Shame on everyone who took part in the brawl at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. According to an AFP report, seven people were injured today (Thursday 27th December 2008) when a fight broke out between Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests at the church which is said to mark the site of Christ's birth. The fracas began after Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders, which encroached on space set aside for the Armenian priests, while attempting to clean up their part of the shared church. Palestinian police were called in to stop what the BBC called "pitched battles" which involved about 80 "holy" men wielding brooms.
How can any of those involved dare to call themselves followers of Christ and behave like this? Their behavior is especially shameful at such a place and time! I mean how hard is it to understand the meaning of "love thy neighbor" (Mark 12:33) and "turn the other cheek" (Matthew 5:39). Both are concepts we expect Sunday school kids to understand, never mind grown men of the cloth. The priests on either side shouldn’t be allowed to preach to anyone until they all make amends to the brothers they were so readily brawling with today.
Does one size fit all when it comes to worship? And should that size be XXL? Brian Tome, the lead pastor at Crossroads Community Church in Cincinnati, OH seems to think so as he proselytizes on the benefits of consolidation.
"There too many freakin' churches in every city. It's crazy that you've got a town of maybe ten thousand people and you have ten churches of the same exact denomination in that town," says Tome, in this Current TV interview (click HERE to view if player fails to load). Tome feels the megachurch phenomenon, which has grown tenfold in the last three decades, is the work of God. He also seems to want his parish to become a little over-dependent on his Goliath of a church, which is more than a little worrying.
"If it wasn't for this church we would be screwed," says Tome, "that should be the legacy of every single church." Hmnn? Would the big guy really approve of such megalomania? I hope not. "If the community that you're residing in doesn't come to the recognition where if you were extracted and left there, that they would be screwed, then you should screw yourself," Tome continues. "You should just leave right now. You're taking up valuable land that could be a Target."
Perhaps Wal-Mart may be a better analogy in Tome's last statement. As super-churches push the little guys out, surely the community suffers as they trade their individuality to join a larger flock. How can a pastor possibly get to know each and every one of his parishioners in a church as large as Crossroads? How can they understand and serve the needs of five thousand? Don't we suffer from too much consolidation in our lives, rather than not enough, as Tome seems to think?
Hey, I get the fact that some people may appreciate the relative anonymity of being a small fish in a big pond. Others might get off on the energy that large gatherings create, and the rock concert-worthy service production values that such organizations can support. People have different needs from their churches, and different ways of feeling closer to their god, which is why I disagree with Tome's bigger is better philosophy. Bigger is not necessarily better, just different, which is what some individuals may want.
On the upside, though Tome's church looks like a Discount Shoe Warehouse from the outside, he shuns the buy-your-way-to-faith markets found in many other blockbuster churches. At Crossroads they give away books and CDs, feeling their mission is to "bless people" rather than cash in on the congregation, which puts them way ahead of many more commercialized mega-churches in my book.
The New Jersey Chapter of the Muslim American Society chose YouTube as their medium to distribute the message of peace and unity in their video I Am Muslin (click HERE to view if player doesn't load). This witty short certainly gets the message across, challenging popular misconceptions, and white-robe wearing, camel-riding, date-eating, tent-dwelling stereotypes.
While we're at it: I am English. I do not have bad teeth. I don't know your friend that once visited London eighteen months ago. Nor do I know the Queen (though I have a friend that does). We have indoor plumbing (indeed our toilets flush way better than yours do and rarely get blocked thanks to wider pipes). We also probably have better cell phones than the one in your pocket or purse (thanks to more competition in the marketplace and the adoption of the GSM world standard). Our TV technology is also of a higher quality than yours; we have PAL versus NTSC, which even American techies and geeks joke is an acronym for Never The Same Color, AND we have set top boxes that deliver free digital TV, no cable or satellite dish needed (you could too if it weren't for the killjoys at the FCC). We're not all soccer mad (though most of us, guys as well as girls, like David Beckham). Our food isn't awful (where do American's eat when they visit the U.K.?). In England a crumpet isn't something you eat (even the mighty Wikipedia's wrong on this one), it's something you shag (like David Beckham). We don't live 24/7 surrounded by fog, and we don't all talk like Dick Van Dyke. In fact none of us do. He was born in West Plains, Missouri and had the worst Hollywood mockney accent ever in Mary Poppins, which despite this is still a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious film, delivering the holiday message of unity through diversity (an American film of a story set in England about inter-class cooperation written by an Australian author) and the power of working together.
What stereotypes and misconceptions about your nationality, faith or culture irk you? Set the record straight in our comments section.
Shame on everyone who took part in the brawl at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. According to an AFP report, seven people were injured today (Thursday 27th December 2008) when a fight broke out between Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests at the church which is said to mark the site of Christ's birth. The fracas began after Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders, which encroached on space set aside for the Armenian priests, while attempting to clean up their part of the shared church. Palestinian police were called in to stop what the BBC called "pitched battles" which involved about 80 "holy" men wielding brooms.
, which despite this is still a 
