For the love of Christ

[Gawen]

In Bible classes, some churches teach kids about martyrs.  In mine, the teacher told us about the importance of always standing up for Jesus, even if it cost us our lives.

Yeah, I got the same thing.

Conversely, if there ever were a god, it's name should be death. And the only thing we should ever have to say to it is "Not today".

[Twentythree]

In Bible classes, some churches teach kids about martyrs.  In mine, the teacher told us about the importance of always standing up for Jesus, even if it cost us our lives.

Yeah, I got the same thing.

Conversely, if there ever were a god, it's name should be death. And the only thing we should ever have to say to it is "Not today".

Nice GOT reference.

[Too Few Lions]

Church Fathers like Cyprian and Basil of Caesaria openly promoted martyrdom as a way of gaining entrance to heaven.

Sounds a lot like another group of religious extremists I know. The kind that like to drive planes into buildings.

Yeah, when you look at the way the Romans viewed the early Christians (and particularly the martyrs) it was very similar to how we westerners would view Islamic extremists today. And the way the early Christians viewed all non-Christians was very similar to the way al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremists view all infidels. The downside is that the religious extremists won out 1800 years ago. The outlawing of all non-Christian texts and any philosophical or religious debate, and the deliberate destruction of libraries, temples, academies and any other place of non-Christian learning in the 4th-6th centuries helped to bring about the Dark Ages.