One of the reasons I don’t go to church anymore
Monks brawl at Christian holy site in Jerusalem
By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer Matti Friedman, Associated Press Writer – 46 mins ago
JERUSALEM – Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity’s holiest churches Sunday and arrested two clergyman after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus’ tomb.
The clash between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks broke out in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection.
The brawling began during a procession of Armenian clergymen commemorating the 4th-century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus.
The Greeks objected to the march without one of their monks present, fearing that otherwise, the procession would subvert their own claim to the Edicule — the ancient structure built on what is believed to be the tomb of Jesus — and give the Armenians a claim to the site.
The Armenians refused, and when they tried to march the Greek Orthodox monks blocked their way, sparking the brawl.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police were forced to intervene after fighting was reported. They arrested two monks, one from each side, he said.
A bearded Armenian monk in a red-and-pink robe and a black-clad Greek Orthodox monk with a bloody gash on his forehead were both taken away in handcuffs after scuffling with dozens of riot police.
Six Christian sects divide control of the ancient church. They regularly fight over turf and influence, and Israeli police are occasionally forced to intervene.
“We were keeping resistance so that the procession could not pass through … and establish a right that they don’t have,” said a young Greek Orthodox monk with a cut next to his left eye.
The monk, who gave his name as Serafim, said he sustained the wound when an Armenian punched him from behind and broke his glasses.
Father Pakrat of the Armenian Patriarchate said the Greek demand was “against the status quo arrangement and against the internal arrangement of the Holy Sepulcher.” He said the Greeks attacked first.
Archbishop Aristarchos, the chief secretary of the Greek Orthodox patriarchate, denied his monks initiated the violence.
After the brawl, the church was crowded with Israeli riot police holding assault rifles, standing beside Golgotha, where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, and the long smooth stone marking the place where tradition holds his body was laid out.
The feud is only one of a bewildering array of rivalries among churchmen in the Holy Sepulcher.
The Israeli government has long wanted to build a fire exit in the church, which regularly fills with thousands of pilgrims and has only one main door, but the sects cannot agree where the exit will be built.
A ladder placed on a ledge over the entrance sometime in the 19th century has remained there ever since because of a dispute over who has the authority to take it down.
More recently, a spat between Ethiopian and Coptic Christians is delaying badly needed renovations to a rooftop monastery that engineers say could collapse.
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I grew up orthodox and ended up baptist. I saw the orthodox people argue and bicker with the catholics, roman catholics, and protestants. I saw the baptists argue and bicker with the pentecostals, methodists, and lutherans. And they all united to bitch about the catholics, the muslims, and the hindus.
Organized religion has caused nothing but hate and division among the people. Our technology has soared in the past two hundred years, but our morality and spirituality is still at a Middle Ages level.
There’s one really funny thing about all of this. There is only one story of creation. Just one. It’s not like there were the baptist god, the orthodox god, and the muslim god, all creating three different worlds.
There’s just one story and it’s like every religion has a page or a fragment from that story. Each and every one of them insists not only that they have the totality of the story, but that they also have the true story. Everyone else made theirs up and they’re going straight to hell.
So they kill each other and argue in some of their most holiest shrines. And they murder kids and babies in the name of a god they believe loves everyone unconditionally. Oh, everyone except for those dirty bastards we just killed. God is a fair and just god.
It makes me chuckle sometimes. Chuckle and at the same time cry….
