1.2 Persecution of Early Christians by Romans

According to the New Testament, Jesus' crucifixion was authorized by Roman authorities and carried out by Roman soldiers. The NT also records that Paul on his missions was imprisoned on several occasions by the Roman authorities. Once he was stoned and left for dead. Finally he was taken as a prisoner to Rome. The New Testament account does not say what then became of Paul, but Christian tradition reports that he was executed in Rome by being beheaded. Christian tradition reports that Peter was likewise executed in Rome, by crucifixion (upsidedown, at his request because he did not feel he deserved the 'honor' of dying in the same way as Christ died).

2 Early Persecutions in Other Sources

Aside from the occasional lynching, the first organized, state-supported persecution of Christians is the one initiated by Nero in 64 AD, in a search for scapegoats after the Great Fire of Rome. Further state persecutions were desultory until the persecution under Diocletian that began in 303 AD.

The persecution under Decius from the winter of 250 to the following spring of 251 martyred Fabius , Bishop of Rome, involved Cyprian, bishop of Cathage, in controversy, and figures large in the founding myths of the seven bishops sent to Christianize Gaul, but finds no confirmation outside the hagiographic tradition. Christian sources aver that a decree was issued requiring public sacrifice, a formality equivalent to a testimonial of allegiance to the Emperor and the established order. Decius authorized roving commissions visiting the cities and villages to supervise the execution of the sacrifices and to deliver written certificates to all citizens who performed them. Christians were often given opportunities to avoid further punishment by publicly offering sacrifices or burning incense to Roman gods, and were accused by the Romans of impiety when they refused. Refusal was punished by arrest, imprisonment, torture, and executions. Christians fled to safe havens in the countryside and some purchased their certificates, called libelli. Severe mid-3rd century persecutions in North Africa sundered and traumatized the Christian communities there, some of whom turned upon fellow members who had temporarily abjured their faith under duress. Several councils held at Carthage debated the extent to which the community should accept these lapsed Christians.

The career and writings of Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, throw light on the aftermath of the Decian persecutions in the Carthaginian Christian community. (Fuller details are at the entry Cyprian.)

Some early Christians sought out and welcomed their persecutions:

Jesus, too, says John, really committed suicide, and Augustine spoke of "the mania for self-destruction" of early Christians¹⁹². Roman authorities tried hard to avoid Christians because they "goaded, chided, belittled and insulted the crowds until they demanded their death.";¹⁹³; One man shouted to the Roman officials: "I want to die! I am a Christian," leading the officials to respond: "If they wanted to kill themselves, there was plenty of cliffs they could jump off.";¹⁹⁴; But the Christians, following Tertullian's dicta that "martyrdom is required by God," forced their own martyrdom so they could die in an ecstatic trance: "Although their tortures were gruesome, the martyrs did not suffer, enjoying their analgesic state."¹⁹⁵ The Emotional Life of Nations

The conditions under which martyrdom was an acceptable fate or under which it was suicidally embraced occupied writers of the early Christian church. Broadly speaking, martyrs were considered uniquely exemplary of the Christian faith, and few early saints were not also martyrs. However, suicide is murder, and is associated with treason to the faith - the very opposite of martyrdom - the way of Judas the traitor, not of Jesus the savior. The 2nd century Martyrdom of Polycarp, records the story of Quintus, a Christian who handed himself over to the Roman authorities, but turned coward and sacrificed to the Roman gods when he saw the wild beasts in the colosseum: "For this reason therefore, brothers, we do not praise those who hand themselves over, since the gospel does not so teach." John the Evangelist never accused Jesus of suicide or self-destruction, but rather says that Jesus chose not to resist arrest and crucifixion.

In 337, a spate in the ongoing hostilities between Sassanid Persia and the Roman Empire led to anti-Christian persecutions by the Persians of Christians who were perceived as potentially treacherous friends to a Christianized Rome under Constantine. Over the next few decades, thousands of Christians died. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, Christian missionaries, most successfully Ulfilas converted the Goths to Arian Christianity, which the Goths saw as an attack on their religion and culture. The Visigoth King Athanaric began persecuting Christians, many of whom were killed. In the 5th and 6th century, Arianism became prevalent among the Goths; during their forays into Italy, Gaul (France) and Spain they destroyed many churches and killed a number of Christian clergy.

In 429 the Vandals (who were Arians) conquered Roman Africa. Catholics were discriminated against; Catholic Church property was confiscated. Thousands of Catholics were banished from Vandal held territory.

