Sacrilege
Sacrilege is a type of disrespectful behaviour in religion, and usually it goes to extremes, though not always. There are numerous different types of sacrilege as well, discussed throughout this series. Sacrilege can be a few different things:
Treating an object with religious importance like any other object.
Stealing a religious object.
Damaging a religious object.
Refusing to acknowledge the object as being “religious” or of any importance.
The object can also be a corpse, or interred remains. Digging up, exhuming, or stealing from a religious burial site is sacrilegious, though a different type.
However, when the popularity of Catholicism and Christianity was at its peak, Church and State merged, so certain things related to government became sacrilegious, such as offense against the emperor, or king, –which could be anything from criminal acts, to speaking out against the king. Or it could be something like tax evasion, –which today, has absolutely nothing to do with the church, but back then, it was a serious religious crime. Church and state taxes became the same, though they applied to different things; it was like the tithe offering we make today, and skipping out on it in the present era is a bit taboo, but back then, was considered an offense punishable by execution.
Depending on the sect or particular Christian version of the Christian church, –there are several, –sacrilege can be expanded or narrowed to mean any number of things. Other forms of sacrilegious behaviour are just as serious in other religions, such as Islamic, and Jewish. The term “sacrilegious”, is often confused as being the “opposite” of religion. Despite similar word structure, and even root word similarities, this is inaccurate. Sacrilege has its own separate etymology.
