Those Darn Christians!

Since Easter is upon us, and the day of celebration of the resurrection of the Christ is of the utmost in many evangelical and fundamentalist minds, I thought I would address what was of utmost importance in the forming of Christianity as a religion in the West. Namely, the persecution of the martyrs (as I believe it is referred to).

I went trolling through my web archives of ancient texts to get the down-low at the time, from a worms' eye view so to speak. I rummaged through my link into The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon (the man, not the ape); and in particular,

(Volume 1) Chapter XVI
Conduct of the Roman government towards the Christians, from the reign of Nero to that of Constantine.

In it, Gibbon tries to explain why Christianity, the mildest of religions, was so downtrodden by the Roman Emperors, practisers of Polytheism which is perhaps the most liberal of all religious beliefs. For instance, the Jews were a major pain in the glutus-maximus on numerous occasions, and were sorted out right quick often. Yet, even after all this malarkey, they were even allowed NOT to pay tribute to the Pantheon of Gods like every other Roman citizen or subject, mostly because they were such noisy complainers, but great producers (no steak knifes for them!).

Why O Why didst they prosecute and persecute the kindly Christians so voraciously? Because they committed the UNFORGIVABLE sin in Roman Society... INTOLERANCE of the beliefs of others.

Herein I quote Gibbons; this subsection of Chapter XVI is titled:

The Jews were a people which followed, the Christians, a sect which deserted, the religion of their fathers.

"By their lofty claim of superior sanctity the Jews might provoke the Polytheists to consider them as an odious and impure race. By disdaining the intercourse of other nations they might deserve their contempt. The laws of Moses might be for the most part frivolous or absurd yet, since they had been received during many ages by a large society, his followers were justified by the example of mankind, and it was universally acknowledged that they had a right to practise what it would have been criminal in them to neglect. But this principle, which protected the Jewish synagogue, afforded not any favour or security to the primitive church. By embracing the faith of the Gospel the Christians incurred the supposed guilt of an unnatural and unpardonable offence. They dissolved the sacred ties of custom and education, violated the religious institutions of their country, and presumptuously despised whatever their fathers had believed as true or had reverenced as sacred. Nor was this apostasy (if we may use the expression) merely of a partial or local kind; since the pious deserter who withdrew himself from the temples of Egypt or Syria would equally disdain to seek an asylum in those of Athens or Carthage. Every Christian rejected with contempt the superstitions of his family, his city, and his province. The whole body of Christians unanimously refused to hold any communion with the gods of Rome, of the empire, and of mankind. It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted the inalienable rights of conscience and private judgment. Though his situation might excite the pity, his arguments could never reach the understanding, either of the philosophic or of the believing part of the Pagan world. To their apprehensions it was no less a matter of surprise that any individuals should entertain scruples against complying with the established mode of worship than if they had conceived a sudden abhorrence to the manners, the dress, or the language of their native country."

SO this will help explain why all that nasty shit happened to them. It might also explain how other groups perceive overbearing Christian organizations, authorities or nations.

I guess they never got The Robe on DVD.