Putting Christians to death

In the 1570's Edmund Campion, formerly a leading Anglican, was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church and became a Jesuit. He traveled to England and began ministry; a very dangerous pursuit under Elizabeth I.

Campion was arrested in July 1581. Although formally charged with sedition, Campion's prosecution was entirely driven by his Catholic faith. He was taken to London with his arms pinioned and bearing on his hat a paper with the inscription, "Campion, the Seditious Jesuit." Had he but renounced Rome, Campion would have released. But renunciation was not to be and following trial Campion was hanged, drawn and quartered.

Today Campion is looked on as a man who died for his faith and his execution is seen as a curiosity; something inexplicable except perhaps as relating to the politics of the time. The very idea that someone should be put to death for becoming Catholic seems bizarre. Even the most devote do not see religion as a just cause for killing; indeed, in Canada today religious Christians, Muslims and Jews often see they have a common cause in the face of the demands of a broadly secular society.

But that view of religion is far from universal. C. S. Lewis said "the reason we do not execute witches is that we do not believe there are such things." If we believed witches existed and used their powers to do harm we would still punish them and severely.

That point applies to our view today of Campion's execution. Canada today does not punish minority religious views because, bluntly, we don't see they make any difference. Beyond the social convention of not wishing a Jew 'Merry Christmas' or a Baptist 'Shana Tova' Canadian society doesn't believe a specific religion is a measure of anything significant. While perhaps intellectually incoherent, the majority Canadian view seems to be all religions are more or less equivalent and each are entitled to the respect of the other.

But that's not the case in other places. As I write there is a Christian pastor in Iran subject to a death penalty for converting to Christianity and preaching the gospel. Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, a member of a Protestant evangelical church in Iran, faces death by hanging for refusing to abandon his Christian faith. The Pastor's wife is subject to a term of life imprisonment for her religious beliefs. Under Iranian law Muslims cannot renounce Islam and Nadarkhani was born a Muslim.

The Iranian Court held "[Nadarkhani] has frequently denied the prophethood of the great prophet of Islam and the rule of the sacred religion of Islam. And he has proven his apostasy by organizing evangelistic meetings and inviting others to Christianity, establishing a house church, baptizing people, expressing his faith to others and denying Islamic values." The judgment concluded Nadarkhani "will be executed by being hung until somehow his soul is taken from him."

The Nadarkhani case is not special. Other Iranian Christians face prosecution Behnam Irani was convicted of leading church services in Christian homes. Matthias Haghnejad, was arrested last month for unknown religious offences. Behrouz Sadegh-Khandjani, pastor of a church in Tehran has been arrested. Other nations have similar laws; in Saudi Arabia conversion by Muslims to another religion is prohibited with death as the punishment.

The differences between a mindset that would put someone to death for becoming a Christian and someone for the matter is one of indifference are significant; someone who will kill for religion in one situation will do so in other cases. Iran is close to achieving nuclear weapons; many suggest this is merely their way of avoiding Western domination and the doctrines applied to the Soviets can be applied to Iran. But this ignores that, at base, the Soviets and the West had the same worldview. The Soviets cared about the destruction of the world; it is far from clear the Iranian regime shares such concerns.