IIIM Magazine Online, Volume 1, Number 23, August 2 to August 8, 1999 |
"Accounts of the deaths of martyrs during the period of the Roman persecutions have been greatly dramatized. Their faith and courage were magnificent, but theirs was the easy way. Much greater suffering was endured by those who lay in their own filth in heavy irons in hot Eastern prisons — with little water or food until they died of disease or starvation. Equally hard was the lot of those sentenced to work the field and mines. Half naked, underfed, beaten for low production, the damp ground their bed — theirs was a living death. Are American Christians, living behind a plush curtain and enjoying a cushioned prosperity, made of the same stuff as they?"