"Via Dolorosa Souvenir Shop"
And doesn't that really sum up what has happened over the centuries? The religion that was begun by a man who drove out the moneylenders and proclaimed "It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves" has become a three-ring circus and spawned millions of catchy tourist trinkets and shops.
And is there anything more obscene than the idea of a souvenir shop along the way of sorrows ? I know that in strictly realistic terms this is just another street in a city where people need to have businesses in order to survive . . . But still . . . Doesn't it seem to be so - ironic? Here the place of extreme suffering and "man's inhumanity to man" collide with God's ultimate display of love according to Christian doctrine . . .and right in the middle of that we're going to sell Agfa film and batteries . . .
And 1500 years ago it was pieces of the true cross, the spikes used in the crucifixion, and perhaps John the Baptist's teeth . . .
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