Sunday, February 15, 2009

We started our day with a trip to the Haram Al-Sharif, which houses the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. From there, we went back to the Western Wall and had more opportunities to pray and, this time, to take pictures.
We got back on the bus and headed back to Bethlehem. Every time we go from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, we pass through the 35-foot high wall that surrounds the city. There are checkpoints to go through, and repressive laws that limit Palestinians' abilities to travel freely. In a moment I'll comment on my thoughts about the reasons this wall exists, but in short, I think it's a monstrosity and an affront to God and to humanity.
So we crossed through the wall again and came back to Bethlehem. We attended the church next door to the hotel. I don't remember the name of it, but it's a Christian church and they worshipped in Arabic. They were like any fundamentalist church: lots of high-energy singing, lots of prayer, and a preacher exhorting the people. There was a praise band with guitar, a small drum like a djembe, and keyboards. One very nice touch was their translation service. As we entered, they provided wireless headsets for us. During the service, a woman translated the liturgy, sermon, songs, and Scriptures into English for us. The translations were free and loose, but they existed. The songs and music were typical praise music with an Arabic feel to them -- it was easy to get into the spirit and worship together, although I have to say that this was a new experience for me: usually we have European visitors coming to our church on Sunday mornings for a "Gospel" experience, so it was different for me to be a visitor. The only downside was that we left the service halfway through, and before the offering. I would have welcomed the opportunity to have contributed.
We left their church and walked about a half mile through Bethlehem to the Church of the Nativity. It is actually three churches: Palestinian Christian,Greek Orthodox, and Catholic church—all built alongside each other. The oldest one, the Palestinian Church of the Nativity, was built in 400 AD. The entrance is through a door called the "Door of Humility," which was built low so that you have to bow before coming in. The main floor was built in 600 AD, and has sections in it that allow you to look down and see the original mosaic floor below.
We must have waited in line for nearly an hour. At the end of the church is a stairway that goes downstairs. The walls are covered with silk rugs, and on some of them you can see the same colors in the covering and the stitching as you could see on the pillows in Jesus' tomb. As you go down the stairs, you see a little spot. People are stopping (this is what's making the wait so long), kneeling, venerating it, and the guards are trying to both be respectful and move the people along. There is a 13-pointed star on the ground, and what it commemorates is the spot where Jesus was born. The 13 points represent the generations between David and Jesus, the number of disciples at the last supper, and the stations of the cross. Just behind this is the stone (not wooden, you guys) manger where Jesus was laid after He was born.
We came back from the Church of the Nativity and had lunch at some place called the Dollar Restaurant. It was chicken schwarma.
Then we were off for the Palestinian refugee camp. While the conditions here were better than those at the Liberian refugee camp we saw in Ghana in 2000, it is still a refugee camp. The UN provides refugees a "temporary" home and basics such as elementary school education. What was once several thousand people has now mushroomed to a few hundred thousand people living in the same area. Conditions are deplorable: dilapidate buildings, inadequate water runoff, lack of mobility, living behind barbed-wire fences -- the list goes on and on. As I've said before, the situation of the Palestinian people in Israel reminds me of African Americans in the US 50 years ago, or South Africans in their own land a couple of decades ago.
Perhaps to provide a counterpoint to the Palestinian issue, we then went to an interfaith center for a couple of lectures. Our first lecture was with Dr. Hagi Ben-Artzi. Although he was not introduced as such, I'm told he is the brother in law of former PM Netanyahu. He started the presnetation with Gen 29:10-15. This he believes is the word of God stating that the dream of Israel being a sanctuary for the Jewish people has finally come true. That is because of a coveenant ouutlined in Gen 15:18-21.
So I thought the guy was making sense at first. But the longer I listened to him, the more I realized he was a nut job. Not only was he a nut job, but he's a dangerous nut job. He really believes that God has given Israel (which will expand to the Euprates River) to the Jewish people. He thinks it's because the Jewish people were not obedient to God that the Holocaust happened. He thinks it's because of God's word being fulfilled that Jewish people "have to kill children" (his words, not mine). He thinks that if non-Jewish people want to live in Israel, they can, but with no political rights. His interpretation of the Word is based on a series of proof texts -- he would expound on one sentence, then disregard the sentence after it, then jump back a few chapters ....
He's a self-admitted fundamentalist. I tried to ask him the following question, but couldn't get a clear answer. My question was this: If you are fundamentalist and believe that might makes right based on your covenant relationship with God, then since I have a New Covenant with God and there are more Christians than Jews, shouldn't the New Covenant replace the old one? He didn't answer that for me. If he had, I would have asked him if, according to his way of thinking, if then the Muslim fundamentalists are correct when they wage wars against ideas that do not agree with their theology?
He made my blood boil, and I had to calm myself down and realize that I was dealing with a head case. Problem is, thinking like his appears to be what's resulted in atrocities like a 35-foot high wall around a sacred city for my faith. Thinking like his appears to justify racial oppression.
AFter the nut job, we heard from Bill Dockerty, the director of the Society of St. Eve. Mr. Dockerty is an attorney and an naturalized Israeli citizen. Born Catholic, his father was the shabbos goy. He moved to Israel in pursuit of a female (don't know her religion). Thirty years ago, he found himself about to fire a gun at a young Palestinian who was throwing Molotov cocktails at him. Thankfully, he did not fire. He chose to drink instead. When he finally stopped drinking, he became an atty and started working for civil rights for Palestinians. He's had more than 500 cases appear before the Israeli high court.
There's more to write, but I'm exhausted and still need to get packed. Tomorrow we're back to Jordan...