The New Catholic Encyclopaedia notes that "Ancient, medieval and early modern hagiographers were inclined to exaggerate the number of martyrs. Since the title of martyr is the highest title to which a Christian can aspire, this tendency is natural". Estimates of Christians killed for religious reasons before the year 313 vary greatly, depending on the scholar quoted, from a high of almost 100,000 to a low of 10,000.

3 Persecution of Christians by Christians

This large sub-section is more fully dealt with at the entry for heresy, but it should be noticed here that many devoutly believing Christians have been martyred by other Christians, as "heretics," sometimes over impassioned controversy concerning quite refined points of theology. The first Christian publicly martyred as a "heretic" was Priscillian, who was beheaded for his ascetic views. Recent rediscovery of his authentic writings has failed to reveal the heretical nature of his teachings.

Alleged persecution of Trinitarian Christians by Visigothic Arians has passed into Christian legend. Visigothic kings and nobles scorned "catholic" Christians and kept their bishops (who wrote all the chronicles that have survived) from positions of power. But there was no Visigothic persecution of Christians or disruption of their worship, a situation that was changed as soon as Catholic Christians came to power in Visigothic Spain.

Among the Christian history, many national wars have started because of different sects of Christianity, resulting thousands of deaths. Most notable example is Catholics vs Protestants in Europe.

The ancient Christian-Jewish nasrani community of Kerala, in South India was persecuted by the portuguese in the early 1500s. They denounced the Syrian Nasrani account of christian-jewish faith as false. The Portuguese imposed their rituals and liturgy on the Syro malabar christians and obliterated the Jewish legacy from the Syro malabar Nasrani tradition.

Even in modern times we see one denomination persecuting another, as in Italy, where from the Lateran Treaty of the Fascist government with the Vatican resulted into a 30 years of intense persecution against religious minorities, notably Pentecostals and other marginal Protestants. See also: Religious intolerance -- History of Christianity -- Religious pluralism

4 Later Jewish Persecution of Christians

During the famous Bar Kochba Rebellion of AD 135, Christians refused to fight, as a result of which, according to Justin Martyr, they were "commanded to be published severely, if they did not deny Jesus as the Messiah and blaspheme him."[1]

In pre-Islamic Yemen, a Jewish king called Dhu Nuwas came to power and persecuted Christians in his realm, and massacred Christian communities in Najran in about 524; apparently this was intended as retaliation for Byzantine persecutions of the Jews.[2] According to Muslim tradition, he was the person cursed in the Quran for burning believers alive (Quran 85:4-8.)

Much of the Christian propaganda about Jews needs to be read with an eye to its intended audience and its intended effect. At the time of Khosrau II's sack of Jerusalem in 614, Antiochus Strategos was a monk at the monastery (lavra) of St Sabas in Jerusalem. His account of the sack claims the Jews took the opportunity to persecute the Christians. But maybe it is just a vivid libel against the Jews of Jerusalem that takes its literary cues from the hagiographic tradition and invented parallels with Scripture. Such kind of propaganda was often designed to inflame anti-semitism. It is quite controversial if there is nevertheless some historic truth in Strategos's account.

• Antiochus Strategos, The Sack of Jerusalem: e-text excerpt of the Persian sack of Jerusalem, 614.

In Ethiopia, Queen Gudit, who persecuted Christians around 970 AD and helped bring down the Kingdom of Aksum, is said in Ethiopian chronicles to have been Jewish, though some modern scholars have cast doubt on this, suggesting that she may have been a pagan[3].

5 Islamic Persecution of Christians

5.1 Iconoclasm

5.2 Ottoman Empire

5.3 Murder and Enslavement of Christians in the Sudan today

Over 1.5 million Christians have been murdered by Islamists in northern Sudan since 1984.

5.4 Murder of Christians by Islamists in Pakistan

Oct. 28, 2001 - Lahore, Pakistan - terrorists murder 15 Christians at a church. On 25 September 2002 two terrorists went into the "Peace and Justice Institute", Karachi. They separated Muslims from the Christians, and then executed eight Christians by shooting them in the head.

5.5 Murder of Christians by Islamists in Indonesia

1998 - 500 Christian churches burned down in Java.

November 1998 - 22 churches in Jakarta are burned down. 13 Christians killed.

Christmas Day 1998 - 180 homes and stores owned by Christians are destroyed in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

Easter 2000 - 800 homes and stores owned by Christians are destroyed in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

May 23 2000 - Christian fight back against a Muslim mob. 700 people die.

