Sneers!
compx2
"In the West, such a level of commitment to a religion normally
inspires either the dismissal one might give to a fanatic, or a
shudder as one worries about how many lives this person intends to
take with him. Sacrifice for the sake of religion has come so far
from its roots that rather than inspiring admiration, it evokes sneers
or terror."
He is speaking about Iranian Baha'is willing to give their lives in
martyrdom.
The number of issues that come to mind with this statement gives me a
headache. I mean, it really is true that giving one's life for ideas
and ideals is a foreign concept to us, and should be. But then
Baha'is are just foreign, in the sense of strange, for the most part.
We forbid homosexuality, women's equality to some extent, I mean, we
need to own up to the fact that we are strange.
If we stay stuff like, well, we don't believe in killing people, but
let them kill us instead, what does the Western mind think? We think,
well, these people are nuts.
How do we respond to the fact that the recent Western experience of
martrydom is that of wearing an explosives belt into a crowd?