grateful to those stern inquisitors

"It is quite possible that a renewed Christianity can improve modern life by correcting some of the deficiencies and curing some of the excesses of modernity.

I have found this to be true in my own life. I am a native of India, and my ancestors were converted to Christianity by Portuguese missionaries. As this was the era of the Portuguese Inquisition, some force and bludgeoning may also have been involved. When I came to America as a student in 1978, my Christianity was largely a matter of birth and habit. But even as I plunged myself into modern life in the United States, my faith slowly deepened. G. K. Chesterton calls this 'the revolt into orthodoxy'. Like Chesterton, I find myself rebelling against extreme secularism and finding in Christianity some remarkable answers to both intellectual and practical concerns. So I am grateful to those stern inquisitors for bringing me into the orbit of Christianity (...)"

(Dinesh d'Souza, What's so Great about Christianity, N. York: Regnery Pub. Co, 2007, pp. 10-11)