Posted on 06/03/2002 6:55:44 PM PDT by LarryLied
A new book which claims that Christians are the victims of worldwide persecution has stirred controversy in Italy amid accusations that it minimises the Holocaust and demonises Islam.
The author, Antonio Socci, claims the untold story of the 20th century is the murder of 45 million Christians, mostly at the hands of communist and Islamic regimes, and that massacres continue to this day.
The New Persecuted, Inquiries into Anti-Christian Intolerance in the New Century of Martyrs, has angered some scholars by depicting Christians as beleaguered victims of rampaging Muslims.
Some reviewers have hailed the publication as a wake-up call to Christians in the west who have not realised, even in the wake of September 11, that they are under attack by a hostile rival religion.
Others said Mr Socci was part of a rightwing revisionist effort to distort history and promote a hawkish response to perceived threats.
Drawing heavily from the World Christian Encyclopedia, published last year by the Oxford University Press, Mr Socci traces the persecution of Christians through the centuries, from the crucifixion of Jesus to the lions at Circus Maximus, the assassination of Thomas Becket and the execution of Thomas More, the Boxer rebellion in China, Mexico's revolution and the Turkish massacres in Armenia. He calculates that in the past 2,000 years some 70 million Christians have been killed, two-thirds in the past 100 years alone, a bloodbath blamed mostly on the Soviet Union as well as communist China and Nazi Germany.
Mr Socci supports Israel and does not dispute the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust but by framing the genocide in such a context he had minimised its significance, said Alberto Melloni, an author and religious historian.
"The statistics he cites are largely meaningless but the effect is to make the Shoah [Holocaust] just one detail in a century of massacres. It is part of an effort by some in the Catholic church to stop the Shoah being the most important event in the 20th century."
Mr Socci, 43, a columnist with conservative Italian newspapers, claims that an average of 160,000 Christians have been killed every year since 1990, the vast majority in the third world. Critics said the figure included Christians killed in conflicts which had little to do with religion.
Chronicling attacks, pogroms and wars in East Timor, Indonesia, Sudan, Egypt, Pakistan, India, and even Rwanda and Latin America, Mr Socci identifies Islamic extremism as the main danger.
He complains that secular western governments, intellectuals and media organisations have played down the bloodbath because the persecution of Jews and Muslims, whether in the former Soviet Union or former Yugoslavia, was considered more newsworthy. "This global persecution of Christianity is still in progress but in most cases is ignored by the mass media and Christians in the west."
Tommaso Debenedetti, a cultural commentator, said the book was part of an attempt by Italy's right to deflect accusations of intolerance against immigrants and other minorities by casting itself as the victim of non-Christian and liberal forces. "The right is reversing the argument."
Breaking ranks with positive reviews which called the book "extraordinary", the Turin daily La Stampa said it was a provocation with questionable statistics and a flawed definition of martyr which included those killed for political reasons.
The fact of history is that muslims attacked Christendom first. If not for Charles Martel in France, all Europe would be facing Mecca 5 times daily. The muslims started it.
I flagged you over the comment about indulgences. Do you take issue with it as spar does?
A question we all need to ask ourselves. I have thought about this persecution and have experienced dreams of living in catacombs. The Catholic Church has been and will be persecuted.
"The statistics he cites are largely meaningless but the effect is to make the Shoah [Holocaust] just one detail in a century of massacres. It is part of an effort by some in the Catholic church to stop the Shoah being the most important event in the 20th century."
I have no idea who Alberto Melloni may be, but he is playing a subtle game that serves only a Leftist Agenda. He seems bent upon creating deep antagonisms among people searching for answers; while interfering with rational Conservatives recognizing the pattern that is very evident to anyone who will look. While in this quote, he doubtless wishes to appear to be a friend of Europe's Jewish minority, it would be difficult to imagine anything more likely to isolate them in a manner reminiscent of the Nazis.
To put this subject in perspective, for those who want to understand why Socialists engage in systematic mass killings, see The Cult Of "The Holocaust"--Golden Calf Of The Twentieth Century. Without such understanding, the killings of successful people will continue to recur. For Melloni to suggest that Socci's statistics are meaningless tells us a great deal indeed about Melloni.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
An indulgence is is a removal of all or some of the punishment due to already forgiven sin because of the performance of a good deed or the saying of a prayer.
This is an issue Luther used against the Catholic Church in his 95 Theses. Specifically, because the Pope had granted a plenary indulgence to those who would donate money toward the building of the Vatican [St. Peter's]. Then as now, many didn't understand the teaching and believed Luther when he falsely accused of us "selling" the indulgence to gain access to heaven.
I disagree with Luther's view and condemnation of indulgences. He said that we could never do anything to remove the punishment we deserved. I believe God is loving and merciful to those who repent with a sincere heart.
Thanks for scanning my links.
It seems that he is one of those liberal relativists who love to make victims of everyone to suit his agenda. As a Catholic, I claim him not.
From google: "Alberto Melloni teaches at the Third University of Rome and directs the Higher Research Training School of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Sciences in Bologna.
Don't you agree that it is very strange that one with such a niche would thrust himself forward as a spokesmen for which massacres should be taken seriously? I suppose that he would respond that his training goes to determine whom is properly considered a martyr, but he has distinguished massacres that really are not so distinguishable.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
I agree with the posters who believe that there's bias when it comes to religious persecution. After 9 years of taking History in public schools, I've never heard anything about Christians being slaughtered for their faith. I'm not sure whether I feel differently about my people being killed than I feel about my Jewish friend's people being killed. One death by religious persecution is just as horrible as another.
My heart goes out to all who are victims of religious persecution. I wish against Fate that it would stop, but human nature often gets in the way of such wishful dreaming.
God Bless!
*Belle
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