(26-11-2013, 22:39)Ulan schrieb: [ -> ]Die Christenverfolgungen sind, bis auf ein einziges, sehr begrenztes Zeitfenster, nach heutigem Stand der Forschung Fiktion und haben nie stattgefunden (siehe 'The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom New York: HarperOne, HarperCollins, 2013 ISBN 978-0-06-210452-6).
Gibt auch sehr konträre Kritiken zu dem Buch
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While Christian persecutions outlined in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs may not be 100% historically accurate, to discount the text and the early Christian martyrdom it documents as fiction flies in the face of the historical record.
Revisionist history as illustrated in Candida Moss’s book is indicative of a modern trend to discount the suffering Christians are enduring today.
Modern Persecutions
Persecution takes several forms and is well documented. In a new book titled Christianophobia, a Faith Under Attack,1 Rupert Shortt, the Religion Editor of the Times Literary Supplement and a Visiting Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, illustrates that while many faith-based groups face discrimination or persecution, Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers.
A 2011 Pew Forum study2 found that Christians are persecuted in 131 countries around the world with 200 million Christians (or 10% of Christians worldwide) being socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs.
Throughout Africa, the Middle East, and the subcontinent, there is hardly a country that operates without some sort of restrictions on Christians. According to Anthony O’Mahony of Heythrop College, London, between one half and two-thirds of Christians in the region have left or been killed over the past century.
Over 100,000 Catholic civilians in East Timor were murdered by the Suharto regime during the period from 1970 to 1990. Two million Christians and other non-Muslims perished in Sudan’s civil conflict between 1985 and 2005, which the United Nations alternately called “tribal feuds” and “raiding parties.” In Nigeria, the Islamic group Boko Haram went on a rampage against Christians. Church bombings, machete attacks, and targeted killings were directed at church leaders and their flocks.
For the most part, the world was silent. A recent Wall Street Journal article titled “The Most Persecuted Religion”3 quoted Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, who “sanitized the intentions of this murderous group” by claiming that, “The bulk of the Boko Haram movement is …trying to do everything in its power to show that the (Nigerian) government is ineffective.”
But as the article points out, “…two months before the official spoke, Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for the murder of dozens of Christians in the city of Jos—just one of many such attacks.” Christians in parts of Nigeria live in fear of being attacked and there is ample evidence that the attacks are sanctioned by the Nigerian government.
Of course, it’s not just Nigeria. Entire Christian communities have disappeared in Iraq and in Syria; Christians are being targeted by Islamist radicals mixed in with the Syrian opposition forces. Persecutions are rampant in other countries as well. Some instances are well known and others have not been given much coverage in the media."