(Michael Stack | Special to The Tribune) A view of the Old City of Jerusalem from The Orson Hyde Memorial Gardens, April 8, 2022.
Why is it that the cradle of three big-name religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — has been the most strife-filled area of the world for such a long, long time?
The Middle East has had very outsized headline-grabbing storylines for decades, and they are becoming more and more disconcerting and tedious. And it doesn’t look like that will ever end.
Somehow it seems like religion divides and doesn’t bring people together. The “other” is always “misguided” and maybe even the enemy. Even if no one on either side will acknowledge the enemy part outloud. But that is how it always plays out in the Middle East. Tug-of-war conflicts that just go on and on.
And paraphrasing a poet whose name I can’t recall right now: “Isn’t it strange, isn’t it rather odd that they hate each other for the love of God.”
Roger Roper, Sanpete County