Conservapedia Humor:

Conservapedia has an entry for "Martyrs to the faith". (Their capitalization, not mine.) They define martyrs to the faith as, "the Protestants who were executed by Roman Catholics during the Reformation of the 16th century." They then go on to provide a very interesting list of examples, that includes:

  • John Brown. executed in the late 17th Century for refusing to acknowledge the British Crown's authority over the Scottish church.
  • Richard Cameron. A Scott who died in battle in the late 17th Century.
  • Donald Cargill. Yet another of the Scottish Presbyterians who died in the 17th Century while rebelling against the religious authority of the Church of England.
  • John Greenwood. A puritan, executed during the reign of (Protestant) Elizabeth I for refusing to conform to Anglican beliefs.
  • Christopher Love. Puritan. Executed during the English Civil War.
  • Felix Manz. Swiss Anabaptist executed for heresy by Protestants.
  • John Penry. Puritan executed under Elizabeth I
  • James Renwick. Yet another 17th Century Scottish Presbyterian.

I could go on, but I got bored. Let's just put it this way: more than 25% of the first 30 names on the list were either not executed by Roman Catholics, not executed in the 16th Century, or both. One of them actually died in battle, and the last time I looked "fighting back" wasn't exactly part of the traditional definition of "martyr".

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I wonder why they don't mention the Lollards?

By mrcreosote (not verified) on 18 Feb 2009 #permalink

Does this indicate that there is some conservative opposition in the USA to Roman Catholics? Do the catholic conservatives know about this?

They probably think that Anglicans aren't "proper" Protestants, just slightly disguised Roman Catholics. That's undoubtedly what some of the martyrs on this list would have thought, anyway.

An interesting point is that the 'Martyrs to the faith' listed were mostly victims of other religionists [here Catholics were singled out], and not of godless atheists. Or they were involved in the civil wars of their times. So much for the healing power of religion.

This is nitpicky, but I live in Edinburgh, so...

Scott is a name; a Scot is a person from Scotland.

By Adam Cuerden (not verified) on 21 Feb 2009 #permalink