Soup

I’ve lived in the Holy Land for a year now and the experience has stripped me of any lingering religiosity. I still have reverence and respect for those who believe, but this place is feeding my cynicism like you wouldn’t believe.

Hebron is a hell on earth where fanatical Jewish extremists, Muslim Hamas sympathizers and overworked Israeli army soldiers all find new ways to be complete shits to each other. Jerusalem’s Old City is a theme park of fat, sweaty American tourists following the Stations of the Cross before buying an ice cream. The Temple Mount and Dome of the Rock is an Islamic central park with a few cool buildings, a lot of kids playing soccer and the occasional riot cop. Walk on the Mount of Olives after sunset and you’re likely to be mugged. Bethlehem these days is a Biblical version of Camden, New Jersey. Nazareth is a depressing provincial city with Eastern Bloc-style apartment buildings. Safed is a multi-level marketing scheme selling Kaballah junk to the same fat tourists from Jerusalem. Jericho is tiny and covered in as much dust as your grandmother’s old b&w tv. Megiddo, where the final battle between good and evil is supposed to take place… is a bus station.

Sorry to be cynical, but you know how it goes.

I was raised Catholic, went to CCD and vividly remember not to worship false idols. I could be wrong but I take that to mean that the true spirit of religion isn’t a physical matter, places, or things but in good deeds. I’m agnostic now. I have one belief. Be good to each other, that is true religion.

Confession