9 Christians, on the other hand, believe that labor is honorable. In the pre-Christian world, Greeks and Romans believed that physical labor was demeaning and only suitable for slaves. 8Īnother, perhaps less well-known area in which Christianity had a major impact is on labor and economics. With the spread of Christianity, these horrific practices were not only personally rejected, but also outlawed, and were never accepted again for as long as Christians had a presence. 5 They would cut holes in their tongues and draw rope festooned with thorns through the wound to collect blood offerings, 6 and they would eat captured soldiers with a sauce of peppers and tomatoes. Most notably, the Aztecs and Mayans would cut open their enemy’s chest and tear out the beating heart while they were still alive. It was not only in the Roman world, but also in the Americas that life was held in low view prior its encounter with Christianity. They insisted that life is sacred and they fought for the abolition of the gladiator games until goodness, truth, and beauty won the day. The early Christians were hated for interfering with Roman entertainment, but they didn’t care what a pagan world thought of them. 4 Christians boycotted and spoke out against the games until they were eventually outlawed. Similarly, in the Roman world, watching men and animals destroy human life was considered high-class entertainment. Yet wherever Christians encountered such practices, they both opposed them and provided practical assistance to make it easier for people to choose a better way. 3 Infant girls were especially vulnerable to these practices because females were held in very low regard in the pre-Christian world. Others would drown their children in the sea, cut their throats, throw them into manure piles, or sacrifice them to pagan gods. 2 Unfortunately, exposure wasn’t the only way parents discarded their children. Whereas the pagans would leave their unwanted children out to die of exposure, Christians would take in those children and raise them as their own. As a result of God’s revelation that all people are made in his image and possess inherent value, dignity, and worth, Christians vehemently opposed and eventually outlawed the common practices of abortion, infanticide, gladiator games, human sacrifices, and more. Some of the most foundational changes arising from Christianity’s influence relate to the sanctity of life. From the sanctity of life to the view of women, from the sciences to the arts, from the fields of labor to the halls of justice, every area of life has changed for the better as a result of Christianity’s impact. The ideas-the truths-that were revealed and spread with the coming of Christ and the penning of the New Testament, changed the world far and wide, always for good, wherever they took root. It has been said many times before that ideas have consequences, and indeed they do.
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