No no! It was a joke!
Though if it weren't for the fact I could
never hurt a poor defenseless goat (and all the blood, etc.), I would do it for sure! Just to make a point, and for the sheer theatrical effect.
One of the most amusing aspects of the lore that has grown up around the early Christians is the way they invariably play up the horrible nasty cruelty of the Romans throwing the poor, noble, peaceful Christians to the lions.
What they
don't ever tell you is that within a very few short years (like 5-10 or less) of the official adaptation of Christianity as the State religion of the Roman Empire, they started
burning hundreds of thousands of their fellow Christians alive, merely for disagreeing about the most trivial dogmatic minutiae you can possibly imagine.
That figure is no exaggeration, BTW--if anything the numbers are higher--and then we have the Middle Ages, after the nasty cruel Romans were gone and Christianity kicked into high gear. Burnings for heresy, witchcraft, because the pope wanted all the money you were making (read about the Albigensian Crusade in southern France--horrifying stuff), the Spanish Inquisition, etc., etc.
It's been said many times before--they would never let Jesus Christ into one of 'His' own churches, not dressed the way he was.
Thanks, but no, I was burned out on the holiday long before that.
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