Reading Response: Karen's 8-10

I am quietly struggling with the depth of hatred and hypocrisy I have read and heard for myself within these pages.  I know that the ostrich syndrome is no excuse, but, truly I had no idea as to the depth of division and downright hatred 'Christian to Christian' and 'Christian to another religion' could be found within this time period.  These chapters show the progression of Christianity in a light I have never heard.  For example, she shares how "a new Christian identity was also in the process of being constructed (p180).  Yet this 'process' seemed contingent on who was in power and who was appointed to the various offices, rising and falling as fast as the rulers themselves.  The idea that Jerusalem was the city of guilt turned into the idea that Jerusalem was the "center, where the divine power had touched the frail world of humanity" (p183), following the same belief as the Jews-whom they hated-had believed for centuries.  The Christian view that God had rejected Jerusalem because of the Jews (including the grand finale of the crucifixion of Jesus) morphed into "God had rejected the Temple, not the city; he had not condemned Jerusalem but only the Jews (p191).  They introduced attitudes and laws of supremacy, including forbidding intermarriage or conversion from Christian to Jew, calling Jews 'savage,' 'abominable,' and 'blasphemous' (p192).  Continuing, Karen pens "Jesus had preached a religion of love and forgiveness, but now that Christians had come into power they were beginning to stigmatize Jews as the enemies of society, pushing them to the margins and making them outcasts as the Christians had once been.  Over and over, internal struggles of men and desires won out over justice and compassion, and it seems the very fruits preached by Jesus were not adopted by his followers.  Yet, in the name of religion, they went forth.....

I cannot help but wonder:  How in the world can we contemplate peace for the Arab/Israeli conflict when the very foundations on which the individual religions stand are at the expensive of another religion and its people.  How can one religion, in this case Christianity, stand on a foundation that was more fluid than the air around them, changing like the wind as they strove to create myths, symbols, and  sacred geography, all to give credence to the acts against humanity they perpetuated, in the name of religion.  How have we existed like this?  And Christians are not the only ones guilty of these atrocities; we all have, in one way or another, succumbed to this most primitive of survival, in the name of religion...I know that first we must take a good look inside, past the natural biases, past engrained teachings, to try to be fair, human to human....is this possible?  If not, for all our struggles and battles and war, can we ever be found pleasing in the sight of our most sacred God?