon our youth. The bass, for instance, lulls the listeners into a "false sense of security and easily influenced zombie state," while the guitar "turns child agains parent, friend against ally, and man against God." Biblebelieves.com asks "Are Christians losing the ability to discern the difference between good and evil?" Apparently, yes.
5. Early Christians were believed to have dark initiation ceremonies, such as slaying an infant, covering it in oats to disguise it as a loaf of bread, and then devouring it. Misconceptions like these were common.
6. Peter was crucified upside down.
7. During the Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834) the Catholic monarchs became paranoid about people secretly practicing Judaism. They encouraged neighbors to spy on each other, watching to see if they engaged in Jewish activities such as abstaining from pork, wearing clean linen on Friday, or lighting candles unusually early.
8. The ichthys (fish) symbol is an acrostic made by the early Christians from the Greek “Iesous Christos Theou Yious Soter,” which is translated as “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”
9. Galileo, a prominent astronomer, was placed under house arrest by the Church because he believed in a heliocentric universe. At the time, the Church only tolerated geocentric beliefs.
10. In 3rd century Gaul, Saint Denis was beheaded by the local pagans for making too many converts. However, according to legend, Denis just picked up his head and continued preaching. He walked on for six miles before finally dropping dead.

So what do you think? Did you know about some of these? If so, which ones?