The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5
=> Nestorian Martyr Myths....
| Nestorian Martyr Myths.... |
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Posted by
pancho
(Moderator)
- Sunday, July 8 2012, 18:30:23 (UTC) from *** - ***  Mexico -  Windows NT -   MozillaWebsite: Website title: |
...When not blaming their small numbers in the MidEast today on centuries of massacres by Arabs, our Nestorians say they were additionally practically forced to convert because of persecution and an especially onerous jizya tax....we've shown here how both claims are false....a. Arabs NEVER killed Christians just for being Christians and b. they never persecuted them but protected them and allowed them more freedom over their communal lives and security than Euro Catholics offered to Protestants and vice versa. What is especially galling and confusing as well is the claim that persecution forced Nestorians to martyr themselves rather than abandon their faith, thereby costing them millions of believers, when it came to receiving the benefits from Islam and Islamic society. But...they were quick enough to abandon their original religion when Jesus supposedly cured Abgar of the clapp. The story goes that since becoming true and devoted Christians, no Nestorian would EVER renounce Jesus, even at the cost of his life and the lives of his family, and therefore many "true" believers were slaughtered. History of course tells us that many did, and easily too, for the benefits that flowed from being able to participate fully in Muslim society. In other words, when it came to receiving benefits from Jesus, Assyrians were quick to renounce their religion...but when it came to benefits from Islam, Nestorians firmly refused to renounce their religion, choosing and indeed preferring and even reveling in martyrdom, for their religion. This is supposed to show that their original religion wasn't worth keeping, especially if you got a better deal elsewhere, whereas Christianity, even at the cost of seeing your children murdered in front of your eyes while refusing to save them by renouncing Jesus, means that Christianity is worth everything, even the lives of your innocent children. To me, the martyr stories our community delights in where the mother allows her children to be butchered “for Jesus” made me wary of such mother-love AND Christianity...obviously this belief system could trump parent-love and turn parents into cold-hearted accomplices in the murder of their own children. But something here doesn't add up....picture the scene: Nestorian mother tells her husband, who's been to town, that while he was gone Muslims came to the house and slit the throats of their seven sons because their mother would not speak a few words renouncing Jesus....”I couldn't betray our dear Jesus and I know our sons are better off in heaven, at his side, and we will see them soon and live happily ever after”. “I have some worse news”, says her husband, wiping the tears from his eyes, “the government has imposed a 5% tax on all followers of Jesus.” Blinking back her own tears the mother answers, “Jesus who”? The jizya tax, a most moderate tax levied only on military-age men (as we have shown) was supposedly enough to force Nestorians to renounce Jesus thereby considerablt reducing their numbers...but the butchering of their children wouldn't move them to apostasy...and this something to be proud of and brag about? “Taxes”?.............................................”NEVER”! “Murder my children for Jesus”?...................... “Go ahead.” --------------------- |
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