The Scholar's Challenge

“Why do the Romans persecute us?” I asked, knowing full well the answer.
He laughed bitterly. “If the Tiber rises to the city walls, if the Nile does not rise to the fields, if the weather continues without change, if there is an earthquake, if famine, if pestilence, immediately the Romans cry, ‘Christians to the lion.’”
“What type of a man rejoices in sending someone to the lions?” I asked.
“Oh, they’re capable of worse things. Recently they condemned a Christian maiden to a panderer rather than a panther, confessing openly that, with us, a stain on our purity is regarded as more dreadful than any punishment and worse than death.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
Tertullian slammed his hand on the table. “Of course it’s true! Any torture to deny our faith. Why is it that real criminals are tortured to admit their guilt, while we are tortured to deny our guilt? We are Christians. We admit it. Do what you will with us.” He jumped up and walked around the room for a while before settling back into the chair.
“We’re not criminals,” I said.
“Of course not. Do we exhibit any of a criminal’s characteristics on being caught? Do we display fear, regret, shame, lament? No. Rather, we glorify in the name ‘Christian.’ Where are the witnesses to our so-called criminal behavior? Who has seen the sacramental baby-killing we are charged with and the baby-eating that goes with it? Has anyone actually seen dogs tied to lamps at our banquets so that the lamps might fall on command, darkness prevail, and indecent lusts begin?”
I pulled at my lower lip. “These rumors have been around for a hundred years now.”
Tertullian slapped his thigh, “And didn’t Virgil write that rumors are nothing more than uncertainty? These magistrates pledge allegiance to ancient laws and argue that we ignore them. Yet, if they are so interested in ancient laws, why do they ignore the fact that for six hundred years after the foundation of Rome, no pagan house registered a divorce, and now it is almost sought after as a sequel to marriage? A Christian man is born masculine for his wife and for no other. We admit it. Charge us with that.”
“More than that,” I said, “these pagans expose their unwanted children to the elements and to the dogs to be eaten.”
Shaking his head, Tertullian sniffed. “And who is the baby-killer?”
I agreed. “My former instructor, Clement, once said that we Christians do not cast out our children and keep parrots like the pagans.”
“No, indeed,” Tertullian said. “Murder is forbidden. Even the child in the womb may not be killed, as is the practice of the Romans. The fruit is always present in the seed, and whoever is to be a man is already a man.”