Once again, we have priests who learned how to be holy in Ireland and then went from there to Germany to preach the Gospel to the barbarous idolators there and were slaughtered for their efforts, becoming martyrs and saints. For reasons that I am sure could be and likely have been researched, this steady migration of missionaries from the British and Irish Isles to Germany must have been A Thing, perhaps similar to the Spaniards who, under the leadership of Brother Junipero Serra, sent missionaries to convert the Native Americans in California and simultaneously establish a bulwark of missions/forts against encroachment of Russians from the north.

Today’s two martyrs were brothers (it is unclear if that means that were blood relatives or of the same religious order) who shared the same name: Ewald. Butler tells us:

Both were called by the same name Ewald or Hewald; but, for distinction’s sake, from the colour of their hair, the one was called the Black, the other the White Ewald. The first was esteemed more learned in the holy scriptures, but both seemed equally to excell in the fervour of devotion and holy zeal.

The Brothers Ewald upset the Teutons by telling them (as is the wont of missionaries) that all that they believed was wrong and that the Brothers Ewald were there to set them on the right path. Inasmuch as the Germanic peoples were not under the thumb of the Holy Roman Empire, the natives simply felt no compulsion to do anything but shut the Ewalds up. Alas, the (to use Butler’s word) “barbarians” killed these brothers–the White Ewald first, driving a sword through him; the brainier Black Ewald, second,  tearing him limb from limb.

Their story continues, though, with the bodies of both Ewalds being thrown into the Rhine. The corpses (all pieces) were discovered some 40 miles downstream because a heavenly light illuminated them in the river so that a fellow missionary could find and identify them. Many miracles thereafter accompanied the Ewalds’ relics (i.e., the bones that are left when the bodies have decayed), and, at one point, long after Germany had become Christianized, the Archbishop of Köln (Cologne) bestowed the two Ewalds’ skulls upon the bishop of Münster.

In preparing for my blog posts this year, I have encountered scores of martyrs, some of whom died during Imperial persecutions of Christians and some while in the mission field. I understand the former but struggle with the latter.

The closest I can come has been this: as a gay man, I understand the refusal to deny my gayness or stay closeted, even under penalty of losing family and friends (or being beaten up, or, as some of my brothers or sisters yet face, being killed). I certainly understand what it means to proclaim to others the value of living authentically and openly, and the liberation I have personally experienced by the decision to openly be who I am, and to embrace my gayness as a blessing. And, during my varied careers, I have on occasion traveled to talk to groups about the value I have found in being openly me–which includes being gay.

Yet, there really is a difference between telling others what has helped me in my life, and telling them that mine is the pathway that they ought, let alone must, take. In religious terms, it’s the difference between testifying and proselytizing. I believe in telling my own truth, and am inspired when others tell their truths. Yet I cannot affirm any compulsion to make others adhere to my truth, to adopt my beliefs, to accept my worldview. And I am repulsed when others seek to do that to me.

I’ve heard it argued that if I knew that a road was out and that anyone headed down that road would drive off a cliff and die, then I have a duty to do all I can to stop them from proceeding down that road. This is equated to telling people that they need to become Christians before it’s too late and they end up in hell.

Granted, that idea seems to possess a certain logic. But where in the world did anyone get the idea in the first place that someone is destined to an eternity of burning in a lake of sulfurous fire for holding or not holding a particular belief? The Bible says so? You mean the same Bible that encourages believers to hold all their possessions in common and share according to needs and not merit or initial contributions?