“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” Cardinal Francis George (1937-2015)
In this year, 2016 A.D., America has no “red martyrs,” no saints who have died bloodily and violently for their faith. For now, the martyrdom of Christians, nearly always at the hands of Islamist terrorists, occurs in countries far from Manhattan, Topeka, and Portland, countries like Southern Sudan, Libya, Iraq, and Nigeria.
No—martyrdom in America these days doesn’t mean physical death. The executioners don’t swing swords or stand you before a firing squad.
But there are “gray martyrs,” and if things continue as they are, there will be more and more of these.
In this year, 2016 A.D., America has no “red martyrs,” no saints who have died bloodily and violently for their faith. For now, the martyrdom of Christians, nearly always at the hands of Islamist terrorists, occurs in countries far from Manhattan, Topeka, and Portland, countries like Southern Sudan, Libya, Iraq, and Nigeria.
No—martyrdom in America these days doesn’t mean physical death. The executioners don’t swing swords or stand you before a firing squad.
But there are “gray martyrs,” and if things continue as they are, there will be more and more of these.
In his book How The Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill tells us that the Irish, envious of those who on the Continent had died for Christ under the Romans or under the rule of some pagan king, sought out their own trials through what came to be known as “green martyrdom.” They lived harsh lives as hermits, fasted to the point of exhaustion and death, and sometimes set out to sea in their tiny boats to let God and the currents take them where they would.
The Irish pursued and embraced this martyrdom, seeing it as a way to deepen their Faith and to live in the heart of Christ.
Today green martyrs are those who follow a path of asceticism and personal sacrifice while still engaging with the secular world. (“White” martyrs are hermits, anchoresses, and most monastics). I have known a few of these people, but certainly do not count myself in any way among their number. The closest I come to asceticism is giving up meat on Fridays, a light, penitential practice recommended by my church—and required during Lent—as a way of recollecting and sharing in a small way in Christ’s death on Good Friday. Even that act of denial I sometimes remember only after polishing a hamburger or chicken sandwich.
To these forms of martyrdom the West has now created what I will call the “gray martyr.” This is a new form of martyrdom, the result of political correctness and our intersected lives through the media. In creating gray martyrdom, the powers that be attempt to transform believers into ghosts, hence my choice of the color gray. This is the effort, largely by our governments and various special interest groups, to drive religion from the public square, to make believers disappear from public debates, to kill reputations rather than people, to use shame and lawsuits as others have used guns, stones, and swords.
Here in the United States, for example, the government, the courts, and some in the media have spent the last thirty years imposing this gray martyrdom on some Christians. Rather than killing you outright for your beliefs, these persecutors cast aspersions on your character, put you out of business, sue you, ridicule you for being politically incorrect, and smear your name. You have two choices: You shut up and keep your faith to yourself, or you pay the penalties. When you openly practice your faith, some people now in charge of our institutions will go to any lengths to put you permanently out of action.
Let’s look at just a few cases. Many schools have given the boot to the word Christmas, instead labeling the season the “winter holiday.” Many history books now employ for their dating B.C.E. and C.E. rather than B.C. and A.D. Christians with large families are often ridiculed. The law attempts to force Catholic pharmacists to sell contraceptives or close up shop. This year the ACLU, having lost their case in court, is attempting through public pressure to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions and sterilizations. Certain corporations and government offices now dictate whether you are allowed to wear a cross around your neck or read a Bible on your lunch break. High school sports teams are often forbidden to pray voluntarily before their games. Politicians and organizations opposed to abortion, the caterer who refuses her services to a gay wedding on religious grounds, the athlete who wears his faith on his sleeve: all are derided, or even prosecuted in a court of law.
In her online article “Persecution of Christians in America: It’s Not Just ‘Over There,’” Fay Voshell breaks down this attack on religion as consisting of five stages: derision, hatred, marginalization, criminalization, then outright persecution.