June 2001 - the Laskar Jihad declares Jihad against Christians. Muslim citizens are recruited by the thousands to exterminate Christians.

http://www.persecution.org/news/press2001-03-09.html

5.6 Discrimination and persecution in other Arab and Muslim nations

In Saudi Arabia, Christians can be arrested and lashed for practicing their faith in public. No non-Muslims are allowed to become Saudi citizens. Prayer services by Christians are broken up by the police, and people who convert to Christianity can officially be executed, although this has not in fact been done in many years. (cf. US State Department)

In Egypt, the government does not officially recognise conversions from Islam to Christianity; because certain interfaith marriages are not allowed either, this prevents marriages between converts to Christianity and those born in Christian communities, and also results in the children of Christian converts being classified as Muslims and given a Muslim education. The government also requires permits for repairing churches or building new ones, which are often withheld. Foreign missionaries are allowed in the country only if they restrict their activities to social improvements and refrain from proselytizing (US State Department). The Coptic Pope Shenouda III was internally exiled in 1981 by President Anwar Sadat, who then chose five Coptic bishops and asked them to choose a new pope. They refused, and in 1985 President Hosni Mubarak restored Pope Shenouda III, who had been accused of fomenting interconfessional strife. Particularly in Upper Egypt, the rise in extremist Islamist groups such as the Gama'at Islamiya during the 1980s was accompanied by attacks on Copts and on Coptic churches; these have since declined with the decline of those organizations, but still continue. The police have been accused of siding with the attackers in some of these cases[4]. Nevertheless, high-ranking government officials in Egypt have included Copts like Boutros Ghali and his grandson, Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

In Malaysia, proselytisation of Muslims is illegal. US State Department For more information,see Christianity in Malaysia.

In the Philippines, the Moro Islands Liberation Front has attacked and killed Christians.[5]

5.7 Persecution in Kosovo

In March 2004, many largely Muslim Albanians attacked over thirty Christian churches and monasteries in Kosovo, killed at least thirty Christians, and burned hundreds of Christians' homes, over the course of about five days. One NATO commander said it verged on ethnic cleansing of Serbians. Others compared it to Kristallnacht. Over 150 Christian churches and monasteries were destroyed in the five years prior to this incident. See Unrest in Kosovo, and http://www.kosovo.net.

6 Discrimination and persecution in the Soviet Union

After the Revolution of 1917, The Bolsheviks undertook a massive program to destroy the great influence the Russian Orthodox Church had on Russian society and to make the state atheist. Thousands of churches were destroyed or converted to other uses, such as warehouses. Monasteries were closed and often converted to prison camps, most notably the Solovetz monastery becoming Solovki concentration camp. Priests and monks were imprisoned or killed systematically. Thousands of lay believers were also imprisoned or executed for the offense of believing in God. These victims are now recognized as the New Martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church, the old martyrs being the victims of the Roman persecutions. Church property was looted, including the icons and other objects of worship, especially those made of precious metals.

The intense persecution abated during the World War II, at which time Stalin's government actually made some semblance of peace with the church in order to use it as part of its program to inspire Russian patriotic feeling to fight the German invaders. After that, the Soviet government sought to put the church under control by appointing loyal men as priests, allegedly ending up with the entire upper ranks of the church being officers of the KGB.

A concerted effort was made to prevent or disrupt the social gatherings of Christians. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the celebration of Christmas and the traditional Russian holiday of New Year was prohibited (later on New Year was reinstated as a secular holiday and is now the most significant family holiday in Russia). Gatherings and religious processions were initially prohibited and later on strictly limited and regulated. In later years, a more subtle method of disrupting Christian holidays involved broadcasting very popular movies one after the other on the major holidays when believers are expected to participate in religious processions, especially during the Easter celebration. Apparently, this was intended to keep those, whose faith was uncertain or wavering, in their homes and glued to their TVs.

An intense ideological anti-Christian and anti-religious campaign was carried out throughout the history of the Soviet Union. An extensive education and propaganda campaign was undertaken to convince people, especially the children and youth, not to become believers. The role of the Christian religion and the church was painted in black colors in school textbooks. For instance, much emphasis was placed on the role of the church in such historical horror stories as the Inquisition, persecution of Galileo, Giordano Bruno, and other heretical scientists, and the Crusades. School students were encouraged to taunt and use peer pressure against classmates wearing crosses or otherwise professing their faith. In the 1920s there were many "anti-God" publications and social clubs sponsored by the government, most notably the scathingly satirical " Godless at the Workbench " ("Bezbozhnik u Stanka" in Russian). Later on, these disappeared because a new generation has grown up essentially atheist.

