Nothing you said there refutes what I said. The pagan Roman Empire still had less freedom of religion than the Christian Roman Empire/Eastern Roman Empire soon-to-be-Byzantium Empire.
For one, the Roman pagan religion itself was polytheistic, so henotheism and lip service didn’t clash. But worship a god/God outside the state religion’s Pantheon and, well…
That sounds like victim blaming. How dare they protest against an oppressive empire that subjected them to racial and religious discrimination as minorities, eh? And no whataboutisms will change that fact.
Nah rome practiced syncretism all the time. sure they didn’t with monotheist faiths, but they would constantly absorb and allow the continued practices of its provinces own faiths, What gives rome its rep for religious freedom is that unlike empires after it didn’t outright destroy the faiths and cultures they conquered. They don’t have to be all accepting of religion just more accepting then their contemporaries
Save that that isn’t true. The Empire did not enforce a state religion, people were pretty much free to worship as they would up to and during the time Augustus at the birth of Jesus. It wasnt until Nero set fire to Rome and used Christians as scapegoats to cover his own activities. A wide variety of faiths including Hebrew cults flourished in Rome itself.
Amazing the paralell with what’s going on with the Palestineans, isn’t it? But we really should stick to the topic of this thread we reallly have no good reason to jump down this rabbit hole.
And compared to other empires of the day that was fairly relaxed. And the only worship that the Emperor required was your taxes paid on time. The lions and stuff… that’s Nero and Caligula and Rome well into its decline.
As for the rest; in part. A not insignificant amount of the Roman Empire’s rep for religious freedom came after its Christianization.
Save that that isn’t true. The Apostle Paul, all but two of Jesus’ disciples (if we count Iscariot’s replacement Matthias, and there was at least one attempt to kill John) and more were martyred for Christ, and some were martyred before Nero was in power.
And before the Christians the Jews - followers of Judaism - also refused to partake in the sacrificing of animals to the Roman gods and worshipping the Roman Emperor (which included sacrificing animals to dead Emperors). Where was their religious freedom?
I know you hate us, but turning a blind eye to injustices ancient and modern we’ve suffered says more about you than us.
No, you went there, so do go on. I don’t think I’ll agree with your hot take (what happened on October 7?), but I’ll hear you out. Don’t be a coward by pulling back now.
Even better, they were trying to trap Jesus when He said either (either by turning people against him or using it as an excuse to get Jesus arrested), but He called out their attempt to trap Him and answered it that clever way.
Thad mentioned October 7 in response to Drahliana making a parallel between “protesting against an oppressive empire that subjected them to racial and religious discrimination as minorities” and the situation of the Palestinians, suggesting Thad doesn’t believe that parallel is valid (when it absolutely is)
And so I reminded him that October 7 happened in a context of colonial war (waged by Israel) that’s been going on for decades
Guess we’ll just have to disagree on what kind of war it is. Most of the issues in that area can be pinned on Hamas and the Iranian government supplying terrorist groups to attack Israel.
But since we’ll never agree on the subject. I say we respectfully let it go.
I mean tbh there’s no disagreeing with the idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a colonial war since the UN recognizes the occupation of the Palestinian territories and the continued blockade of the Gaza strip by Israel as a settler-colonial situation
To me that entire, ongoing conflict is about two buttholes being buttholes, hence why I ultimatively gave up on the conflict.
I don’t consider it a ‘protest against an oppressive empire’ I consider it to be two different factions wanting to eradicate the other, not one side is better than the other, so as far as I am concerned, both of them can feck right off.
Also why I will never consider the comparison relevant to any discussion on these boards, and people should stop making the comparisons because it is irrelevant and only an attempt at pulling emotional strings and silencing the ones you argue with because you know it is a inflammatory subject.
Although I don’t give a crap. Feck Israel and Feck Palestine.
