The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1901-11-28
RELIGIOUS FURORE.

/ furore. Fervor may Be legitimate earnestness
in legitimate cause. Furore, on the other
hand, may be nconsiderate zeal in legitimate cause.
The world has been furnished two recent instances of
religious furore in which its use and action in
direct opposition to the spirit of the which
professed to serve.
| The first had for its scene the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher at Jerusalem. What center of Christian
zeal has that venerable structure been 1t caused
the Crusades Peter the Hermit aroused the zeal
OF Christian Europe against its possession by the in
fdel Saracen that armies moved to its rescue,
chanting and praying as they marched Even chill
dren caught the spirit Of the Hermit and there is
more pathetic incident in history than the modifying
of great company of children which marched
toward Jerusalem and evaporated by disease and
death long before it the land of the nhdel the
tones of the Savior's sepucher Later on, according
to Kinglake quarrel between two sects of Chris
tians the repairs to the roof of the holy struc
ture the OF the Crimean war, in which
human valor inscribed new chapter in the history
| of mans courage and sacrifice
The last and recent contention seems like descent
from the sublime to the ridiculous. Two bodies of
Christians have been dsputing for the privilege of
sweeping and busting the church. The Mahometan
Governor OF Jerusalem, fearing trouble, had posted
troops around the sacred edifce to keep the peace.
1
by agreement, beset the nidel soldiers by surprise
and whipped them Then the followers of the Prince
OF Peace fe upon each other in bloody battle, in
which some were killed and many wounded. The
rival forces began to receive recruits from their re-
spective partisans, and the only ended when
there appeared sufficient force OF the followers of
the Son Of Abdalla to stop the believers in the Son
of Mary from killing each other. Just which side
won the right to sweep and dust the church is not
told in the chronicle OF the furore
The incident is sufficient commentary on the per-
verted view OF Christianity held by the parties who
furnished it. II it had occurred in the Mosque OF
Omar, in the temple of Buddha in Lhassa,
would have summoned Christian pride and
pointed it as the natural manifestation of the fail
ure of false religion in the restraining OF human
passion. But the scene was the center Of the
Christian cult, the hottest of all its places what can
We say?
No sooner had this ftlrore been quelled by the
troops OF the Prophet than another bloody one broke
out in Athens among the Christians who adhere to
the Greek rite. 1t proposed to translate the New
Testament into modern Greek, it is translated and
used by Catholic and Protestant Christians in all the
other modern languages. For not stated
the university students in Athens opposed this limo
walton. They insisted that the sacred books should
remain in ancient Greek only This seems unnatural
for students supposed to be intelligent and pro-
gressive The ancient Greeks were not intoerant in
religion. Their education was purely secular, but
they the first ancient people to tolerate all
forms of religion. In Athens, moved by a commend
able spiritual hospitality they built shrine to every
god they could hear of, worshiped by the nations
around them, near and far, whose people might visit
their city and desire to worship the home deity.
Lest any should be forgotten they built altar to
THE unknown god and when St. Paul preached
on Mars Hill and was asked what god he worshiped
he answered in his provincial Greek, "The unknown
god" though not in that exact phrase
: The students who show such zeal for the ancient
language medium for the New Testament seem
to forget utterly this fine spirit of federation which
honored the men who made that language They
raised riot and rallied on the ruins of the Temple
of Jupiter Olympus and fought the police, until
mob of twenty thousand took part and seven were
killed and large number wounded When driven
off, the students barricaded the university and held
it against all corners.
The incident is mixture Of tragedy and comedy.
If the gods of Olympus real gods, though tenn
porariy retired from business, how they must have
been amused looking down from the classic height
upon the furore and murder going on where the
Temple OF Jupiter stood in the time of Pericles.
Imagine Mercury bringing the latest news of the
fight while Jupiter and Juno, with Venus Neptune,
Vulcan and the rest listened as Diana read the bue-
tins and the MUSES. sang ragtime dttes full of local
hits uncomplimentary to their modern successors
in Attica!
Boss Croker has announced that he wishes nvindi-
cation" and that he will stay in politics with Tam
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