Martyrs.  We've all heard the term.  We may have heard it while studying history in school, listening to a sermon in church, mosque, or synagogue or, and it is this situation on which I wish to focus, in the news media.  As religious extremism--of every ilk--be-comes ever more widely publicized around the world, we see person after person claiming that he or she wishes to die as a martyr for his or her god.  So dedicated is this person to his or her god that he or she will not simply wait to die a natural death for him, but to rather actively seek to die for him.
     In the original language out of which it came, the word martyr means "witness."  A person who is a martyr is testifying, in some way, to the reality of the god in whom he or she believes.  Martyrs believe they are proclaiming the worth and presence of their god.
     That martyrs proclaim the presence of their god is not in dispute.  Clearly, however much we may doubt the validity of a martyr's god, we cannot deny that in dying for this god, the martyr is making his name more widely (and loudly) known.  With every fresh martyrdom, the world hears a little more about the god for whom the martyr died.
     Whether a martyr is upholding the worth of his or her god, however, is another question.  Historically, martyrs, though they have been very willing, if need be, to die for their god, very few of them have actively sought to die for this god.  Although they may have well been aware that by speaking on behalf of their god they would incur social, religious, or political wrath, they did not in general set out to die.  After all, what kind of a god would actually want his people to die unnecessarily?
     Yet many of today's martyrs have set this framework on its head.  They have come to believe that they should seek not to live, but to die for their god.  Though I do not impugn them for their dedication, I wonder whether this is really what their god wants to them to do.  In general (many ancient pantheons of course included gods of the dead), gods are about life, wholeness, equanimity and peace.  And it seems that choosing life for a god gives one much more opportunity to find whatever wholeness and peace this god offers in this existence.  Any god can offer a wonderful afterlife.  But a god who can offer an abundant life in this life seems to be a god with the most power of all, the ability to shape both this life and the next.
     This is truly a God for all seasons.