The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> a mania for DISunity

a mania for DISunity
Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Sunday, October 25 2015, 17:13:32 (UTC)
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..anyone who's spent any time in the Assyrian trenches knows the cry on almost all lips is..."we must unify". It's undeniably true that if we actually wanted to achieve anything it would be better to pull together, to pool resources, to concentrate all our energy in one direction towards one goal.

History shows that aside from patriotism, nothing turns people against each other more than religion. The French were one people yet when many turned Protestant, they became murderous towards their Catholic neighbors of yesterday and the compliment was repaid, in full. In Bosnia/Serbia you can't tell one group from another yet the same people, when divided by religion, can murder each others children and all but eat them. The list of divisions caused by religion is endless and we suffer from it still today. While religion may bring people of one religion(barring the Reformation) closer together, it can also turn them into a gang who will murder rival gang members for the silliest of reasons.

At one time, in their homelands, Assyrians were all Church of the East. But gang warfare in Europe cost the pope to lose followers and so his missionaries spread out to the New World and to our homelands to win converts and strengthen their numbers for the European gang wars to come, and away from the Church of their forbears. Had the Reformation never happened and spilled its effects in Europe over into our lands, we would have remained of one Church, and therefore as unified as we could ever hope to be. But, after the Catholics came the alphabet soup of Protestant sects and each was able to lure away to their camp many more Assyrians. And, as the father of a friend told me, soon people who had gladly watched each others flocks the day before, refused any longer to tend "Presbyterian sheep".

That has been our history in the modern era.

All religions have in common the heretic, the one who won't go along or leaves the faith altogether. Heretics have always been treated harshly though not as harshly as they used to be...but still, if you leave the faith or lose the faith or even want to make friends or marry outside the faith you can face serious consequences. At the least your gang expects you not to associate with other gangs. When all of this division and heretic-hunting and shaming takes place within what once used to be a tight-knit and homogeneous group, well...good luck ever bringing them together again.

You can herd cats more easily.



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