In This Corner...

Today has been a day of celebration in the Catholic Church, the day The Common Man and his mackerel snapping brethren commemorate the founding and continued existence of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the official papal church in Rome. The Basilica was founded in the fourth century, and was originally a gift of Emperor Constantine I. It is, by all accounts, a wondrous building with a unique architecture that the world is lucky is still standing.



Indeed, sometimes The Common Man has a hard time believing Christianity is still standing after 2000 years. After all, Christian churches have, throughout their existence, brought a large amount of suffering on themselves with their schisms, their wars, their persecutions. If it weren't for the awesome guy who founded it, The Common Man thinks that it may well have gone by the wayside years ago.

And, as if to confirm that is the miracle of Christianity's continued existence, comes this CNN story out of Jerusalem. In preparation for a ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks were engaged in negotiations for who would be in the procession. When negotiations broke down, Israeli police had to be called in to break up the ensuing battle royale.



It was Brother against Brother in some monk on monk violence as, apparently, dozens of holy men scrapped over who had the right to enter the church. The Armenians, commemorating the discovery of a relic they believe to be the cross of Christ's Crucifixion, wanted to get into the church, built on what many believe is the site of Christ's Crucifixion and resurrection. The Greek Orthodox monks, who are claiming some kind of right to the church and the site, wanted to ensure that the Armenians couldn't make any claim on the site for themselves. According to one Greek Orthodox monk, "We were keeping resistance so that the procession could not pass through ... and establish a right that they don't have."

Think about that for a moment. Two thousand years after Christ's church was founded, the various factions are fighting in the street over who owns his church. Indeed, this petty infighting saddens The Common Man, as it trivializes Christ's sacrifice and desire for his church to be one. And it only gives the entire name of Christianity a bad name. In a time when Christians are being persecuted for their beliefs, how can Christians persecute themselves? Particularly when the rabble beating the snot out of each other is composed entirely of men who are supposed to be holy.

And the really terrible thing is, you know it was a terrible fight. After all, we're talking about Christian monks. Were these Shaolin monks, a bunch of monks fighting in the street would be awesome (and directed by Ang Lee). Instead, you got a bunch of scraggly, scrawny, bearded buys tugging said beards as hard as they can. That there is not fighting that pleases the Lord. Rather, it's the fighting that makes the Lord wish he were only selectively omnipotent, so he wouldn't have to know about it.

Their sissy-fighting has turned one of Christianity's greatest churches into a commodity that must be possessed, not honored and revered. And in doing so, commodifies both the death and resurrection of Christ. Then again, after 2000 years of bloodshed, maybe that's the Christianity that Christianity deserves.

Indian Giver

Christianity (or at least the Christian nations) rightly gets blamed for a large share of the problems in the globe today. Indeed, it was in the name of spreading Christianity to the furthest corners of the globe (tough to do, of course, because the globe is spherical) that colonization became so fashionable in the second millennium. Of course, economic and political gain were major driving forces as well, but the positive p.r. line was that Jesus's word needed to be taught to the "heathens." And, of course, the displacement of peoples, the redrawing of borders, the cultural (and literal) extermination of peoples, and the playing of one ethnicity off against another that followed played a huge part in ruining the Africa, Middle East, and Central Asia that we see today. And through it all, the most visible face of the Western colonial powers was usually those of the Christian missionary. Also, given that the crusades and Spanish conquest of the Americas led to (probably) the largest level of religious violence in history (not Christianity's best hours), The Common Man can understand a certain level of animosity toward Christ and his teachings, and toward Christian churches in general, throughout the world.

With all Christianity has done wrong, perhaps the greatest testament to the religion (and to its founder) is how it continues to thrive, even in the places that were once oppressed by it. Indeed, it's impressive how fast church populations are growing in Africa, and how they are maintaining their numbers in atmospheres hostile to them (China, Egypt, Afghanistan, etc.). Yet, for all Christianity gets put upon for its failures in the past, and as much as its dominance in the West is taken for granted, it's amazing to realize that Christianity is often on the receiving end of violence as it attempts to grow further in these hostile areas.

In particular, Pope Benedict's decision to declare Sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception the first Indian saint drags this phenomenon, kicking and screaming, into the light. St. Alphonsa was born during a premature labor, brought on when a snake wrapped itself around her mother's neck in the night. She suffered severe eczema for over a year and was permanently disabled after severely burning her feet. Though she apparently suffered greatly in life, St. Alphonsa, according to Catholic Online she "is usually noted for her acceptance and love of suffering and pain" because of its connection to Christ's suffering. "It is a rare spiritual height for the Christian soul than a passive fatalistic resignation to one’s problems or pain," the article continues.

Yet, the suffering that Alphonsa endured and apparently welcomed is also being meted out upon Christians in India by a hard-line element of Hindus, particularly those in the state of Orissa. These attacks, according to the Associated Press, "have left dozens of people dead, dozens of churches destroyed and thousands of people homeless, many forced to live for days in thick forests until they could make their way to safety." Since the August assassination of a conservative Hindu leader (by Maoist extremists having no connection to the state's Christian population), "groups blamed Christians and set fire to a Christian orphanage. That has been followed by mob attacks on churches as well as shops and homes owned by Christian. At least 28 people have been killed." And the problem is spreading and becoming more entrenched, as right-wing Hindu parties are becoming legitimate parts of state governments.

The attacks undermine a) just how weak any minority population is in the face of fervor and b) Christianity's struggles to gain a foothold in the Roman Empire is mirrored today in the struggle of Christians and their martyrdom for their faith in hostile environments. It seems, indeed, to be the nature of any "other" to encounter resistance within a dominant culture. And The Common Man isn't sure whether that's reassuring (as many people seem to have outgrown the competition) or scary (considering all the new and exciting ways people have learned to kill each other in recent years). Either way, this problem deserves greater public scrutiny whether it's in India, Michigan, or England, where the other is unfairly attacked (physically or otherwise) for trying to secure its right to exist. Perhaps by framing the issue in terms of what is happening to Christianity, the West can be roused to act (or to pressure others to act).