Clergy for that "religion of peace," Christianity, got into a massive brawl in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, built at the spot where Christians believe that the "Prince of Peace," Jesus, was born. Several dozen priests from Greek Orthodox and Armenian groups were involved and the brawl was so bad that police had to come in and break it up by force.
"This is an internal problem related to the Nativity church only. The Palestinian police had to interfere to stop the clashes as soon as possible to avoid devastating consequences," he [Palestinian police Maj. Ahed Hasayen] said.
The church is administered jointly by the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian religious authorities, and tension between the sects is not uncommon.
Source: CNN
The Church of the Nativity is one of the oldest continually run churches in the world. Constantine I ordered the creation of the original church by Bishop Makarios of Jerusalem after the First Council of Nicaea in 325. That original structure burned down in 529 and the current one was built by Emperor Justinian I.
This is not the first time that priests have rioted and fought in the Church of the Nativity and it surely won't be the last. Roman Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, and Greek Orthodox clerics share administration what is actually a combination of two churches: a main basilica controlled by the Greek Orthodox and an adjoining Roman Catholic church.
The behavior of these priests reminds me of the territorial behavior exhibited by dogs, wolves, and other animals -- squabbling over small parcels of space because control of that space translates into power, prestige, and honor in the pack. Such behavior isn't uncommon among humans generally, but religion is playing an important role here.
If religion weren't creating an artificial scarcity of resources ("holy space"), there wouldn't be any need to fight over them. People might still find ways to find over food or water, but at least those are real resources with real consequences for the quality of life -- so-called "holy space" isn't real, it's just a construct of superstition.
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