Self-immolation is in the news thanks to a lefty who burned himself alive in front of the Israeli embassy on Sunday, and now the Left is out here trying to normalize political suicide.
Self-immolation was also seen as a sacrificial act committed by Christian devotees who chose to be burned alive when they were being persecuted for their religion by Roman emperor Diocletian around 300 A.D.
Sooo ... this is about ten million flavors of wrong.
I had to spend a bit of time, but I tracked down a little more context for this claim. They link to The New Yorker, which references the ancient historian Eusebius, who documents how Christians were blamed for a fire at Diocletian's palace and chose to be burned in the fire instead of getting captured so they wouldn't be flayed and boiled alive.
Here's what The New Yorker said in that 2012 article:
... around 300 A.D., Christians persecuted by Diocletian set fire to his palace in Nicodemia and then threw themselves onto it — presumably, to express their objections to Roman policy and not to the emperor's architectural taste.
Except there's no evidence that Christians actually started this fire. Instead, it was used as an excuse to kill Christians.
Consider that leftist Wikipedia notes how shaky Time's claim is. Diocletian had split rule of the empire between himself and other men he chose as administrators. One, a brutal man named Galerius, was behind the claim that Christians had started the fire.
Galerius convinced Diocletian that the culprits were Christian conspirators who had plotted with palace eunuchs. An investigation into the act was commissioned, but no responsible party was found. Executions followed.he palace eunuchs Dorotheus and Gorgonius were eliminated. One individual named Peter was stripped, raised high, and scourged. Salt and vinegar were poured in his wounds, and he was slowly boiled over an open flame. The executions continued until at least April 24, 303, when six individuals, including the bishop Anthimus, were decapitated. The persecution intensified; presbyters and other clergymen could be arrested without having even been accused of a crime and condemned to death. A second fire appeared sixteen days after the first. Galerius left the city, declaring it unsafe, and Diocletian soon followed. [Christian author] Lactantius blames Galerius's allies for setting the fire; Constantine, in a later reminiscence, attributes the fire to 'lightning from heaven.'
Apparently, this very dubious claim of self-immolation from 1700 years ago makes self-immolation a Christian practice!
(I notice Time didn't mention that the Christians, according to Galerius, were committing insurrection against a tyrannical government. Wouldn't want to support that, right??)
Oh, Time went on to link this historical context to climate protests because of course.
More recently, the tactic has been used by climate activists to protest climate change. In 2018, David Buckel, a retired American lawyer, set himself on fire in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. In 2022, climate activist Wynn Alan Bruce set himself on fire at the plaza in front of the Supreme Court. 'This act is not suicide,' Kritee Kanko, a climate scientest and friend of Bruce wrote on Twitter following the act. 'This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to [the] climate crisis.'
You think you hate journalists enough, but you don't.
A disturbed American service member burned himself alive in front of the Israeli embassy for a war he has no part in, all due to leftist regime propaganda, and now the media is out here telling us why BURNING YOURSELF ALIVE IS THE CHRISTIAN AND COMPASSIONATE THING TO DO.
(When it serves the objectives of the godless regime, that is.)
The ignorance it takes to think that Christianity has ever approved of any form of suicide is truly mind-boggling.
Perhaps Time made a mistake in linking to The New Yorker. Maybe they only meant that some Christians merely chose to die by being burned alive instead of other alternatives like the Colosseum or being crucified (when such "options" were presented). But being killed by the government against your will is absolutely not the same in any sense as lighting yourself on fire for a political cause.
I guess Time wants you to think that the torture and slaughter of Christians in ancient Rome is the same as a guy who decided to commit suicide on the sidewalk for a group of Arabs in modern-day Israel. I can't wait to see what historical connections they attempt next.
Don't even get me started on what the New York Post wrote ...
He loved LOTR?
Mmk then.
‘Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death,' answered Gandalf. ‘And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death.'
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