Persecution

"The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God. I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires."

"[...] the Christian idea of man “made in the image and likeness of God” has created, on a political level, a tension that runs through the entire history of the West. It is, in fact, an ideal which, despite compromising and even murky vicissitudes, between ‘theocratic’ temptations and ‘satanocratic’ rejections of political power, has exerted, throughout history, a sometimes overwhelming pressure on its antithetical worldly element. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's”: with this, the principle that Káysar is not Kýrios entered history – political power was desacralised, the worldly order relativised, and Caesar's demands subjected to a judgement of legitimacy by an inviolable conscience. On this basis, Origen could justify, against Celsus, the refusal of Christians to associate themselves with the cult of the emperor or to refuse to kill in obedience to his orders."

"It has become a settled principle that nothing which is good and true can be destroyed by persecution, but that the effect ultimately is to establish more firmly, and to spread more widely, that which it was designed to overthrow. It has long since passed into a proverb that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.""

"There can be no Good Will. Will is always Evil; it is persecution to others or selfishness."

"If a Texas surgeon who rightfully blew the whistle on a child-mutilation program his state outlawed can face politically charged persecution laden with misconduct simply because the Biden administration wants to make a point about people who oppose its radical transgender agenda, no one is safe."

"Christianity has made martyrdom sublime, and sorrow triumphant."

"Bigotry may be called the appalling frenzy of the indifferent. This frenzy of the indifferent is in truth a terrible thing; it has made all monstrous and widely pervading persecutions. In this degree it was not the people who cared who ever persecuted; the people who cared were not sufficiently numerous. It was the people who did not care who filled the world with fire and oppression. It was the hands of the indifferent that lit the faggots; it was the hands of the indifferent that turned the rack. There have come some persecutions out of the pain of a passionate certainty; but these produced, not bigotry, but fanaticism — a very different and a somewhat admirable thing. Bigotry in the main has always been the pervading omnipotence of those who do not care crushing out those who care in darkness and blood."

"As I sang hymns on stage, one phrase echoed continuously in my mind: “If one member suffers, all members suffer together.” This is not a slogan, but the fundamental logic of the church as the body of Christ. Persecution is not “their problem,” but “our shared wound.” …the most insidious aspect of persecution isn’t a single “disruption,” but the gradual fragmentation of people’s lives—leaving them exhausted, scattered, doubting, and retreating—forcing faith to [withdraw slowly] from public expression until it can only be “hidden in the heart.” …the cruelty of persecution lies not only in stripping away freedom, but in attempting to sever people’s connection to truth—robbing them of their voice, their testimony, and their network of mutual support."

"Today, as ever, the few are misunderstood, hounded, imprisoned, tortured, and killed."

"Persecution cannot harm him who stands by Truth. Did not Socrates fall proudly a victim in body? Was not Paul stoned for the sake of the Truth? It is our inner selves that hurt us when we disobey it, and it kills us when we betray it."

"[Australian scholar David Thomas] Smith’s theory of religious persecution shows us that a general “system of tolerance of minorities” is perfectly compatible with the persecution of some groups, and the two things in fact go together in many modern democratic states, which answers the objection that Tai Ji Men cannot be persecuted because Taiwan in general protects religious liberty. It also shows that democratic states, unlike their totalitarian counterparts that are often irrational, cease the persecutions when they understand that the political cost of persecution has become higher than the cost of tolerating a group they do not like."

"There is a deplorable tendency of expanding the notion of “human trafficking” beyond its original limits, targeting religious organizations that use unpaid volunteers for their missionary or charitable activities."

"Academics have a key role in persuading the courts and the governments, which is paradoxically easier than persuading the media, that “cults” and “brainwashing” are pseudo-scientific labels used to discriminate against unpopular religious minorities. Of course, there are abusive and criminal religious groups, but they should be prosecuted for their real common law crimes rather than for the imaginary crimes of “being a cult” and “using brainwashing.”"

"History shows many examples of persecuted believers who win in the end. Religions tend to last longer than governments, regimes, or their opponents. History is fair, and often gives persecuted believers the last laugh."

"The world must not mistake persecution for prosecution."

"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

"Any body of men who believe in hell will persecute whenever they have the power."

"The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts. He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damfoolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy."

"The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution, is one of those pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes. History teems with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not suppressed for ever, it may be thrown back for centuries."

"Can we agree that having an irresistible urge to ridicule other people’s beliefs is not generally a sign of good mental health?"

"We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power."

"Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

"Few of those living in what we call the “free world”—an endangered concept and sometime a rather ambiguous one, which yet retains an important value—know what [it] is like to be considered “bad” for the mere fact of belonging to a certain group. The violence of all this is hardly understandable for those who have never suffered it, and it is literally incredible when we see it performed in front of our eyes."

"To persecute Makes a faith hated, and is furthermore No perfect witness of a perfect faith In him who persecutes."