Bethlehem gets look inside Church of the Nativity

Chicago Tribune ^ | Fri, May. 10, 2002 | CHRISTINE SPOLAR

[glorygirl]

BETHLEHEM - Tears streamed down Sandi Shaheen's young face as she surveyed the human stain on the worn, marble aisles of the Church of the Nativity. Dirty blankets, half-eaten cans of beans, empty cigarette packages, even the smell of human waste - all were sins, she believed, on the site where Jesus was born.

"I cannot believe this is a house of God," the 18-year-old sobbed from the center of the church basilica. "Look at this. Look at the ground. It's black with dirt ... This is not usual for us."

[anniegetyourgun]

Thanks for posting. Another interesting post HERE earlier on this subject.

[MarMema]

"There is disorder. There is dirt. But thank God, there is no damage. No damage to the walls, no damage to the icons," said Archbishop Aristarchosk, secretary of the patriarchy of the Greek Orthodox Church. "Now we have to work to restore."

Good news from my fellow Orthodox. Christ is Risen!

[lizma]

a sacrilege to the religious faithful but nothing that a good scrub and a sprinkle of holy water couldn't restore.

Yes, and after that we will serve them cake. Everybody needs a good sacrilege now and then.

[MJY1288]

Here is a pic showing the damage

Looks like the Clinton Administration was here

[GOPcapitalist]

I think one key question needs to be asked: What would be the reaction of these same palestinians who used one of the holiest Christian sites on earth as their toilet for a month had the same thing been done to them by non-mohammedans in, say, their holy site at the mosque of Mecca. What would be the reaction of the mohammedans if a non-mohammedan used the Kabbah as a dining table as did these palestinians to the altars in the Church of the Nativity? What would be the reaction of the mohammedans if a hostile armed non-mohammedan contingent of paramilitary terrorists even visited the mosque complex in Mecca? Or if in that visit they proceded to litter it with rotten fruit peels and human waste, grafittied its walls, stripped its food supplies, and left without bothering to clean up anything of the mess they created?

I would venture to say that such persons would be immediately imprisoned if not publicly executed by the mohammedans, not to mention being religiously condemned for sacreligous acts. Calls would likely circulate throughout the mohammedan world demanding that those affiliated with the perpetrators also be brought to justice, not to mention a renewed string of terrorist bombings. Keep in mind these are the same people who go on mass suicide bombing sprees if Israeli officials merely VISIT the vicinity of their mosque on the temple mount and do so much as look at it the wrong way.

Yet when the mohammedans do to a Christian holy site exactly that which they themselves would tolerate less than perhaps any other act against their own religion, they think nothing of it and, despite many of them being known terrorists, demand that they all get to walk free either back home to the Gaza strip or to exile in Europe - anything less would have been unacceptable to them. As for expecting them to clean up and repair the damage for which they themselves are directly responsible? Well that's about as likely as Yasser Arafat leading a force of palestinian paramilitaries on a multi-nation manhunt across the mohammedan world for Osama Bin Laden to bring him to justice.

[Orbiter]

Where's the "sink" ?

[holyscroller]

Finally. Somebody called them "so-called peace activists. I'm sick of them being called peace activists. They are nothing but rabid hate-filled non-Palistinian Palistinians.

[hellinahandcart]

Only a few candleholders and some crucifixes were deemed to be missing.

Oh, only "some" crucifixes "missing". Well, okay then. I'm sure the Palis only took the wooden crosses and candle-holders. As keepsakes. No harm done.

WTF???!!!

[MadelineZapeezda]

Indeed he is Risen