The Imams of this world get a lot wrong in their mistaken zeal for righteousness. They are following a prophet who was by his own admission instigated massacres and had multiple wives, at least one of them underage by most standards: the age of consent may not have existed in Arabia but was generally more like 12 or 14 in Western Europe — as the woman had to freely choose to marry.

Many women died in Christ to obtain that right. The Islamics want us all to submit and lose

One of the prophesies about the life of virginity,very prevalent in the New Testament,can be found in the 44th Psalm of David. There, Prophet David sees his distant, precious daughter,the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary,and prophesies: “Virgins shall be brought to the king after her. With joy and gladness they will be led to the temple of the king.” The life of the Theotokos, the Birthgiver of God, as a model and fortress of the virgins, propelled many souls to devote themselves to Christ totally.

The Holy Spirit in the epistles of St. Paul, especially in the beginning of 1 Corinthians, exalts the state of virginity: “Now concerning the things which you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.” In verse eight, St. Paul continues, “But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am,” meaning celibate. A few verses down (v. 32) St. Paul says, “But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares for the things of the world how he may please his wife, or husband.”So according to these verses of St. Paul, it is very clear that virginity and celibacy is more conducive to a higher spirituality. This is not to say that holiness cannot be reached within marriage that is also very, very possible. However, the great life of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Ever-Virgin, and the grace given to us in the New Testament and these great verses of St. Paul, spark a great love in Christians for a life of virginity and total devotion to the Lord.

Many young women lived in the homes of their parents. Just like the daughters of the deacon Philip, they lived a life of virginity, prayer, and devotion to the early Church. Although we did not have organized monasticism before the fourth century, all the elements of the ascetical or monastic lifestyle flourished in the life of the Church, and added to the Mother Church millions of martyrs.

On the first day of September, which marks the opening of our ecclesiastical year, the Church opens its golden pages of martyrdom by celebrating the resolve of the forty women virgin ascetic martyrs who put to shame the torture mechanisms of Licinius. The forty women virgin martyrs lived in Adrianoupolis of Thrace, in northeast Greece, and they were disciples of Deacon Ammoun. During that time, around 305 AD, the emperor of the eastern region of the Roman Empire was Licinius, a dreadful persecutor of Christianity. Licinius had instituted a decree for the annihilation of all Christians who refused to sacrifice to idols. The decree of this bloodthirsty tyrant soon reached all cities, towns, and villages.Christians were slaughtered like lambs, refusing to submit to his soul-destroying promises and choosing rather to die for the love of their heavenly bridegroom.

During these horrible years, the forty virgin martyrs were apprehended and put to the test along with their deacon Ammoun. The names of these glorious Christian women are as follows: Adamantine, Athena, Akrive, Antigone, Arivea, Aspasia, Aphrodite, Dione, Dodone, Elpinike, Erasmia, Erato, Ermeneia, Evterpe, Thaleia, Theanoe, Theano, Theonymphe, Theophane, Kalliroe, Kalliste, Kleio, Kleonike, Kleopatra, Koralia, Lambro, Margarita, Marianthe, Melpomene, Moscho, Ourania, Pandora, Penelope, Polymnia, Polynike, Sapfo, Terpsichore, Troada, Haido, and Harikleia.

By their daily ascetic struggles, by their prayers, vigils, and fasting, the seed of faith rooted, sprouted, and blossomed in the fertile ground of the virgins’ souls. Steadfast faith, precise keeping of Christ’s commandments, and obedience to their pious spiritual father Ammoun, made them as pure as lilies. This purity invites and hosts the two theological virtues of humility and love, which further house the Trinity in the Christian heart.

The intimidations, threats, and tortures did not sway the virgins. The idolater archon Varos of Adrianoupolis did not sway the unshakable faith of this holy team of virgin martyrs. They united their godly prayers, and immediately and miraculously the priest of the idols was airborne. He remained suspended and hung in midair, thus punished for many, many hours, and finally he landed on the ground and breathed his last.

Deacon Ammoun was hanged, and had his ribcage opened with knives. After this, a red-hot iron helmet was placed on his head. The above tortures caused no apparent harm to this athlete of Christ, so he was transported to Heraklea of Thrace, to the tyrant Licinius, along with the holy virgins. Licinius ordered to have ten of the virgin martyrs burned by fire, and another eight beheaded, along with deacon Ammoun. Another ten were put to death by the sword, being struck in the mouth or in the heart, thus giving up their spirit. Of those remaining, six were martyred by being forced to swallow sizzling hot iron marbles, and the last six were cut to pieces by knives.

[As an aside, there is a long discussion of people defending women who confess to adultery in the modern church at SSM’s place. How we have fallen]
They are wrong.

You see, you cannot make someone good: they have to choose to be good. Making the world submit to some theocratic regimen is likely to fail, in fact will fail. Freedom may allow us to be evil, but it also allows us to be righteous.

I have a standing problem with trying to “force” goodness on people. For starters, it doesn’t work. Of course one should speak for what one believes to be good, true and beautiful – and not as a “point of view” but as a universal truth.

However, I want freedom so that people are free to be good. For certain, many people will not be good, when free. However, “goodness” when managed by the State seems no goodness at all. It is just the imposed wishes of someone assuming to know what God wills. The ruler may get it right, at times, and he may get it wrong at times.

Islam is a total system. There is a demand that all of life is in submission to the ineffable will of Allah — and a theology that states that all events are willed by Allah from instant to instant. There is no out.

Compulsion is seen as good.

The idea of free will, if a person is predestined for salvation, and if the sacraments have saving power — which exercise the minds of serious Christians (Reformed, Orthodox, Catholic or Anabaptist) makes no sense. Because submission is compulsory.

But that very submission removes the idea that one is a moral agent. Instead one is a tool of Allah, or history. And that fits into the mindset of a Marxist. This may be why the progressives are blind to the dangers of Islam. Instead they see fellow travelers, hating liberty, and hating the individual dignity of Man.