After Interviewing my mother about religion, being a Christian her self said thatChristianity has been one if the biggest religions since the beginning like with Rome.
Sincethe state often punished Christians for disturbing the peace, the Empire is often shown asmerciless and callous. However, texts seem to suggest that the Empire did not treatChristians any differently from the other citizens of the state. Christianity in itself was notillegal under Roman law, so Christians were not targeted specifically as a group. Then, thepopular portrayal of early Christianity as a mass political movement that the Romansdedicated much resources to thwart seems implausible.
Although popular knowledge ofearly Christians emphasize their persecution and severe ostracism within the RomanEmpire, a closer study of Roman law reveals that Christianity and being Christian werenot crimes in and of themselves. As a matter of fact, citizens of the Roman Empire werefree to worship any god. Even their proclamations about Jesus were not consideredheretical. On the contrary, it was not out of the ordinary to declare a human to be divine.
After all, the emperor himself was thought by many to have been divine. In addition, thesecret meetings of Christians to celebrate the Lords Supper often portrayed, as highlycovert and something the Christians attended in fear of being found out, also were notillegal. As a matter of fact, most of the rituals and beliefs associated with being a Christianin ancient times were not deemed criminal. In actuality, the Roman Empire punishedChristians for breaking laws that were applicable to every Roman citizen. While Christianswere not sought out as a group in particular, it is true that individual Christians did sufferpunishment in the hands of Roman authorities. Much of the punishments imposed on themwere for criminal activities.
While civil law was very developed, criminal legislation wasrarely created. For the most part, governors were responsible for exacting punishment asthey deemed necessary. For instance, Christians were not reprimanded for worshippingGod but for violating laws on worshipping the emperor and the state gods. Most often,Christians were persecuted for disturbing the peace. Christians in the ancient worldseem to project an image of exclusivity and isolation.
Their communities were tight-knitand exacted extreme demands on their members. Early Christians were called to abandontheir families to join the family of Christ. People left their families to join other brothersand sisters in their faith. My mother also said that while it is documented that Christians suffered directly orindirectly for their beliefs as time passed, in its beginnings, Christianity was not considereda movement of mass proportions and influence that merited much attention from the state.
On the contrary, Christianity was seen as just another religion that may cause somedisruptions but would ultimately fade away. It can be argued that it was someoneimportant who made it legitimate to criminals being Christian even though he himselfpersecuted Christians for criminal acts only, as he was the one who punished Christianswidely. After asking my mom what he biggest religious event that occurred , she immediately saidthe Holocaust which was the persecution of million of Jews by the German people fromthe 1930s all the way to the 1940. The Holocaust started with the night of Broken Glasswhere all the German people destroyed the business of all the Jews and later escalated bythe persecution and the killing of the Jewish people in Germany by the Nazis led by AdolfHitler.
