Sunday, November 9, 2008

Violent Sects

Dave Barry pointed me to some good Christian love.

Monks from the Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations were preparing for a ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City when a disagreement led to a full-fledged fistfight.

The fight began when Armenian clergy were holding a procession to commemorate the finding of the cross believed to have been used in the crucifixion of Jesus.....The Greek members of the clergy wanted one of their monks present..... for fear that the procession would undermine their claim to an ancient structure built on what is believed to be the tomb of Jesus. The two sides could not agree, and when the Armenians tried to begin the procession, the Greek monks stepped in and the fighting began.....

Sounds like many religious conflicts, doesn't it? One side claims that some seemingly trivial and harmless act by another will somehow compromise their beliefs. Rather than just go along with a seemingly equally harmless request, the other side tells them to suck sand. Pointless mayhem ensues.

Many among the dozens of monks came away with cuts and bruises, said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.

I think police should have let them fight it out, winner-take-um.....whatever the winner would have gotten.

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