“Christians Eat Babies”—setting things straight about Christianity

At a certain point in the history of early Christianity there was a nasty rumour that went about. The rumour was that Christians practiced cannibalism and committed incest.

Why on earth did people think this?

When we stitch together known facts about early Christianity and its context, we can see how it is that prejudiced imaginations might leap to such conclusions:

👀 Christian beliefs and practises were new—the wider public knew very little about them.

👫 Christians often referred to each other as “brothers” and “sisters”, including their wives and husbands.

🍞 Christians also regularly had shared meals known as “love feasts” (cf. Jude 1:12).

🏠 Church meetings were held in private homes, and visitors weren’t always allowed to come and join in—and thereby see it for themselves.

👶 In the ancient Greek-Roman world, abortions were much more dangerous than they are today. Because of this, the practice of “exposure” was an acceptable way (for pagans) of disposing of unwanted babies without murdering them after they were born. “Exposure” was simply abandoning the newborn infant and leaving it to die of natural causes. Because Christians valued human life, they were known to rescue and raise these babies.

🍷 The bread and wine that are eaten and drunk in the Christian ritual of “communion” were spoken of as being the body and blood of Jesus.

🍇 Some pagan religious celebrations at that time—such as that of Bacchus, the god of wine and ecstasy—involved wild drinking parties that culminated in orgiastic revelry.

It is from facts such as these that malign and misinformed notions rumours sprouted.

Behind closed doors, the Christian “love feasts” with their “brothers and sisters” were imagined to be incestuous, drunken carousing.

In light of the rescued babies and the practice of “eating and drinking” the body and blood of Jesus in the communion meal, a more sinister notion was concocted. The speculation was that the baby was hidden inside a loaf of bread which a new convert would cut open, unwittingly murdering the baby. The Christians then feasted on the blood and flesh of the infant, while the guilty perpetrator was bound to silence.

Such were the rumours that ancient Christians had to answer for.

Fast-forwarding to the modern world, misinformed speculations about Christianity are usually less exciting than these. Sometimes accusations are true only in the case of Christians acting against their professed faith.

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“Take Another Look” is a West Auckland-based ministry that aims to set the record straight about what Christianity practices and preaches, to dispel some of the myths, and correct mistaken ideas.

If you would like to discover the beliefs and practices widely-held among Christians, please visit and explore from the homepage of www.TakeAnotherLook.nz. Or, if you have questions you would like to discuss, please get in touch through the contact page.

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