Reading Response #7

I found the section regarding the violence between different sects of Christianity to be the most interesting part of this reading. Violence in Jerusalem is not really something that western Christians really study, and having grown up in a Christian home, I never really heard much about it. It was also interesting to see that Armstrong even when so far as to say: "If charity and loving-kindness were indeed hallmarks of the faith, Christianity had clearly failed in Jerusalem." Coming from the perspective of a Catholic author, this bold statement goes a long way to show just how dire the situation in Jerusalem was at this time. The image of the Turkish guards standing guard with guns outside of the church is a powerful show of just how unstable the region was, and parallels its state today. Armstrong quotes a British visitor to the city as saying: "The Copts, say, are standing before the shrine: long before they have finished their service of sixty minutes, the Armenians have gathered in numbers around the choir, not to join in the prayers and genuflections, but to hum profane errors, to hiss the Coptic priests, to jabber and jest and snarl at the morning prayers." This kind of conflict is even present between the different sects of Christianity today, and offers little hope for the situation between the three religions today. If even the sects of Christianity could not and still cannot get along, where is the hope for peace between all of the different sects and religions in Jerusalem?