Adonis Diaries

Only 2 religions in Lebanon…

In fact, there are 18 officially recognized sects in Lebanon, and they are ruling the political and social structure in Lebanon, from birth to death, and own more than 50% of the land.

On closer scrutiny, only two religions cover the wide umbrella of diversity.

1. One religion is trained to stoop. The other one to kneel, at best.

2. One religion is trained to pray in a single direction. The other one doesn’t care about directions, as long as it is not in the direction of the other religion.

3. One religion supposedly read in one Book. The other one has the choice of two dozen Books. (The early Christian sects had their own book to read and pray. And there were many dozens of sects before Byzantium decided to label them “heretics“)

4. One religion single book is not their preferred book: they prefer to read the Hadith ( the behaviors and chatting of their prophet). The other religion are not fussy about the details in their Books, as long as the telling of  Jesus parables are close enough.

5. One religion is trained to wash in a certain manner before prayer. The other one “suggests” that you should “look it clean and decent”

6. One religion demands that you leave your “shoes” outside the entrance of the praying chamber. The other one prefers that you step in your “ceremonial shoes”

7. One religion is trained to pray in open air. The other one feels ashamed if  not in an enclosed structure.

8. One religion pray facing bare walls. The other one needs at least an icon facing him to worship, a dozen is preferable. (See note 2)

9. One religion believes in Houris after death. The other one has mixed feelings about the “Virgin Mary” (See note 1)

10. One religion is ever ready to transfer a room allocated for praying into a mosque. The other one insists on the room to be “consecrated” by a Bishop

11. One religion fast from sun up to sun down (no water, no food) and gains weight for eating all kinds of sweets all night long. The other one may selectively fast on what he thinks is craving for recently. And he gains weight eating too much of everything else.

12. One religion is tight-assed in public while exhibiting the worst of rascals’ behaviors in the privacy of their homes. The other one tries to show off how libertine he can be in public, and be as a rascal in private.

13. One religion believes in One God. The other one also claims that he believes in a single God, but actually worship the Saint or icon of his choice.

It is bewildering how two religions can branch out to two dozen sects. Each sect as stupid as the next one. No badge of honor for levels of stupidity.

Note 1: The German emperor Guillaume II entered Jerusalem in 1908 and was allowed to rebuild a church dedicated to the Virgin. The church became a Lutheran Temple.

The protestants look down on the Virgin because she degraded Jesus to a mortal human, instead of being a God at a par with his father. As Guillaume landed in Beirut on his way to Damascus, the Lebanese were summoned to stay home and never welcome the emperor in the streets. At night, the people were asked to turn off all their lights so that the emperor ride in total darkness.

The emperor was hugely displeased from this silent treatment.  Possibly, there is a link between this treatment and the Turks forcing the Lebanese to starve to death during WWI, since Turkey was a vassal to Germany.

Maybe the Lebanese can be united around the Virgin against any potentates who dares to denigrates the status of Mary. Actually, the Annunciation Day that Mary will be pregnant with Christ is a national holiday.

Famine hecatomb in Lebanon https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/famine-hecatomb-in-lebanon-1915-18/

Note 2: Islam forbids images, pictures and statutes of the prophet and saint people. The Wahhabi sect in Saudi Arabia forbids also the pilgrimage to shrines of saint people: All shrines are burned and ruined when they occupy a country.

The Protestants in the US feel an affinity with the Wahhabi sect, maybe with the exclusion of the drastic and obscurantist punishments meted out according to Shari3a.