Comment by ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net on [CW: death] How’s it going, America

There’s a reason the Romans weren’t super keen on having a bunch of Christians running around

yeah but you can’t solve martyrdom religious growth with murder and Rome never had a second idea after they thought of solving problems with murder

They did try saying “Please just say you’re not a Christian and then we can let you go and not murder you” but Christians have always been allergic to shutting the fuck up

it’s against the Christian religious belief to deny that they hold it. You might as well ask why Muslims targetted by the Spanish inquisition didn’t just eat pork so they would be let go

If I was Muslim in inquisition era Spain and the inquisition said “We’re going to murder you if you don’t eat this ham sandwich” I would absolutely eat the sandwich.

This is mostly based on the fact that when I was Christian if someone had said they were gonna murder me if I didn’t deny I’m Christian I wouldn’t have hesitated.

Obviously that doesn’t make the person giving threats okay but when given the choice between a relatively small sin against your religion and being violently murdered, most people pick the first one.

loads of people didn’t though and they didn’t not because they didn’t understand that being killed was bad but because they didn’t accept that armed men could tell them not to practice their religion

Exactly. And in addition… A person might easily say “yeah, I’d lie about my beliefs to save my hide!” But when the opposition forces it to be a matter of your very being and culture, when they force it to be a rejection of all the traditions you associate with your family, your very culture… It becomes a lot more understandable to be willing to die in defense of it.

fair enough but there are issues they have stuck to their guns on

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/07/paellas-dark-role-in-the-spanish-inquisition

The Communists (Christians) disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social (and religious) conditions.