Sign of the times

[Jan Van]

I still don't see her being a martyr. The guy didn't kill her because she was Christian, he killed her because he found her remarks enraging. Being Christian doesn't matter, except maybe her being religious might have been a cause of her being intolerant of his lifestyle. Would she have been a martyr if she had been an atheist, or a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Would it have been a hate crime in that case?

[rocketdog]

I'm with jan van mourik on this one.  A martyr isn't created every time a religious person is killed, even if they were engaging in some sort of quasi-religious activity at the time.  That waters down the definition. 

The media does the same thing with the word "hero" -- they've overused it to the point that it's lost much of its meaning, which is a terrible insult to "real" heroes. 

[Ad Orientem]

I concur. This doesn't seem to meet the definitions of martyrdom as understood by the ancient churches (Rome and Orthodoxy). An heroic death perhaps. But not a martyr's death.