From my favorite retired-artillery-officer-pastor, Donald Sensing ... a few thoughts on martyrdom:

If there is any one thing that illustrates the vast gap between Islam and Christianity, it is that Christians become martyrs by living as and leading others to become disciples of Jesus Christ even at the expense of their lives, while Muslims become martyrs by suffering death in battle while dealing death to Islam's enemies. The idea that a Muslim could become a martyr by self destructing is a late twentieth-century invention by the radicalized extremists known as Islamists, a term coined by academics to refer to heavily politicized Islam. In Islamic martyrdom dying is the point, but in Christian martyrdom dying is not the point.

Of course there has never, ever, been any shortage of stupidity on the part of any major religion when faith and politics get too cozy. You could well argue that half of the history of Christianity has been a sad saga of missing precisely this point. The religious right's escapades today in Louisville illustrate this rather nicely.

BUT, when the gospel is read with an open heart (and no preconceived politics), it's not terribly difficult to see the main point here, which is that Christ calls us to a playing field that transcends worldly power and politics completely. To Caesar what is Caeser's and to God what is God's. Mohammed, meanwhile, set up shop as a head of state. Is it any wonder most of Islam can't quite figure out the separation of church and state thing?

Anyway, the main point of Rev. Sensing's message is not about Islam. It is a wake up call to American Christians to have a little better perspective on their faith:

No Christians in America are persecuted for their faith. Reading some of the rhetoric from certain sides of American churches, I sense that some Christians think they are, but they're deluded. And others seem to want to be persecuted, and so claim minor nuisances such as no prayers before high school football games as evidence of persecution. They remind me of Eric Idle's commune character in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, yelling, "Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!"

My sentiments exactly. When I hear Christians complaining about how persecuted we are in the USA, it makes me want to slap a stamp on their forehead and FedEx them to some 3rd world hellhole -- just for a day -- where the clue bird is slightly more likely to land on their shoulder and whisper in their ear ... whisper something like this:

No one from America's government or social groups is going to shove a gun in any of our faces and demand we renounce Christ or die. They instead inflict deaths of a thousand cuts, tiny temptations against disciple living. Before long we live no differently than people who don't claim Christian identity: we spend neither our time nor our money differently - heck, we'll even skip church when kickoff is at noon. Martyrs? Nope, not in America. To be a martyr for the faith we have to die for it, true, but before we can die for our faith we first have to live for it. Dying right is easy; living right is hard.

Amen  ¶ 9:47 PM