>This news item was published by the Associated Press on Sunday, November 9, 2008:

JERUSALEM — Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity’s holiest churches Sunday and arrested two clergymen after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus’ tomb.

The clash broke out between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

It began as Armenian clergymen marched in an annual procession commemorating the 4th-century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus. It ended with the arrival of dozens of riot policemen who separated the sides, seizing a bearded Armenian monk in a red-and-pink robe and a black-clad Greek Orthodox monk with a bloody gash on his forehead. Both men were taken away in handcuffs.

Click here to find out the reason the monks were fighting.

The problem with this silly argument is that it gives the world another reason to ridicule Christianity.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Monks, Religion

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