Christmas Dust-up?

Did you hear about the rumble in the church? Not just any church -- the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. After Christmas the two groups of priests who administer the church were cleaning up and the Armenians crossed into Greek Orthodox territory and it was on! You might not be thinking Sharks and Jets but they used brooms and stones on one another. Four people were injured and the police had to be called in to break up the brawl and keep guard until cooler heads prevailed.

There have been similar confrontations through the years in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. A Muslim family locks and unlocks the doors of that church to keep the peace amongst Christian factions. Even in the churches of Christmas and Easter conflicts arise.

I suppose this nonsense is "bred in the bone" of humanity. We are an angry -- dare we say sinful? --lot.

While it may seem that I harp on in this blog about the importance of interfaith dialogue and cooperation it seems to me that we have to find a way around the propensity of religion to encourage suspicion and conflict. Our critics point to just this sort of nonsense as proof that belief in God is toxic rather than healing. We need to prove them wrong and, more importantly, we need to demonstrate that love is at the heart of faith in God.