By Fr. Theophan Mackey
Saint Job of Pochaiv Orthodox Church
Los Alamos

I have been hearing the word “martyr” thrown around broadly and cavalierly in recent days, even by some in my church and vocation. This greatly unsettles me, and I have unfollowed a handful of priests whose words I usually find edifying because of it.

The word “martyr” comes from the Greek for “witness.” But more specifically people are currently using it to denote a Christian martyr. This is problematic.

Now, one can be a Christian, and a martyr for a cause other than Christ. One can be a non-Christian and a martyr for a cause. But Christ is the only reason that one can be a Christian martyr.

When one is killed for being hateful, incendiary, or factious, it does not count as martyrdom for Christ. 

The great martyrs of the church renounced a violent defence of Christ. Saint George was a soldier who laid down his arms and was killed for his witness to Jesus Christ. And he is only one amidst hundreds if not thousands who met a violent execution with spiritual peace.

And before the argument arises, Jesus flipped the tables of the money-changers in the temple and called the Pharisees a brood of vipers. His righteous anger was incontrovertibly righteous. Can we be assured that our anger is truly righteous? Our motives are murky at best, and self-serving at worst, and often we don’t fully understand them. It is spiritually dangerous, and supremely arrogant, to identify with Christ and not the sinners in the stories of the Bible.

Another argument arises often, that we (the self-righteous) must call out the sinfulness that we see in the world around us. That we are not witnessing to Christ if we remain silent.

I would posit that if Christians acted more regularly like Jesus Christ, and actually, consistently avoided all those things that they demonize other people and groups for (abortion, pornography, immorality, greed, etc.) they would have to speak out less against them. Their actions would speak louder than any influencer possibly could.

Was a famous martyr for Christ welcomed into the Kingdom last week? Or was a public figure of division and partisanship, whose political stance some agreed with, and others were repulsed by, was killed for his outspokenness?

What were the children who were killed in school shootings last week martyrs to? What do their deaths witness to? Who does their blood cry out to, for justice? Where is the outrage? Where are the vigils? Where is the change?