Kelly Krolicki

Mr.Evans
Religion 10
April 12, 2016
Christianity, since the beginning, has been a religion based on the life, teachings, and
death of Jesus Christ. As Christians we believe in one God that created heaven, earth, and the
universe, this belief in one God originated from the Jewish faith. Christians have suffered from
persecution since the beginning of the faith, but that has never stopped us. We as Christians are
not afraid, and havent for several hundred years, to stand up for what we believe in and we get
the strength to do so by remembering Jesus Christ dying on the cross for us.
In the early Christian Church, it was not uncommon to be persecuted for your faith. In
almost every book of the Bible you can find stories of early Christians being persecuted or put to
death, solely because they were Christian and someone along the way did not like that. Judaism
and Christianity spilt ways around the year 33, not long after the crucification of Christ. Many
scholars believe that the splitting of the two churches was caused by the destruction of the
second temple. Several of the claims of Christianity, have frequently been believed to deny
Judaism, its mother religion, if not the very right of its existence. Christianity stems from
Judaism so several things about the religions are very similar, because of these similarities, the
Jews of the time had an easier time accepting Christians. Not to say that there weren't disputes,
because there was, however they were able to be more accepting because it was still the belief in
the same God. Early Romans on the other hand were not too thrilled with Christianity and what it
was bringing to the table. Traditional Romans feared that converts were seduced by the novelty
of this new faith. Christians quickly denied the accusations by claiming that they were heirs of
Judaism, a faith that the Romans recognized and respected. Christians began to claim that they
were the most ancient faith and that they had worshiped the God who existed before creation.

These claims led the pagans to believe that the christians were going against pagan Gods and
being anti-social in their faith.
During the time period of the French Revolution, the Christian Church would come to
battle several disagreements and would be forced to overcome several struggles. Towards the end
of the ruling of Roman Authority, the battle for power between the King and the Pope began to
emerge. The Church gradually became a defining institution of the Roman Empire which
angered many people. The Battle between Church and State has been an ongoing battle for as
long as anyone can remember and it still pops up today. William Joseph Chaminade, was a
french catholic priest who escaped persecution and went on to found the Marianist Society in
1817. Father Chaminade worked endlessly to end the movement of dechristianization that
seemed to be spreading at the time. He invited people of all different backgrounds from the
beginning to work with him, there were husbands and wives, teachers, business men, young men
and women, seminarians, priests, and representatives of every class all helping him to end
dechristianization.
Today we still face many of the same issues that the early Christians faced. Although
persecutions are not as common today, people are still martyred for their faith all of the time,
everything from being made fun of or being judged because of faith, it all falls under the same
category. People in todays society are often not very accepting of the Christian faith and believe
that all we do is judge people. We see this in the recent government decision to legalize gay
marriage. People automatically think that Christians hate gays just because we don't see it as a
natural thing that God intended. That does not in any way mean we hate them, who are we to
judge anyway? Our world today is full of cafeteria catholics who like to pick and choose what
the like and believe in amongst the Catholic Church.

Overall, the Catholic Church has been through a lot. The struggles and the hardships are
all worth it in the end, because we remember who we do it for. Although the going hasn't always
been easy, there are so many things to celebrate about the Catholic Church as well. A countless
number of miracles and people who went on to change the world come from the Catholic/
Christian faith, and that is something to be proud of.