# Spitting on priests **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 5, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994 "2011-11-05T21:39:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/1 "2011-11-05T21:39:36Z")
I’m hardly all that religious but I found this article about priests in Jerusalem regularly getting spat on by Ultra-Orthodox Jews really disturbing. [http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/ultra-orthodox-spitting-attacks-on-old-city-clergymen-becoming-daily-1.393669](http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/ultra-orthodox-spitting-attacks-on-old-city-clergymen-becoming-daily-1.393669) > [@](#): > > The Greek Patriarchy’s clergymen [in Jerusalem] have been cursed and spat on by ultra-Orthodox men in the street for many years. “They walk past me and spit,” says Father Gabriel Bador, 78, a senior priest in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. "Mostly I ignore it, but it’s difficult. > > Sometimes I stop and ask the spitter ‘why are you doing this? What have I done to you?’ Once I even shouted at a few of them who spat at my feet together. They ran away," he says. “It happens a lot,” says Archbishop Aristarchos, the chief secretary of the patriarchate. “You walk down the street and suddenly they spit at you for no reason. I admit sometimes it makes me furious, but we have been taught to restrain ourselves, so I do so.” As one commentator noted, I wonder how Bill O’Reilly would have reacted to this happening in Berkley. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/2 "2011-11-05T21:46:17Z")
Hyper-fundamentalist anybody is disturbing, stupid, ugly, dangerous, odious, and pathetic. There are places where the ultra-Orthodox Jews will throw rocks at cars which are being driven on the Sabbath. Doesn’t matter if the driver doesn’t belong to a faith which forbids doing work on the Sabbath; these particular ultra-Orthodox jackasses do, and (most absurd!) will violate their own rule by throwing rocks on the Sabbath! Put them in the same box with Muslim terrorists, Christian terrorists, Hindu terrorists, and atheist terrorists…then padlock the box and drop it into a volcano somewhere. Trinopus ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/3 "2011-11-05T21:50:21Z")
Yeah, Jerusalem has a serious religious nutjob problem. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/4 "2011-11-05T21:54:05Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Yeah, Jerusalem has a serious religious nutjob problem. Well, shit. How long has this been going on? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/5 "2011-11-05T21:56:24Z")
A few thousand years. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/6 "2011-11-05T21:57:13Z")
Buh dum tsh. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/7 "2011-11-05T22:00:46Z")
I’ve heard the Judean Popular People’s Front are spitters. But I may have misheard. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/8 "2011-11-05T22:28:26Z")
> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#): > > Well, shit. How long has this been going on? It’s been getting worse over the past few decades, and has been exacerbated by secular flight. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/9 "2011-11-05T22:45:26Z")
How about those monks and nuns who are always setting themselves on fire? Spitting on them would be _helpful_, yes? ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/10 "2011-11-05T22:56:25Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > How about those monks and nuns who are always setting themselves on fire? Spitting on them would be _helpful_, yes? Not if you’ve been drinking. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/11 "2011-11-06T00:38:15Z")
Can we just condemn spitting in general as a universally disgusting, unnecessary, unsanitary practice? Then spitting ON anything, including priests, is just a matter of degree. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/12 "2011-11-06T01:28:21Z")
How else are you supposed to get rid of the tobacco juice? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/13 "2011-11-06T01:40:30Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Can we just condemn spitting in general as a universally disgusting, unnecessary, unsanitary practice? . Well, many people would object that swallowing is even more digusting, unnecessary and unsanitary. But since both viewpoints are equally valid, I think the best policy is to always offer a courtesy tap. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/14 "2011-11-06T01:47:08Z")
Swallowing is an entirely private act that doesn’t put anything disgusting into the environment. I don’t have to ever become aware of someone else swallowing, I don’t really care if something unsanitary or disgusting is going in in someone else’s interior. As for tobacco juice … Uh … Generating tobacco juice or betel lead juice or whatever is itself unnecessary, disgusting, and unsanitary, so we’ve got a neat little convergence there. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/15 "2011-11-06T01:47:09Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > How else are you supposed to get rid of the tobacco juice? In my area, depositing one’s tobacco juice in a styrofoam cup or a plastic bottle is acceptable. (Yes, I have seen this happen in an office environment. Nasty.) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/16 "2011-11-06T02:23:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’ve heard the Judean Popular People’s Front are spitters. > > But I may have misheard. It’s the People’s Front of Judea that are the real menace. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/17 "2011-11-06T02:32:17Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It’s been getting worse over the past few decades, and has been exacerbated by secular flight. I didn’t realize there was/is a secular flight from Jerusalem. I can see where that can add volatility to a tense situation. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/18 "2011-11-06T02:39:49Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > In my area, depositing one’s tobacco juice in a styrofoam cup or a plastic bottle is acceptable. Good to know there are other options if an Armenian orthodox archbishop isn’t immediately available. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/19 "2011-11-06T03:02:02Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It’s been getting worse over the past few decades, and has been exacerbated by secular flight. How do you see this playing out for the future of Israel, given that the ultra-orthodox and ultranationalists have a birthrate that is extravagantly higher than that of secular Jews? Me, if I were in your boots, I would be a mite concerned. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994/20 "2011-11-06T03:04:46Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Swallowing is an entirely private act that doesn’t put anything disgusting into the environment. I don’t have to ever become aware of someone else swallowing, I don’t really care if something unsanitary or disgusting is going in in someone else’s interior. Seriously, you’re wooshed by this ? Even with the “courtesy tap” line ? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spitting-on-priests/601994.md?page=2)