"But there were some who were tortured [in an attempt to get at their riches] even though they possessed nothing to surrender. They were tortured because they were not believed. Perhaps they desired possessions, and were not voluntarily poor through holiness" (City of God, Book 1; page 19 in the Penguin Classics edition).

In Book 1 of City of God, St Augustine answers a variety of charges against the Christian religion in the fallout after the Visigoths under Aleric sacked Rome. He also attempted to give comfort to those Christians who suffered the deprivation of life, dignity, or property during this invasion. In the course of doing this, he mentions that those who were tortured were only tortured because they attempted to hold onto their worldly possessions: they were tortured because they would not reveal where they had hidden their riches.

I was reading a reflection by Monsignor Charles Pope concerning beliefs, philosophies, and God. He opens by stating that

There is a tendency in the modern age, at least in the Western world, to trivialize the human person. One of the ways we do this is to say, in so many words, that it does not really matter what a person thinks or believes.

This is by no means a new sentiment (in the sense of being unique to today), but rather has permeated the "modern" era. For example, writing about 100 years ago, G.K. Chesterton said that this was often the attitude of the day. He continued by writing that

“It is foolish, generally speaking, for a philosopher to set fire to another philosopher in Smithfield Market because they do not agree in their theory of the universe. That was done very frequently in the last decadence of the Middle Ages….But there is one thing that is infinitely more absurd and unpractical than burning a man for his philosophy. This is the habit of saying that his philosophy does not matter, and this is done universally in the twentieth century, in the decadence of the great revolutionary period.” (Heretics)

Well, the blame Israel first crowd is at it again. First one ship is boarded, after attempting to run a blockade which was established by Israel with international support, and several lives were lost when the supposedly peaceful passengers assaulted the Israeli commando team, attempting to wrench their guns away, throwing Molotov cocktails, and beating them with iron rods.