A "scientific" perspective was used to attack religion extensively. The church was falsely portrayed as obscurantist and opposed to the findings of science. Much has been made of alleged Christian belief in the literal Creation account in the book of Genesis which the pro- Darwinian textbooks ridiculed. Interestingly, as part of the anti-foreign and anti-capitalist propaganda, a not-so-subtle effort was made, especially in the 1920s and 1930s to imprint in the minds of the people an image of the West as dominated by the anti-scientific ignorance of the church, as opposed to the scientifically "progressive" atheist Soviet state.

In general, the church was portrayed as corrupt, hypocritical, a loyal servant of the reactionary czar, obscurantist, "opium for the people" according to Karl Marx, and otherwise evil. This Communist persecution of the church has proved enormously successful. Within the span of one generation, the traditionally highly devout Russian people have become overwhelmingly atheist. This transformation has been pretty much complete by the 1950s. As such, it counts as one of the greatest and the most successful persecutions Christianity has ever experienced, on par only with the destruction of Christianity in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia Minor by the Islamic and Turkish conquests.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the government of Russia openly embraced the Russian Orthodox Church, and there was a reputed renaissance in the number of the faithful in Russia. As of 2004 it is generally noted, however, that whereas a very large percent of Russians today identify themselves as believers and members of the church (up from a very small group in the Soviet days), still relatively few of them actually attend church regularly, read the Bible, or otherwise take their communion with the church seriously. For many, it seems, faith has become a matter of personal identification and readiness to baptize their children or have church marriage and burial ceremonies, and not much else. This is a clear testimony to the completeness and the long term success of the Communist persecution of the Christianity in Russia.

Richard Wurmbrand, author of Tortured for Christ described the systematic persecution of Christians in one East Bloc nation. Many Christian believers in the Soviet Union have told of being imprisoned for no other reason than believing in God - a fate shared no less by Jewish believers. Many have recently been canonized as saints following their death at the hands of Soviet authorities; they are collectively referred to in the Orthodox church as the "new martyrs". (See also Enemy of the people, Gulag, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Varlam Shalamov)

7 Persecution in other Eastern Block nations

Enver Hoxha conducted a campaign to extinguish all forms of religion in Albania in 1967, closing all religious buildings and declaring the state atheist. See Communist and post-Communist Albania.

8 Persecution of Christians in China

8.1 Emperor Tang Wu Zong

Tang Wu Zang (of the Tang dynasty) ruled from 840 to 846. Known as a Taoist zealot, he suppressed all other religions within China, especially Buddhism; he saw Christianity as a distant branch of Buddhism. Nestorianism, only Chinese christian branch at that time, was virtually wiped out in China.

8.2 Qing Dynasty

When Jiaqing Emperor of China declared the close door policy, Christianity suffered the first drawback. After the Opium War, Christians became a target of hatred and many Christians were killed in the Boxer Rebellion.

8.3 People's Republic of China

The Communist government tries to maintain tight control over religions, so it outlaws all Christian churches, except those under the Communist Party's control (see article on Chinese House Churches).

9 Persecution in Japan

9.1 Arrival of Christianity

Following the arrival in Japan of the Portuguese in the early 1500s, Christianity gained much ground.

9.2 Edo Period

As the Sengoku period drew to a close in the late 1500s, the reigning kampaku Hideyoshi Toyotomi became concerned with the popularity of Christianity and thus drove out the missionaries and killed 26 Christians as an example. The trade continued, but the tradition of persecution had begun. With the subsequent rise of the Tokugawa shogunate, the government's anti-Christian sentiment grew. In 1614, mostly to curb the Dutch attempts to make inroads into Japan's economy, Christianity was outlawed. The penalty for following Christianity was death. Thousands of Japanese Christians were killed for maintaining their faith despite the ban. A substantial community of Christians in Nagasaki remained, as well as many smaller groups throughout Japan, despite the persecution.

