HUNDREDS of millions of followers of Jesus Christ are about to celebrate the annual feast of Pentecost,which celebrates an event in Jerusalem roughly 2000 years ago, when it is believed that cultural and ethnic barriers were miraculously overcome. The festival, or which falls on May 20th in this year’s western Christian calendar and a week later in the Orthodox one,commemorates what many regard as the establishment of the Christian church. A unusual kind of divine inspiration, including the ability to communicate with speakers of any language, and is said to have arrive over the disciples who had gathered in the holy city for the Jewish festival of Shavuot,which falls seven weeks after Passover.
So there is unhappy irony in the fact that people who cherish that sacred anecdote seem more divided than ever, with some rejoicing in Jerusalem’s rising earthly status and others expressing the very opposite view.
The divisions are especially pronounced among Christians who live in, or feel strongly attached to,the land they call sacred....
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Source: economist.com