Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them

From Haaretz:

A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.

The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot.

On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop's 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student.

Both were questioned by police and the yeshiva student will be brought to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student from approaching the Old City for 75 days.

But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say this sort of thing has been going on for years. Archbishop Nourhan Manougian says he expects the education minister to say something.

"When there is an attack against Jews anywhere in the world, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don't they take harsher measures?" he asks.

According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, "as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country."

Rossing says there are certain common characeristics from the point of view of time and location to the incidents. He points to the fact that there are more incidents in areas where Jews and Christians mingle, such as the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City and the Jaffa Gate.

There are an increased number at certain times of year, such as during the Purim holiday."I know Christians who lock themselves indoors during the entire Purim holiday," he says.

Naturally, the phenomenon of Jewish Israelis spitting on Christians is treated as a closely-guarded secret by the American media. But if it were Muslims who were spitting on Christians, you can bet that it would be covered breathlessly by media outlets all over the US.

(cross posted at appletree)

Pope Ratzi the Nazi's latest lame-brained, divine inspiration : An immaculate internet conception connection.

O.M.G.!!

Holy, http:!!



Some more media whores and some more crazy Counterfeit-Christian crap.

Just what our wacko-world needs right now, eh?

Yeah, sure it does.

Like it needs a(nother) huge hole in it's head.

And while we're on about the world, could somebody, somewhere please stop it spinning?

Since currently, it's damned well driving us absolutely stark staring, bloody bonkers.

And for as long as it stays the way it is, we just want to get the eff off of it.

Completely Uncalled For Religious Controversy Caused By Rowan Williams Speaking Before Thinking Things Through

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Although ardently agnostic and freely admittedly against the agendas of all 'organised' religious organisations, we genuinely doubt there are many people more truly tolerant, empathetic and liberal than ourselves. That's why, at the time, we saw more good than harm in the meeting pictured below.



However, there are always some misguided souls that we sincerely believe are liberal to the point of plain and simple silliness. Silliness such as needlessly (and pointlessly), causing controversy where none had existed prior to the opening of some big gobs before the engagement of some befuddled brains.

All of which may offer a clue or two as to why we'd decided to produce a piece appertaining to the recent, amazing abberation of Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and elected leader of the protestant Church of England.

That is, until we found that a fine fellow Brit blogging buddy, R.J. Adams had beaten us to it.

Here's a couple of clips from R.J.'s admirable and highly illuminating article on aforementioned topic.

An Archbishop’s Folly

Once in a while, the strain of leading a large group of individuals intent on believing the unbelievable, becomes too much to bear. Mental lethargy and incompetence take over and the mind conjures weird, twisted, ideas better left to slink and suppurate in the dank, dark, cellars of the subconscious.

Britain’s Protestant Christian leader, the “Very Reverend” Archbishop Rowan Williams, known more colloquially as the “Mad Welsh Druid” or “Merlin’s Dad”, has, to put it kindly, recently flipped his lid by proclaiming Sharia law would inevitably become a part of the British judicial system.[1]

(snip)

One result of the Archbishop’s folly has been to highlight a little known fact about certain aspects of British justice - it doesn’t apply to Jews. Suddenly, the working people of Britain have for the first time been made aware of Battei [Beth] Din,[2] Jewish courts covering civil issues as diverse as business and divorce. They’ve been around for centuries, but until now most Brits had no knowledge of their existence.

What’s good enough for Jews, quoth our good Archbishop, is equally relevant to Muslims.

Read the rest of R.J.'s remarkably revealing piece posted at his own place -- "Sparrow Chat"

*(Cross posted at Appletree)

UK's Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams Accuses American Administration ...

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US is ‘worst’ imperialist: archbishop

So sayeth Britain's top God guy, white Anglo-Saxon protestant (WASP), Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams.

See below for some other strong straight talking stuff from self same Church of England leader cum Primate of all England.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has
said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday.

Rowan Williams claimed that America’s attempt to intervene overseas by “clearing the decks” with a “quick burst of violent action” had led to “the worst of all worlds”.

(snip)

He said the crisis was caused not just by America’s actions but also by its misguided sense of its own mission. He poured scorn on the “chosen nation myth of America, meaning that what happens in America is very much at the heart of God’s purpose for humanity”.

(snip)

Williams suggested American leadership had broken down: “We have only one global hegemonic power. It is not accumulating territory: it is trying to accumulate influence and control. That’s not working.”

Amen to all that, Archbishop.

Read the rest of this Times (of London) report.

N.B. A full (pdf form) text of the Archbishop's interview can also be found at the above link.

As can the (already fast & free flowing) comments from an international assortment of Times' readers -- including, of course, several from America's loony fundy, counterfeit Christian, high & mighty hypocrites' camp.

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