Posted on 08/27/2014 11:27:18 AM PDT by marshmallow
From the moment news broke that U.S. journalist James Foley had been beheaded by Islamic State extremists in the Middle East, many Christians, especially Foley’s fellow Catholics, began calling him a martyr, with some even saying he should be considered a saint.
Yet that characterization has left others uneasy, and the discussion is raising larger questions about what constitutes martyrdom.
Foley’s parents seemed to validate the martyrdom label when his father, John, spoke at an emotional news conference outside the family’s New Hampshire home and said he and his wife “believe he was a martyr.” Foley’s mother, Diane, added that her son “reminds us of Jesus. Jesus was goodness, love — and Jim was becoming more and more that.”
In an interview two days later with Katie Couric, Foley’s younger brother, Michael, recounted how Pope Francis had called the family to console them and in their conversation “referred to Jim’s act as, really, martyrdom.”
Numerous commentators had already picked up on that idea, holding Foley up not only as a witness to the Christian faith but as a spur for believers in the West to take more seriously the plight of Christians in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East who are being persecuted to a degree that some say is comparable to genocide.
(Excerpt) Read more at religionnews.com ...
Definitions 2-4 are derivative and colloquial, and would unlikely be used by better writers except in a figurative sense. Definitions 3 and 4 are often used in rhetoric to explain away bad behavior (e.g. lyrics to Billy Joel’s “An Innocent Man”).
It WOULD be amusing to have someone assert martyrdom to the Vatican on behalf of someone on the basis that he was constantly feigning suffering.
Well put about Ferguson.
I don’t think that is a given. One must be in a state of grace to get to Heaven.
I agree with that. And Traditional Catholic teaching requires that person to be Catholic.
I am a Catholic and I agree with you about being a Catholic - if we are discussing the concept of sainthood.
However, if we are discussing whether or not a confessing Christian is a martyr for the faith - if he/she refuses to renounce faith in Jesus Christ and faces death as a consequence, then that is a classic definition of the Christian martyr. It matters not whether he/she is accepted as a canonized saint. Just MHO.
Yes, this is what I mean. The definition of a “martyr” is “a person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs”, so there are martyrs of various faiths, etc.
I think someone had mentioned sainthood in their post and I had this on my brain.
Having faith in Jesus will get you into Heaven.
“Muammar Gaddafi was martyred.”
No, he wasn’t.
“Yes, but aren’t you only a martyr if you die for Christ?”
Yes.
“I don’t think that is a given. One must be in a state of grace to get to Heaven.”
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/08/quaeritur-do-martyrs-killed-in-the-state-of-mortal-sin-go-to-heaven/
“Having faith in Jesus will get you into Heaven.”
If you die for Christ, you had faith in Him.
Words have meanings.
To be clear, I am not speaking of Baptism of Blood. I am speaking of someone who was already baptized, fell into mortal sin, and was martyred. It is my understanding that Church teaching is that one must at least give a perfect act of contrition to get to Heaven without the Sacrament of Confession prior to death if there were mortal sins.
I am interested in reading Church teaching that states that martyrdom can substitute as a perfect act of contrition. There may be such a teaching, but I have yet to read it.
“There may be such a teaching, but I have yet to read it.”
Then you’ll probably have to learn patience and wait to know the answer.
Well, that was a rude response. Why?
More accurately, there are or will be martyrs in Heaven. Reference Revelation chapter 6.
Another point is who gets to determine if someone is a martyr?
Revelation 6:
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
Revelation 20:
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
So based on the scriptures above (there are more), the determination of martyrdom is someone witnessing for Jesus Christ and His Word.
It wasn’t rude. Get over yourself. (That wasn’t rude either)
riiiiight. I think I’ll put you on ignore.
He was killed for not converting to islam. Yes, let's start calling it martyrdom.
They want a religious war, then put it in terms they can understand.
When they start realizing that they're making martyrs of those they butcher in the name of Allah, maybe it will irk them that they can't wear the martyr badge themselves.
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