In which the pond does a Sunday meditation with the bromancer and a vacuum cleaner ...

The pond has spent the entire weekend worrying about the fate of Xians, though the thunderstorm that broke over Sydney yesterday came a close second …

In olden times, the pond might have spent its time worrying about spending time with witches (uppity women, feminists, the ones that dare to dance with joy, you know the kind), or perverted gays or irredeemable atheists, but happily they were never persecuted - they were just confined to solitary and assured of an eternity in hellfire for their damnable ways …

Before beginning this lengthy meditation, the pond should perhaps point out that there are other things worth in reading and doing … the pond for example, recently meditated on Peter Brown's A World Winking with Messages in the NYRB, but alas, it's inside the paywall, and so it can't contaminate the reptile paranoia with this sort of heresy …

…Rebillard shows that though they might be urged by their religious leaders,  in times of crisis, to stick to their Christian identity above all others, most early Christians were usually happy to get along in many roles unconnected with their religion - as members of families, as neighbours, as fellow workers, and as good citizens. The writings of the Early Church Fathers that urged a radical rupture with the pagan world lie heavy on the shelves of modern libraries. But at the time they represented the shutting of stable doors long after the horse had bolted.

This approach is particularly applicable to the study of early Christian art. In previous generations, the notion of the "Church of the Catacombs" predominated. Christians were thought to be frozen into a single, embattled identity. Christian art was held to reflect this defensive position …

But enough of heresies, it's off to the reptile battlements to person the defences, with the bromancer's EXCLUSIVE a good enough place to start …

Uh huh. Can anyone remember the reptiles getting into a lather about the fate of atheist bloggers in Bangladesh?

Greg Hunters can find a list of them here … and being proudly inclined to rampant atheism, their fate - their brutal murders - always struck a nerve with the pond. As did the rampant bashing and killing of gays in Sydney that nobody much seemed to mind, at least if they sat down to pray with the likes of Fred Nile …

But this is just the usual pond meditation, and so we must revert to the reptiles' sense of persecution ...

Of course in China the real story is surely the introduction of 1984, facilitated by digital surveillance and reporting, and the persecution of Islamic and other minorities (FP here) …

But forget early Xian mingling with the pagans, the rule is these days it's each for their own, and by the miracle of reptile transubstantiation, the bromancer turned from reporter to columnist to scribble furiously and at length at the dire fate of the Xians in the catacombs ...

Actually, damnatio ad bests shouldn't be tossed around lightly as a concept …

...Lions were rare in Ancient Rome, and human sacrifice was banned there by Numa Pompilius in the 7th century BC, according to legend. Damnatio ad bestias appeared there not as a spiritual practice but rather a spectacle. In addition to lions, other animals were used for this purpose, including bears, leopards, Caspian tigers, and black panthers. It was combined with gladiatorial combat and was first featured at the Roman Forum and then transferred to the amphitheaters….
...The use of damnatio ad bestias against Christians began in the 1st century AD. Tacitus states that during the first persecution of Christians under the reign of Nero (after the Fire of Rome in 64), people were wrapped in animal skins (called tunica molesta) and thrown to dogs. This practice was followed by other emperors who moved it into the arena and used larger animals. Application of damnatio ad bestias to Christians was intended to equate them with the worst criminals, who were usually punished this way.
There is a widespread view among contemporary specialists that the prominence of Christians among those condemned to death in the Roman arena was greatly exaggerated in earlier times. There is no evidence for Christians being executed at the Colosseum in Rome …

But enough of history, it's on to reptile tribalism and paranoia and a sense of persecution, and be damned to any gays or atheists who start singing that silly song, "What about me, it isn't fair, I'm all out of persecution and I want my share …"

For some strange reason, the pond was reminded of a story it read in the LRB on the way back from Melbourne, Tariq Ali's The Unseeables, about the hideous caste system practised by Hindus, and luckily the pond doesn't have to go into any details, because for the moment it's outside the paywall here ...

