martyrdom: what god wants

It is amazing the lengths that some people will go to, to please god.

It is difficult to look at religion without sooner or later stumbling across the word martyr (which means witness).  In the early days of Christianity bearing witness (martyrdom) was not intended to lead to the death of the witness, but often did as Christians were persecuted heavily in Rome for their beliefs.

Especially by the middle of the third century, as the Roman Empire was on the verge of collapse, and in order to impose order the emperor Diocletian decreed that everyone in the Roman army should make a sacrifice to appease the gods (whose neglect, he believed, was the root of the problem.) Many Christians (a large demographic of his army) refused, and in response, Diocletian ordered the destruction of churches, arrested many of the Christian leaders and demanded that all make sacrifice to his gods, or be put to death.

Many chose brutal and horrific self-sacrifice, no doubt inspired by the tales of the passion of Christ. According to Wikipedia: “The early Christian period before Constantine I was the "classic" age of martyrdom. A martyr's death was considered a "baptism in blood," cleansing one of sin as baptism in water depicts; while the act of baptism does not provide the forgiveness of sins, it is a clear picture of it. The "baptism in blood" provides an even greater picture, showing both the loyalty and love the martyr has for his/her Savior.”

Tertullian (160-220ad), one of the most prolific early Christian authors, wrote: “The more you mow us down, the more we grow. The blood of our martyrs is the seed of the Church.” (What is truly terrifying is the author from Carthage could have written this yesterday, and it would still bare significance to our modern world.)

However, it is worth noting that not every religious leader subscribes to this interpretation of martyrdom. Baha u llah, the founder of the Bahai faith, “discouraged the literal meaning of sacrificing one’s life, and instead offered the explanation that martyrdom is devoting oneself to service for humanity,” the truest form of martyrdom being, “a life-long sacrifice to serve humanity in the name of god.” (A far cry from strapping a backpack of C4 to your chest in order to be delivered to 72 virgins and be handed an AAA pass to eternity for your kin.)

In this modern age, martyrdom has taken on a whole new level of meaning. Gone are the days of saints being burned at crosses for defending their personal faith in the face of discrimination. Today, we live in a world of religious terrorism.

Kamikaze tactics have been recorded in military procedure since 1661, when Dutch soldiers fighting against Koxinga’s forces for control of Taiwan were said to use gunpowder to blow up themselves and their opponents rather than be captured. In the 18^th century, John Paul Jones described how Ottoman sailors would set their ships on fire and ram into their enemies. It was nihilist suicide bombers who assassinated Tsar Alexander 2 of Russia in 1881, launching hand made grenades at his coach while he was driving on one of the central streets in St Petersburg, killing themselves in the process. And of course, there were the Kamikaze pilots of World War 2…

So suicide terrorism is hardly a new concept, however suicide bombings in Iraq since 2003 have killed thousands of people, mostly civilians, allowing a new and ugly phenomenon to raise its head in the political/religious battlefield.

There were 478 suicide bombings in Iraq in 2005, and according to a report released by the Human Right Watch in the same year "The groups that are most responsible for the abuse, namely al-Qaeda in Iraq and its allies, Ansar al-Sunna and the Islamic State of Iraq, have all targeted civilians for abductions and executions. The first two groups have repeatedly boasted about massive car bombs and suicide bombs in mosques, markets, bus stations and other civilian areas. Such acts are war crimes and in some cases may constitute crimes against humanity, which are defined as serious crimes committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population."

However, numbers have dropped rapidly over the years, with 76 suicide bombings in 2009, and 53 in 2010.

Is this not something for us all in the West to consider?  I think we should take the upcoming anniversary of 9/11 to remind ourselves of just how safe we all are in comparison.  Yet there are so many conspiracies and theories as to how 9/11 happened and who did it that we can easily lose sight (in my opinion) of the important questions this event, and others that leave families torn apart all over the world, asks humanity to reflect on.

What god wants has never been more important than life, it can never be more important than life, because without life, god would cease to exist. Fear is an enemy of our own making, not of god’s. In the words of Albert Camus: “Martyrs, my friend, have to choose between being forgotten, mocked or used. As for being understood - never.”