In July of 64AD, a great fire swept through the city of Rome. It broke out in the merchant shops (probably a bakery) near the Circus Maximus and raged for more than a week. The inhabitants of the city at the time lived mostly in wooden houses and shacks, easy prey for fire.
Once it was finally tamed, over two-thirds of the city had been destroyed.
Indeed, people began to believe that Nero had deliberately started the fire so that he could rebuild Rome as a glorious new city and name it after himself.
According to Tacitus, Nero was sufficiently disturbed by the widespread belief that the fire had been started on his orders that he picked the Christians to blame as scapegoats, thus commencing the empire’s first of many persecutions against them.
Christians were seized and tortured into confessing, then torn to pieces by dogs, crucified or burned alive, and used as human torches at night.
Not Really Connected to Christianity
On Feb. 16, Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford declared that the deadly ambush that led to the execution-style murders of two police officers and a civilian on a remote property last December was an act of domestic terrorism linked to the Christian fundamentalist belief system known as pre-millennialism.Linford added that the three Train family members who perpetrated the shooting at their property at Wieambilla, 290 kilometres (180 miles) northwest of Brisbane, last December, were an “autonomous cell” that was “religiously motivated.”
Worryingly there seems to be a severe lack of understanding of the fundamental tenets of Christianity in the analysis.
Remember the Fifth Commandment; Thou shalt not kill? What about the teachings of Jesus Christ, who told people to love thy neighbour as thyself and to turn the other cheek? Even as he was being crucified, Christ said: “Forgive them, Father; they know not what they do.”
What was perpetrated at Wieambilla could be nothing further from core Christian beliefs.
Christians believe that, at the end of time, Christ will come again and undertake the final and eternal judgment of all humanity—as told by Christ Himself in Chapter 25 of St Matthew’s Gospel and so beautifully depicted by Michelangelo on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel.
However, “premillennialism” is an interpretation of Christ’s return and is reminiscent of any number of death cults that have sprung up over the years, which, of course, are the antithesis of the Christian message.
However, the police hypotheses are sadly a reflection of the constant attack on Christians in our culture.
Just last month, the editor-in-chief of the West Australian newspaper, Anthony De Ceglie, described Christians in the Liberal Party as “bible-bashers and happy clappers, increasingly out of touch with secular, modern Australia.”
Of course, modern Australia was built on Christian values of tolerance, respect, and equality before the law, but that is an argument for another day.
Fringe Extremists Don’t Represent Christianity as a Whole
Late last year, the Australian Christian Lobby was listed among 20 groups identified as far-right hate and extremism groups in a report by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.The report, written by an FBI analyst in Richmond, Virginia, published for internal agency use only on Jan. 23, is titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”
It stated that “Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology” is a magnet for “violent extremists.”
The memo mentioned the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, a religious order which celebrates the traditional form of the Catholic Mass.
“The leaked document should be troubling and offensive to all communities of faith, as well as all Americans,” Knestout declared.
“[If] evidence of extremism exists, it should be rooted out, but not at the expense of religious freedom. A preference for traditional forms of worship and holding close to the Church’s teachings on marriage, family, human sexuality, and the dignity of the human person does not equate with extremism.”
And that is the point. The actions of a crazed few should not be used to demonise Christianity generally.
Remember how, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, seemingly every politician under the sun rushed to reassure us that we should not tar all the followers of Islam with the same extremist brush?
“We don’t investigate people because of their religious views—it’s violence that is relevant to our powers—but that’s not always clear when we use the term ‘Islamic extremism,’” he said.
“Understandably, some Muslim groups—and others—see this term as damaging and misrepresentative of Islam, and consider that it stigmatises them by encouraging stereotyping and stoking division.”
Why, then, can’t the same approach be applied to Christians, especially since attacks by followers of Islam continue with alacrity across Europe, and Nigeria, on Christians and their churches?