The far-right BJP government led by Narendra Modi deliberately misinterprets and distorts India’s ancient history to justify its cultural offensive against Islam and other minorities, aiming to create a monolithic Hindu narrative and an official Hinduism. School textbooks, university education, what is and what should not be stocked in public libraries are policed. The Hindu epics, long read and appreciated as literature, are now being characterised as history. When asked to explain the elephant god, Modi responded: ‘We worship Lord Ganesha. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephant’s head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery.’

Yes, stupidity is everywhere, but strangely the pond doesn't recall reading much about it in the lizard Oz ...

Um, join the club? Try being a gay or an atheist sometime and be surrounded by fundamentalist Xians or ravaging reptiles, and see how it feels …

Ah, the paranoia and the battlements and fortifications and the sense of persecution is the very best way to fear monger … and now, in that transubstantive way beloved by the reptiles, the reptile columnist must devour the lizard reporter, and repeat what has already been written ...

A willingness to speak up for atheists and gays would also be appreciated, but never mind, it's on with the fear and loathing ...

A hundred thousand? How about one million Uighurs? Why isn't that front and centre in Payne and bromancer thinking? (Go on, be a heretic, Aljazeera here).

There's probably a tribal answer to that question, but the pond must press on, because the bromancer is on a roll and simply won't shut up ...

The pond must have missed that story about 12,000 atheist bloggers being offered shelter from fundamentalist religious bigots with murder on their minds … but the good news is that the pond can stop tormenting itself and others because the bromancer has only one last paranoid gobbet in him ...

Is there any room at the inn to make the persecution of gays and atheist bloggers a regular and prominent part of the reptile dialogue?

Probably not …you know how it goes with hideous elites and identity politics, unless it happens to be Xian identity and then it's open slather …

But now, just in case the bromancer has darkened the mood, and left people feeling despondent, depressed and persecuted, the reptiles provided some weekend balance by running a celebration of Campion ...

"Liberal?" The pond realises that it simply doesn't understand the meaning of the word anymore … since when has the Catholic church been "liberal"? (And since when has Campion Education provided a good online shopping experience?) 

Joe de Bruyn is liberal-minded?

Edmund Campion was a bit of a kook, as martyrs must be, and this quote captures his spirit ..

I want to make it clear that these courageous men and women did not die for religious freedom, as is the common misunderstanding. They died because they loved Jesus and the Catholic faith he founded more than their own lives. It’s the difference between dying so a Hindu can worship false gods in his temple and dying because you love Christ and his Church and could never betray either of them.

Ah, so many false gods, so little time … no doubt She will sort it all out in Her own time ...

Don't get the pond started on religion and science … next thing you know we'll end up talking about the fundamentalist Catholic Boys' Daily and climate science ...

Actually what's extraordinary is that religions seem to think that it's up to the state and taxpayers to fund their business model, as if the Catholic Ponzi scheme had at last run its course, and now was in need of state aid … but how typical that the blather about taking from Caesar the things that Caesar taxed from the mug punter is quickly put to use …

And now, in a sure way to arouse enthusiastic support from fellow academicians, Heydon goes on to demonstrate how a 'liberal' practises his craft ...

Indeed, indeed, when it seems the entire point is to deliver an education in the name of barking mad Catholic fundamentalism … or perhaps a closeted gay incapable of coming to terms with his sexuality …

But don't get the pond started on Newman, and Catholic attitudes to sex - the gay priest in the extended family was in cheerful form over the Xmas break - or we could be here even longer. 

Best just to get the last gobbet of Heydon out of the way ...

So the main point of a Catholic education is to discover the secular insights of polytheists and pagans from ancient times? And the Catholics still keeping trading off on what they preserved of the ancient Greeks, forgetting at the same time how much they swept into history's dustbins?

Dear sweet long absent lord, the nausea is starting to kick in as the pond remembers its 'education' at the hands of Catholic institutions which never bothered to wishy washy notions of 'liberalism' … 

Quick, for damnation's sake, a few cartoons …and if anyone asks you why the lizard Oz is known as the Catholic Boys' Daily, remember you spent an eternity of suffering finding out why ... by eventually reaching this point in the story...