Ingo Tschinke (I believe, sorry otherwise):
> >There must be very evil guys if you would imagine that they must always
> >lie and disguise themself, this will corrupt them much more than chaos
> >ever can to this to them.
To which Peter Metcalfe replies:
> Evil? Not really. The Borists are not too much different from what the
> Orlanthi do to the Lunars ('No, we don't know who ambushed the Patrol').
Exactly. And since I am on a quest for Other Earthly Things Than
Medieval Christianity As Models For Malkionists, it is very fitting
that I just the other day had a conversation with a friend who's a
theologist regarding Islamic sects. Appearantly there are a great
number of minor sects who hold their doctrines secret. Although Islam
just as Christianity and Judaism condemn lying, within these sects
it is perfectly OK to lie (if necessary) to keep sect doctrines
secret (but not necessarily at other times). Thus, most of them
simply claim to be normal shiites or sunnites (depending on what is
the state religion) or if they admit having a slightly different
brand of faith, they will press that it is slight, and still attend
the prayers at the mosque, etc, in the open being no different than
any of their neighbours.
The reasons are two: first, persecution of heretics has been as
common there as in the West, and second, in some cases there may be
mystical reasons - certain knowledge is only for the initiated.
This is for me a perfectly OK model for the Boristi as suggested.
Erik Sieurin