Eid Mubarak! (Part 2)

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher - built over where Jesus was believed to be crucified

Disclaimer: The following post is solely my own opinion based off of my experiences... I do not think that my experiences can encapsulate these places as a whole, nor am I making sweeping judgments about any of them. Merely documenting my trip in the most honest way possible. With that:

In addition to the intense experiences I had with regards to division, prejudice, and political strife, my trip into Jerusalem and the West Bank was a religious one as well.
We made a point to tour as many of the holy sights as possible, and made it to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the desert of Temptation, and the Old City of Jerusalem. Each of these experiences was entirely unique for me, but all powerful.
In my personal life, I consider myself a relatively liberal Christian, have spent about half of my life actively attending a church, and actively working out my own spiritual beliefs and world view. Spirituality is a huge aspect of my life, so these Biblical sights were something I was incredibly excited to see.
Starting at the Church of the Nativity, this is located in Bethlehem. So along with the powerful experiences I talked about in my previous post, we spent an hour or so walking around the place where Jesus was born.
Or, I should say, a massive church built centuries later, OVER the place where they suppose Jesus was born.

The Church of the Nativity from the outside - it's huge

I had a very different experience than I expected at these sights. First thing, you walk up to the door and it is crowded with hordes of tour groups, similar to my own. Each tour guide is trying to compete with the others to make sure they are heard. Then, aside from these groups clumped around, are even more people, all with the cameras around the neck, all taking pictures of everything in sight. The church is ornately decorated in that extreme way that makes you wonder why they needed just SO much stuff.
Seeing this church, with the massive lanterns, chandeliers, the renaissance paintings of a white-skinned Jesus with his face contorted into a painful expression, candles everywhere, made it into a different type of religious experience than I was used to. I will admit my personal bias here, I'm not a fan of ritualism, and certainly not the Euro-centric depiction of Jesus as a white man with blue eyes. That, plus all of the other tourists hoping for a holy experience while I was trying to get my own, dashed my experience a little bit.

This is from the main entrance

Once inside the church, we are able to descend a short staircase where there is a room dedicated to the exact spot where the manger is thought to have been. In this small space, people are lined up to kiss the ground, say a prayer, or have a quiet moment in this small space that almost looks like a fireplace you could crawl into. You stand in this line for a few minutes, as it moves relatively quickly. Once you reach the front of the line, a man in a long priest's robe tells you to hurry. You're able to bend down, crawl about halfway into this small alcove, spend maybe 10 seconds, then are expected to get back up and out of the way. Once I reached the front of the line, it was too crowded, so the man urged two of us to go at once. So this Eastern European woman and I bent down, crawled into this little space, neither of us entirely sure what to do. We paused for a few awkward seconds, then stood back up and got out of the way. As we walked away, the man handed us each a little souvenir card with a printed painting of Jesus and Mary on it.

A small side wall of paintings

I left feeling rather... disenchanted. I wondered if this is where Jesus was born, what would HE have wanted for this place. How would He have wanted this to be preserved, if at all? I wonder if sometimes he laughs, good-heartedly of course, at the rituals we have decided to use to honor him. I realize these opinions and experiences are entirely my own, and are shaped by my previous perceptions of religion, institutions, and faith. I also realize that every single person in that room had a different experience than me. And that is a powerful thought. It was powerful to be in a place where millions of people from all over the world have traveled to, all with different perceptions of it. Some of them were obviously incredibly moved and affected, while others looked positively bored. It was definitely an unforgettable experience.

The small room where the manger was thought to be.
Told you it was crowded. 

Glimpse of the lights strewn throughout the entire building

The lanterns were beautiful, though overwhelming in number. 

My other experiences with biblical sights, such as the church built in the desert where Jesus was said to be tempted for 40 days, were entirely different. The Desert of Temptation is located just on the outskirts of the small Palestinian town of Jericho. First off, Jericho is wonderful. It's got that glorious small town feel, and is actually green! The most trees I had seen in a while. We took a short cable car ride (Jericho's tourist attraction) to the top of a mountain, where a small stone church had been built along the side. The church was closed, but there was just a short path we were able to walk up. At the top we could look out over all of Jericho, and further into the West Bank. There were no candles, no chandeliers, no men ushering us around. It was peaceful, quiet, and absolutely breathtaking. My wonderful friends and I just took some nice quiet time, enjoyed each others company, and took a step back from the rest of the excitement of the week.
My experiences in these two places contrasted extremely with one another. In one I felt cramped, pushed around, out of place, and positively trivial. In the other I felt peace, appreciated the beauty, and was able to feel connected to things happened around me. I have yet to come to a conclusive opinion of these places, but they certainly did make for a moving experience, even if not in the way that I imagined.

The view from the church of the small and lovely town of Jericho

The small church built into the mountain