11-17-25<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lately, here, I have found myself referring to martyrs \u2013 those who have died for their faith or beliefs. This has not been an intentional obsession, nor aspect of morbidity; nor yet a celebration of courage, sacrifice, and integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think my themes have been prompted, rather, by calendar-dates like Reformation Day and All Saints Day, and events like the threats Martin Luther endured, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, avoiding deathly aspects, martyrdom does not require ravenous lions, the rack, the pyre, the firing squad, or what Alice E Duffy called history\u2019s \u201cantidotes or heterodoxy.\u201d Martyrdom ain\u2019t what it used to be; that is to say, today there are milder forms of punishment, and subtler means of imposing conformity, throughout the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there are myriad punishments, and uncountable methods of crushing individual will, that contribute to 21-century martyrdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For individuals are being crushed; personal prerogatives are seduced; and big lies run the culture. Examples range from Woke \u201ceducation\u201d (i.e., secular propaganda) to, at the other extreme, mass execution of Christians in Nigeria. Socrates drank hemlock to poison himself rather than teach lies. \u201cE pur si muove\u201d was supposedly muttered by Galileo when the Catholic Church demanded he renounce his belief that the earth rotated around the sun \u2013 \u201cYet still it moves!\u201d His life was spared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Galileo nonetheless was grievously inconvenienced, so we are reminded that martyrdom does not require death. Would you deny the truth when you know that such a denial would change nothing? You might live to pursue other truths, and perhaps live to see your views vindicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously every case is different. Justice is measured on a scale, not stamped by a template.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the culture\u2019s incessant standards and versions of truth are persuasive, it makes history\u2019s martyrs seem more distant to us: many of them stood alone, threatened with torture and death, or as innocent victims of terror (as the Nigerian Christian girls when they know fior certain that their murderers lurk in the forest).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which category is braver is not my question. I am wondering how many of us realize that we are martyrs, most of us, every day of our \u201cnormal\u201d lives. You lose friends because of your political views. Worse, you change your opinions due to peer pressure. You refrain from condemning sins because you are afraid of \u201coffending\u201d someone. If your cancelled counseling could have saved their lives, you make martyrs of them, as well as of your own integrity. You believe that abortion is murder and drugs are destructive, but you keep quiet. You conform to the \u201cworld\u201d in order to advance in school, your job, clubs, or councils; surely that is sacrificing your self-esteem at the very least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In these examples you do not escape being burned at the stake, but \u2013 a curse of contemporary life \u2013 your standards are chipped away bit by bit by bit. Society wants us to believe that minor compromises are better than one huge offense\u2026 but that is like being just a little bit pregnant. Life doesn\u2019t work that way, and neither do our consciences no matter how we deaden them, or let society lull them to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I invite you to remember that our \u201clittle\u201d conflicts of conscience are not separate but descended from martyrs\u2019 battles in earlier times. Without martyrs who stood their ground or put to death when challenged over their beliefs, we are the inheritors of freedom. And responsibility. And inspiration. We gloss over minor inconveniences when we compromise, but they sacrificed all for principles. We stand on their bloody shoulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Declaration of Independence pledged \u201cour lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor\u201d (interesting, that order) when to be silent was an easy alternative when authority was challenged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hebrews Chapter 11 talks of a \u201cgreat cloud of witnesses\u201d who watch us and record our choices. Feel-good appearances before this contemporary version of civilization will gain us nothing\u2026 except the loss of our souls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n