....© 2000, Kimit A. Muston
I have read that in the state of Vermont it may soon be legal for two men or two women to be in love. This has a number of Christian organizations very angry. And that has gotten me to thinking about Pliny The Younger.
Now, I don't mean Pliny the Elder. I'm sure you all remember him as the famous Roman who put together the first encyclopedia. It wasn't a good encyclopedia, but it was the first encyclopedia. He's also famous because he died in the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii in A.D. 79. He wasn't in Pompeii when it started but he sailed into it because he wanted a better look at the eruption. Presumably, he got one.
No, I'm talking about his nephew, whom he adopted as his son, Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus - and now you know why he is called Pliny the Younger for short. He's the one I've been thinking about.
Pliny seems to have been a decent guy who was born with a silver trident in his mouth. Thanks to his adoptive dad he became a well connected lawyer. One of his best friends was a guy named Trajan, who eventually turned out to be emperor of the Roman World.
Trajan appointed Pliny as governor of Bithynia in the year 111. Being made a governor was usually seen as a license to rob, steal and get very rich, but Pliny actually tried to do a good job. And that's why he was bothered when a group of people were brought in front of him charged with being Christians.
In the year 112 Christians were not criminals because they had fish decals on the trunks of their cars, or because they blocked traffic by driving the speed limit, which is their primary crime today. Their offense at the beginning of the first century was that they refused to sacrifice to the Emperor, who was not only a good friend of Pliny's but a God as well. That made it a crime of treason, with the punishment of death.
Pliny gave the accused three chances to repent and throw a little incense on the fire in the Emperor's name. When they refused Pliny had them executed. But shortly there after he wrote to his buddy back in Rome. Those darn Christians, Pliny wrote, they were so stubborn and obstinate that they deserved to be executed, as far as he was concerned. But once you killed them, things just got worse. "Soon accusations spread, as usually happens, because of the proceedings going on, and ...An anonymous document was published containing the names of many persons."
What Pliny had on his hands was a good old first century Christian hunt, what we today would call a witch hunt. And he didn't like it. It seemed to him a lot of the charges were being motivated by revenge and greed. The accused seemed like average people. They paid their taxes and held down responsible jobs. As a matter of fact, they seemed to live by a standard of behavior not unlike Pliny's. He wrote Trajan, "...they were accustomed...to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not to falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so." It wasn't that Pliny was considering converting. But he did want some guidance from his boss as to how he was supposed to treat those charged as Christians in the future.
Trajan wrote back right away. He said "...anonymously posted accusations ought to have no place in any prosecution. For this is both a dangerous kind of precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age." - which is funny, since the age was the first century and both these guys were barbarians. Then Trajan went on to instruct Pliny, "They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian...even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon." In short, don't ask, don't tell.
Which brings me back to the anger over Vermont's actions. I find it curious that many who today practice that once treasonous religion seem to have less compassion than a nineteen hundred year old pagan lawyer.
Kimit Muston is a writer living in North Hollywood. His work may also be read in the Las Angeles Times.