Do not condemn the Christian name

A name by itself determines neither good nor evil apart from the actions associated with it. Indeed, judging only from the name for which we are accused, we are very good people. But just as we do not think it just to ask for acquittal merely because of our name if we are proved evil, so too, if we are found to do no wrong either because of the name we bear or because of our conduct, it is your responsibility to take care not to become liable to punishment yourselves by unjustly punishing those who have not been convicted. For neither praise nor punishment can reasonably arise from a name unless some virtuous or wicked deed can be demonstrated. You do not punish any who are accused before you until they have been convicted. Yet in our case you take the name itself as proof, although, so far as the name is concerned, you ought rather to punish those who accuse us. For we are accused of being Christians, and it is not just to hate what is good. Again, if one of the accused denies it aloud and says he is not a Christian, you release him because you have nothing with which to convict him of wrongdoing. But if someone confesses that he is one, you punish him because of the confession. What is needed is to examine the life both of the one who confesses and of the one who denies, so that what each person is may become clear from his deeds. For just as some who have received from our teacher Christ the command not to deny him encourage others when they are examined, so perhaps those who live wickedly give an excuse to people who are otherwise disposed to accuse all Christians of impiety and injustice. Yet this too is not right. Some people also take to themselves the name and appearance of philosophy while doing nothing worthy of their profession. And you know that the ancients who held and taught opposing views are all called by the single name philosophers. Some of them taught atheism, and the poets who arose among you proclaim Zeus, together with his children, to be sexually immoral. Yet you do not restrain those who pursue such teachings; instead, you offer prizes and honors to those who insult these gods with eloquence.