It would seem to me that my aforementioned question and your answers to it (mostly) support the reasoning that the Catholic Church is worshipping and praying to sinners, who are now burning in hell. I would think that Martyrdom, being wonderfully renamed suicide, is cause for hellburning. Why worship someone who was suicidal in their beliefs? Better yet, why didnt their beliefs save them? It seems God doesnt pay up until after we die. Could this just be a clever plan to make us all commit suicide so god can rule over the earth and eat all of our ice cream?
2007-05-03 20:24:16 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
the entire point was, if you read the first question, not defending your life, or simply giving up, or choosing death as your path is all suicide. Therefore martyrs have commited suicide. choosing to die is suicide. is it not?
2007-05-03 21:18:24 · update #1
No.
It sounds like you are advocating giving up all of one's principals in order to go on living. This sounds very cowardly to me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:39)
Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador who was shot to death while celebrating Mass on March 24, 1980 was martyred for his faith and did not commit suicide.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the main leaders of the American civil rights movement, a political activist, a Baptist minister, and was one of America's greatest orators, became the youngest man to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (for his work as a peacemaker, promoting nonviolence and equal treatment for different races). On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Did Martin Luther King Jr. commit suicide because he did not cave into death threats? I do not think so.
Any Christian who chooses to remain faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be put to death instead of renouncing his or her faith and living is choosing death over life but is not committing suicide.
With love in Christ.
2007-05-05 19:21:36 · answer #1 · answered by imacatholic2 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Martyrdom is not suicide. St. Thomas More did not want to die, but he preferred death at the hands of King Henry VIII to heresy . If you want to understand martyrdom watch the movie "A Man For All Seasons". A martyr is someone who gives up their life in order to remain true to their God, not because they want to die.
2007-05-03 20:44:01 · answer #2 · answered by morkie 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
This might be the least informed question I've seen here. Martyrdom is not suicide. One is not taking one's life, but simply refusing, even under penalty of death, to reject what one believes. Would you, if you truly believed something was true, and that it was life-changingly important, simply throw away what you believe for the sake of living in this world? If so, then you lack the courage of your convictions, as the saying goes. And yes, a Christian's greatest reward is in Heaven, where lies our citizenship.
2007-05-03 20:43:18 · answer #3 · answered by Steve 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, first of all, your understanding of the catholic church is skewed. They don't worship sinners. Martyrdom is not suicide. God does not need or want anything from us. We do what we do because we choose it.
Personally, I believe there is no hell.
2007-05-03 20:33:20 · answer #4 · answered by Maria V 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Do you also consider all of the soldiers who have died in Iraq to be suicides since they volunteered to go fight in that war?
I think you need to do some serious studyig in regards to martyrdom and suicide. Your knowledge is sorely lacking.
"it is better to remain silent and appear to be a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt" - Mark Twain
2007-05-04 04:35:44 · answer #5 · answered by Sldgman 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
False premise......martyrdom is not suicide. Why? Martyrdom is not a personal choice to die....it is something done to you, someone else's choice. God places great importance on whether you claim Him publicly or deny Him before men. Jesus said if you are ashamed of Me and deny Me before men, then He will deny you before the Father. In other words, your eternal welfare is at stake, not just your physical body, but your soul. He also said do not be afraid of the one who can destroy the body, but fear the one who can destroy both body and soul.
2007-05-03 20:35:16 · answer #6 · answered by Joyful Noise 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If suicide was a good way out, I would have hung myself with the umbilical cord on the way here.
2007-05-03 20:27:51 · answer #7 · answered by 773H 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
He'd better not eat all the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream!
2007-05-03 20:53:03 · answer #8 · answered by Voodoid 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
How many assumptions can one pack into a single paragraph?
2007-05-03 20:28:40 · answer #9 · answered by randyken 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
NO! MY ICE CREAM!!!!!
2007-05-03 20:29:46 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