In the play, Creon, ruler of Thebes, decides that the body of Polyneices, a rebel killed in civil war, will be left unburied on the battlefield for the carrion.
Antigone, sister of Polyneices, though Creon threatens her with death, as a matter of religious obligation, steals the body and buries it with the proper funeral rites.
Though warned repeatedly, Creon puts her alive into a tomb.
The gods are unhappy that Creon has denied Polyneices proper burial and also violated religious stricture burying Antigone alive.
Antigone hangs herself and her betrothed, Haemon, Creon's own son and heir, commits suicide.
The play, teaching as it does that divine law comes first, is most commonly trotted out by anti-war religious leftists but also sometimes by others to defend non-compliance with the draft or other forms of refusal to submit to the state out of loyalty to "higher," religious obligations.
(Such folks often are great fans of Lysistrata, too, though you might think the play's humor far too broad.)
Violence against Ebola health workers
Consider how awkward this is for Republicans who have lately taken such extravagant stands concerning freedom of religion in order to undermine Obamacare and liberal and government positions regarding legal protections for gays in matters of employment and public accommodations.
In many cases the Africans are attacking to prevent or avenge health workers' sacrilegious interference with proper burial of persons killed by the disease.
In that part of the world that might even be proper Christian burial.
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