9.3 Meiji Revolution and WWII

During the Meiji era and until the end of World War II, the law banning Christianity remained in effect, even though the Meiji Constitution technically allowed freedom of religion. As a result Christianity was still an illegal religion in Japan that remained punishable by death. With the new reforms, Nagasaki became open to trade, but as the ban on Christianity still remained in effect so did the government persecution. Nevertheless, despite this Christianity continued to grow. During WWII, Shinto became the official religion and all others were made crimes with varying degrees of punishment. The persecution, most especially toward Christians (who were seen as sympathetic to the Allies), intensified until the end of the war, as non-Shinto were seen as traitors to Japan.

9.4 Cessation of Persecution

After the surrender of Japan in 1945, she was forced to enact freedom of religion as part of the surrender, immediately stopping the persecution. After Japan regained her sovereignty, freedom of religion remained as part of the new Constitution of Japan.

10 National Socialist Persecution of Christians

Although less programmatically hostile to Christianity as such than were the communists in the Soviet Union and far less hostile to Christianity than to Judaism, which the nazis sought to exterminate in the Holocaust throughout the Third Reich and lands that came under nazi rule, nazi totalitarianism demanded that all religious activity conform to the desires of nazi leadership. An attempt by Alfred Rosenberg to restore an "Aryan" paganism came to no fruition. Christian churches were obliged to accept the racist doctrines of national socialism. The Gestapo monitored Christian clergy and congregations for any semblance of dissent with nazi policies, and many Christian clergy and laymen ended up in concentration camps when they asserted opposition to the immoral teachings and practices of national socialism or if they acted upon pacifist convictions (like many Jehovah's Witnesses).

The expansion of nazi Germany and the establishment of nazi rule in occupied countries ranged from that characteristic in nazi Germany itself to conditions approaching those of the Soviet Union. Catholic priests in Poland preceded even Jews to the concentration camps; many were murdered in the liquidation of the Polish intelligentsia . In the puppet state of Croatia, the Ustase persecuted the Serbian Orthodox minority and subjected many Orthodox Christians to forced conversions.

Captured nazi documents indicate that had Operation Sealion, the called-off invasion of the United Kingdom succeeded, the nazis would have sought to liquidate the Church of England.

11 Hindu Persecution of Christians

23 Jan 1999 - Graham Staines, an Australian Christian missionary aged 55 years, and his two sons, aged 8 and 10, were burned to death in the state of Orissa by members of Hindutva Parivar , a Hindu nationalist group. Staines was accused of making derogatory remarks about Hinduism, fraudulently converting local tribals, sexually assaulting a villagers wife and slaughtering cows, the most sacred animal to Hindus.

In Sept. 2002 eight Christian missionaries were beaten during worship services by Hindu fundamentalists.

In Oct. 2002 the governor of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu issued an ordinance aimed at preventing people from converting to Christianity, on the pretext that such conversions occur due to fraud. Christians may be sentenced to up to three years in jail if convicted of such a crime.

However, local Hindus have often criticized missionaries for exploiting the impoverished condition of non-Christians to convert them. In several cases, Christian pastors have publicly made derogatory remarks about Hinduism. In other cases, foreign missionaries have denied medical treatment and food aid to Hindus who refuse to convert to Christianity.

It should be noted that the majority of instances of persecutions of Christians in India do not involve the native Saint Thomas Christians, but rather Latin Rite Catholics and Protestants.

Christian News Source with several articles on persecution of Christians in India

Indians Against Christian Aggression

12 References

Let My People Go: The True Story of Present-Day Persecution and Slavery Cal. R. Bombay, Multnomah Publishers, 1998

Their Blood Cries Out Paul Marshall and Lela Gilbert, World Press, 1997.

In the Lion's Den: Persecuted Christians and What the Western Church Can Do About It Nina Shea, Broadman & Holman, 1997.

Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive World History by Robert Royal, Crossroad/Herder & Herder; (April 2000). BooksEnthsiast.com

The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967 (15 volume set)

13 External links

• Voice of the Martyrs, and also VOM Australia
• International Christian Concern
• Coptic Christians persecuted in Egypt
• Anti-Slavery organization
• Religious Tolerance
• "The Vengeance of the Jews Was Stronger Than Their Avarice: Modern Historians and the Persian Conquest of Jerusalem in 614" by Elliott Horowitz (Jewish Social Studies Volume 4, Number 2)
• About the Noahide Laws
• On Jewish-Catholic Relations
• On the persecution of Catholics in Mexico
• The Catholic League Anti-Catholic Bigotry in the United States
• Graeme Clark, "Christians and the Roman State 193-324"
• Catholic Answers
• Photojournalist's Account - Images of Sudan's persecution

Christian interfaith and secular relations Religious persecution

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