Gun battle at Church of the Nativity

Ananova ^ | Story filed: 20:49 Monday 22nd April 2002 | Ananova

[crystalk]

The building IS a holy place, Christians are just level-headed enough to know that screaming in our streets here, or getting on a plane to a country that would not let us in anyway, cannot help the situation.

The holiest thing there is a tunnel and grotto well underground, the church itself is just a big stone/concrete box with no windows and I will bet the walls are four if not six feet thick.

This is not some ticky-tacky Pallie apartment bldg ready to fall down. The new Franciscan church, a Catholic pilgrim hotel, and other structures stand around it (a Greek monastery is one)...those too are of stone.

The Pallies inside almost certainly lack sufficient explosives to do anything to the church worth reporting on....and the Israelis would have no motive, this is one of the leading tourist attractions, and also it would irritate Christians. Surely no Christian thinks that Israel would destroy this church.

If they did, though, I think they would be on their own against Islam from then on!

[FreedomCalls]

Don't get the wind up, it's only a building

As is the Al Aqsa mosque. But Sharon visits it and Arafat launches the intifada.

The Wailing Wall is only a building as well. And it's not even a whole building.

The Kaaba in Mecca is only a building.

And on the secular side....

The Twin Towers of the WTC was only a building (two actually).

The Pentagon is only a building. I guess we should have just shrugged our shoulders after 9/11. "Oh well,it's just a building."

[kezekiel]

Who defends my Christian shrine? Jews and Moslem are tearing it down. We need to rescue this Holy place!

I am interested in defending Christians. I'm not aware that there actually are any inside that building.

[OldFriend]

Please go to bed before Mommy finds out you are still awake. You won't be able to get up for school tomorrow.

[Shooter 2.5]

Sorry guy.

Bang, bang. Bang. That's a Mosambique group. And patterns are for shotguns.

[PhilDragoo]

the palestinians are provoking a disaster to have the christian world turn against the jews.

And as it was the Pali gunman who shot the lock off the door and took priests hostage and are defiling the Church of the Nativity, the Christian world is turned against. . .

Subsequent posters have been astute enough to note that Christ is in the heart.

I recall in Chicago's Old Town in the summer of '69 a dozen figures in burlap robes and sandals silently filed past with signs Christ Never Said To Build A Church.

I hadn't thought about that for thirty-three years.

[Shooter 2.5]

I'm just sitting here with my buttered popcorn. No cheese.

[Revolting cat!]

You don't speak good English, as you tell us, but you've managed to pick up the worst trends of Internet communication. Curious! Even on computer geeks' forums these days the "u"'s and the "r"'s are not considered hip and don't impress anyone anymore, so drop 'em! You've obviously got some things to say, but try to say them better. What's this bit about a pyramid and a bridge? Explain!

[AF68]

Who defends my Christian shrine?"

Shine? I don't need no stinking shrine. I don't worhip rocks and buildings. One's body, mind and spirit should be a temple for God's divine presence, not some crummy shrine.

[ellery]

what else there is

Yoda?

[Shooter 2.5]

You took a lousy time to go to Old Town. After the '68 riots, the place was dead as a doornail. It was a lot of fun before that. I used to go with a Baptist group and they would block the sidewalks as they talked to the Jesus Freaks.

[McGavin999]

You need to get a grip. Nothing can change the fact that this is a holy place. A bunch of Palestinian thugs with guns won't change it, the Israeli tanks won't change it, nothing can or will change it.

The church is merely bricks and morter, it has nothing to do with the holiness of the spot.

I'm sorry this disturbs you so much, but you really must know, as a Christian, that Jesus said "Where ever there are two or more gathered in My name, there I shall be also". THAT is what is important to us.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

And it's not the same building as 2000 years ago, when it was a manger. Not too many Palestinian terrorists could take refuge in it if it was in its "historical" state. Those murdering thugs are trying to "Patty Hearst" the whole of western society. It's working in Europe, I guess, but they always were dupes for idiocy anyway (fascism, communism, Jerry Lewis...).

[Shooter 2.5]

I could just see the leader of the Pali's thinking to himself , where do we go? Mosque or church, Mosque or church? Etc.

[henbane]

Since English is not your native language, it might help if you slow down a bit and read each of your comments very carefully before hitting the "Post" button.

For example, can you improve on the meaning of this comment from your #23?

"u can't get the rope by just asking in it, u have to move, and move fast"

[UCANSEE2]

You know, I have been following your conversation so that I could understand your position, and discuss it with you.

I must say, though, that you took so many turns, you lost me.

What exactly is your point ?