Right now we have reached the third stage of Voshell’s argument. The politically correct message is clear: Keep your religious faith to yourself, especially if you are Christian.
When some men sent by the Pharisees asked Christ whether they should pay taxes, trying to trap him by his answer, Jesus asked for a Roman coin and inquired of these men whose face was on the coin. “Caesar’s,” they said, to which Christ replied: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s.”
Christ's brilliant answer sent his questioners away “utterly amazed by him.”
All well and good.
But what happens when the will of Caesar and the will of God clash, as they do so often now? How do believers react? Do we shrink away from confrontation in fear? Do we remain indifferent? Or do we with charity and faith stand boldly against derision and hatred and suffer the consequences?
Tough questions. And no easy answers.
The Irish pursued and embraced this martyrdom, seeing it as a way to deepen their Faith and to live in the heart of Christ.
Today green martyrs are those who follow a path of asceticism and personal sacrifice while still engaging with the secular world. (“White” martyrs are hermits, anchoresses, and most monastics). I have known a few of these people, but certainly do not count myself in any way among their number. The closest I come to asceticism is giving up meat on Fridays, a light, penitential practice recommended by my church—and required during Lent—as a way of recollecting and sharing in a small way in Christ’s death on Good Friday. Even that act of denial I sometimes remember only after polishing a hamburger or chicken sandwich.
To these forms of martyrdom the West has now created what I will call the “gray martyr.” This is a new form of martyrdom, the result of political correctness and our intersected lives through the media. In creating gray martyrdom, the powers that be attempt to transform believers into ghosts, hence my choice of the color gray. This is the effort, largely by our governments and various special interest groups, to drive religion from the public square, to make believers disappear from public debates, to kill reputations rather than people, to use shame and lawsuits as others have used guns, stones, and swords.
Here in the United States, for example, the government, the courts, and some in the media have spent the last thirty years imposing this gray martyrdom on some Christians. Rather than killing you outright for your beliefs, these persecutors cast aspersions on your character, put you out of business, sue you, ridicule you for being politically incorrect, and smear your name. You have two choices: You shut up and keep your faith to yourself, or you pay the penalties. When you openly practice your faith, some people now in charge of our institutions will go to any lengths to put you permanently out of action.
Let’s look at just a few cases. Many schools have given the boot to the word Christmas, instead labeling the season the “winter holiday.” Many history books now employ for their dating B.C.E. and C.E. rather than B.C. and A.D. Christians with large families are often ridiculed. The law attempts to force Catholic pharmacists to sell contraceptives or close up shop. This year the ACLU, having lost their case in court, is attempting through public pressure to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions and sterilizations. Certain corporations and government offices now dictate whether you are allowed to wear a cross around your neck or read a Bible on your lunch break. High school sports teams are often forbidden to pray voluntarily before their games. Politicians and organizations opposed to abortion, the caterer who refuses her services to a gay wedding on religious grounds, the athlete who wears his faith on his sleeve: all are derided, or even prosecuted in a court of law.
In her online article “Persecution of Christians in America: It’s Not Just ‘Over There,’” Fay Voshell breaks down this attack on religion as consisting of five stages: derision, hatred, marginalization, criminalization, then outright persecution.
Right now we have reached the third stage of Voshell’s argument. The politically correct message is clear: Keep your religious faith to yourself, especially if you are Christian.
When some men sent by the Pharisees asked Christ whether they should pay taxes, trying to trap him by his answer, Jesus asked for a Roman coin and inquired of these men whose face was on the coin. “Caesar’s,” they said, to which Christ replied: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s.”
Christ's brilliant answer sent his questioners away “utterly amazed by him.”
All well and good.
But what happens when the will of Caesar and the will of God clash, as they do so often now? How do believers react? Do we shrink away from confrontation in fear? Do we remain indifferent? Or do we with charity and faith stand boldly against derision and hatred and suffer the consequences?
Tough questions. And no easy answers.