Murray has a point, in that the Spartans, for instance, fought in pairs of lovers, and when their opponents spied on them and saw them braiding each other's hair, putting on their nicest bracelets and necklaces and oiling each other's bodies and making love, the spies knew that the Spartans were preparing to fight to the death.

On the other hand, it is not necessary to be homosexual - or even to be unmarried or childless - to be prepared for blood sacrifice, and I'm not only talking about the maybe-I'll-survive soldiers of the World Wars. Look at the leaders of the 1916 Rising in Ireland, who knew that in signing the Proclamation of the Republic they were signing their death warrants - all but one married men with children, I think.

No, to die for your country, or your religion, or your ideals, what you need is a strong and perfect faith.