Christian apocalyptic authors read Muslim conquest as deserved punishment for Christian sexual sin

Evidence

Yet, far from being a sign that God has abandoned Christians or that he prefers the Ishmaelites, the invasions are a just, even mild, punishment for the sexual sins of Christians. The only other mention of such sexual deviance in the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius is during the second millennium, when “the women were openly running after the men and, like mares in a wild herd, the women, and the men too, had gone mad in an excess of fornication.” The punishment then was the flood; in comparison, seventh-century Christians suffering under the yoke of the Ishmaelites could feel that they were getting off with a light sentence. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 320

Categorization

• SEED: The logic that contemporary enemies are God’s punishment for the community’s own laxity has recurred from Methodius to modern evangelical takes on 9/11 — an essay arc tracing this self-blaming apologetic.