this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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The Christian Church when Julian tries to ensure religious freedom: (infosec.pub)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/roughromanmemes@piefed.social
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[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Call it "Christianity taking Rome over" or "Rome taking Christianity over", it's still the same: Christians went from a group persecuted by state-approved Pagans, to the state-approved group persecuting Pagans. The years past Constantine switched who held the stick, and who got the short end of it, but the persecution itself stayed the same.

Either way, it wasn't just the political structure, but also the population and their mindset - shared by both Christians and Pagans, as shown by the mob violence. Pagans killing George of Cappadocia, Christians killing Hypatia... or the consistent vandalism towards each others' religious buildings.

I think it's a great cautionary tale to not give a free pass to oppression, because of dumb shit like "I don't like the victim", "I like the perpetrator", or "the perpetrator used to be a victim". Because who is getting oppressed might change in the future.

And this should be a lesson of how the State and the religions should be separated, for the good of the State and of the religions themselves.

IMO this separation is essential, but not enough. You need also a strong culture of tolerance and anti-oppression.

As a Christian, I prefer Julian over Constantine.

You're saying this as a Christian living in 2025. Your mindset is completely different from those folks, as shown by the fact you just praised the separation of state and religion (and I agree with it).

Those folks back then, however? They probably hated Julian with everything they could, as some sort of "filthy traitor". Not just for being Pagan (cue to the epithet), but also because he got in the way of the oppression they wanted.