Syrian Priest Martyred **graphic**

[Laudate_Dominum]

Hassy's boy Chomsky documents many cases of murder and genocide being ignored or downplayed in the Western media. Is Hassy still banned? I'm pissed about that too.

[Apotheoun]

Hassy's boy Chomsky documents many cases of murder and genocide being ignored or downplayed in the Western media. Is Hassy still banned? I'm pissed about that too.

Please try to control your bladder.

[Laudate_Dominum]

Sorry, I forgot to use my usual way of spelling it: I'm pist about Hassy's banning. 

[Era Might]

Again, it's a figure of speech and I'm not literally pissed off. And your attempted criticism is misplaced as the alleged martyrdom aspect has nothing to do with my interest in this. I watched a video in which two men were beheaded and I'd just like to know what that was all about. I thought it was tacky that catholic.org (secular news?) failed to even mention the second victim, at least in the article that I read. (EDIT: The catholic.org article linked by theblaze does briefly mention of the second victim, but I have no reason to think that any details in that article are true.)
If I had watched a video in which two lapsed Hindu circus performers were beheaded for their craft I would have more or less the same feelings as I have about this right now. I can't be enthusiastic about a martyrdom narrative when I'm hardly clear on the basics of what happened or the credibility of any of the reports. You underestimate my cynicism and incredulity.

 

Wasn't criticizing anything, just asking for more info about your post.

[Laudate_Dominum]

Acknowledged.

[Era Might]

What is often forgotten is that an act of martyrdom is also an act of murder. Christians are killed every day in the Muslim world simply because they are Christians. It is sad that people in the United States often seem indifferent to this situation, because we are witnessing a genocide against Christians in the Middle East and it saddens me that the vast majority of people in the West are not upset about it.

 

This view of things, that Christians are a minority in need of international protection, assumes a pluralistic society where the international community is the guarantor of religious coexistence. That is a useful viewpoint if we consider Christians as a social group, but as a religious movement I don't think that viewpoint has much to offer.

 

The character in Kafka's "The Trial" has always seemed to me like the perfect modern martyr. His quiet, powerless death, two shots in the dark in an isolated place, with nobody to create a story, and no story to tell anyway, he is just a victim in a state that failed to protect him. Graham Greene's "The Power and the Glory" has the opposite of that...his martyr is killed matter-of-factly, but the novel ends with a peasant family telling the glorious tale of the martyr...nothing matter of fact about it, nothing secular about it.

 

That's why I was interested in the question of media reports...facts have never made good martyrs. :)

Edited July 4, 2013 by Era Might