Violent Religious Repression and the Problem with Sulpicius/Martin

I normally say I found something interesting, but this time I found it rather disturbing how much Sulpicius glorifies violent religious oppression. It starts with the authoritarian manner in which Martin stops the procession of a non-Christian funeral. Martin mistakes the funeral as a certain rite of the non-Christian religion and decides that stopping it is the right thing to do. Sulpicius describes the rites as deriving from “misera dementia”, whereas performing symbolic cannibalism is the better way to worship. He also describes the objects of worship as devils, so that way no bias seeps in. It is really sickening to read the last line of section 12 where it is glorified that Martin controlled these people during a time of mourning (of course with the power of God, because Martin as person is useless except for doing some fasting and praying) and besides, even if it had been a ritual, it is not his business how others worship, but of course Christianity loves to tell others why their lives are wrong and sinful. The description of Martin as “permitting” them to leave is atrocious and again just piles up the justification for religious oppression. This sort of literary praise acts as a justification for even greater atrocities.

The destruction of temples that Martin performs is another example of the glorification of religious violence and Sulpicius’ description of the non-Christians as raving and frenzied in now ways seems to understand the reason for that anger. I am sure Martin would have some issue, if one of his many monasteries was suddenly being destroyed by a person that says that he is justified by the power of his god and that Martin was a sinner and a terrible person. I think it is no way surprising that the non-Christians react violently. There is no reasoning with someone life Martin, a religious fanatic. Just because Sulpicius uses pretty Latin to describe the vents in no way changes the fact that Martin is clearly an extremist. The Ku Klux Klan also thought they were being aided by God. Of course Martin also responds in like kind by using armed angels to allow his further destruction of other peoples’ way of life. Martin brings violence and should not be surprised if he is answered with violence. It is a terrible cycle and Christianity is very good at getting the ball rolling. I mean, in the Muslim faith “people of the book” (i.e. Christians) are considered good people. However, that in no way stops Christianity as a religion from committing itself to waging holy war on the Muslims. I feel astonished that Christians of the modern era are surprised at the level of hatred with which they are received by many other faiths. The many waves of aggressive missionaries are just another example of disgusting religious oppression.

Recently the Pope sainted a 16^th century missionary to the Baja California, which was received with great enmity by the native people of the land. And no wonder, good ol’ father Serra helped to destroy the native culture and helped cause the death of 1000’s of natives. Truly he was a man who deserves to be venerated and copied. Centuries of violent repression and the continued glorification of the violence is not something any religion should be proud of. We see it here in in Sulpicius with Martin’s destruction of temples, we see it in the Song of Roland with the depiction of Muslims and their religion (most of which portrayal is just wrong). These writings help convince the Spanish during the 1400’s to begin the Inquisition and to expel from the country all of its native Moor population. Sulpicius is just an early step down this road of violence and it is disgusting the way he glorifies it. It honestly makes alot of it hard to read. I personally wanted to hit Martin by the time I finished with section regarding his persecution of others and I am very sympathetic to the non-Christians that wanted to drive Martin off.