It was humanity at its best. Showing compassion for the quick and the dead. The quick made news in Tbilisi, Georgia. The dead made news in Worcester, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
May 17, 2013, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, a mob of more than 10,000 people led by men of the cloth from the Georgian Orthodox Church, attacked<\/a> 50 gay rights demonstrators marching in downtown Tbilisi, Georgia. \u00a0The rally had been moved to a public garden on Tbilisi\u2019s Freedom Square after the crowd of 10,000 made it impossible for the rally to take place at the location that had originally been selected. The mob was inspired by Patriarch Illya II, the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church who said the demonstration by the gay-rights activists should not take place. \u00a0In a statement issued May 15, 2013, two days before the demonstrations, he said<\/a> that homosexuality is an \u201canomaly and disease\u201d, the gay-pride rally would be \u201can insult\u201d to Georgian tradition\u201d and was a \u201cviolation of the rights of the majority\u201d of Georgians. Inspired by the beloved prelate\u2019s words, ultraconservative Orthodox believers, said they would disrupt the rally. They did.<\/p>\n The mob of more than 10,000 met the 50 activists bearing signs saying \u201cno to mental genocide,\u201d \u201cStop Homosexual Propaganda in Georgia,\u201d \u201cNot in our city\u201d and \u201cNo to gays.\u201d Notwithstanding a heavy security presence the mob broke through police cordons and threw rocks and eggs at the 50 gay-rights activists forcing them to get into minibuses furnished by the police and flee the scene. Not wanting them to leave the scene unharmed, the mob tried to break the windows of the buses using rocks and trashcans. Eight or nine of the gay-rights activists were injured. One of the protestors who had travelled from a distant city to protest the gay-rights demonstration explained that the purpose of the mob\u2019s actions was to \u201ctreat their [homosexual\u2019s] illness.\u201d \u00a0A well-thrown stone can, of course, completely cure an homosexual\u2019s illness as well as any other inflictions from which the victim was suffering prior to being struck.<\/p>\n In Worcester, Massachusetts, the question was not how to deal with an unpopular minority but how to deal with a corpse. The corpse belonged to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the two infamous Boston marathon bombers. Few, if any, mourned his death. Nonetheless, once dead one would have thought the question of his burial would not consume much time or attention. That was the wrong thing to think. Although not matching the Georgians in intensity, those who belonged to the \u201cno burial in my backyard\u201d crowd gathered in front of the funeral home in Worcester, Massachusetts, to protest the presence of the corpse in their fair city and to make sure it did not find final repose there lest the city\u2019s reputation be permanently stained. Protesters said the body should be cremated or thrown in the ocean, \u00a0presumably after the fashion of the tea that had been thrown in the ocean some years earlier. Even two cemeteries in Boston that specialize in Muslim burials were unwilling to permit this particular corpse use it as a final place of repose.<\/p>\n The funeral home where the corpse rested while awaiting final disposition is in Worcester and one of the protestors demonstrating in front of the funeral home explained why he opposed burying the corpse in Worcester. \u201cIt\u2019s going to give this neighborhood a bad name. This guy doesn\u2019t belong here.\u201d It did not occur to him that he and other protestors were also giving the neighborhood a bad name. Another protester who objected to the fact that Peter Stefan, the director of the funeral home where the corpse lay, was trying to find a local cemetery to accept the corpse, had driven an hour to get to the protest. She carried a somewhat respectful sign saying \u201cShame on you Mr. Stefan.\u201d Robert Healy, the Cambridge city manager said<\/a>: \u201cIt is not in the best interest of \u2018peace within the city\u2019 to execute a cemetery deed.\u201d Cambridge was Tamerlan\u2019s home as well as the home of such esteemed institutions of higher education as Harvard and MIT. Its congressman, Edward Markey, now a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate said: \u201cIf the people of Massachusetts do not want that terrorist to be buried on our soil, then it should not be.\u201d Such heroic statements do not mean the United States is like Georgia. It was not reported that any church leaders participated in the demonstrations in front of the funeral home or that they publicly came out objecting to Tamerlan\u2019s burial nor was it reported that any church leaders objected to the protests.<\/p>\n G. Jeffrey MacDonald writes for Religion News Service. He devoted a column<\/a> to the fact that Christian leaders in Boston had by and large been silent in the face of the controversy. Joel Anderle, the president of the Massachusetts Council of Churches said: \u201cThis is one of those curious areas where Christianity, and in particular Protestant Christianity, has come to believe that it doesn\u2019t have a voice.\u201d James Keenan, a moral theologian at Boston College observed that: \u201cTo say \u2018we won\u2019t bury him\u2019 makes us barbaric. It takes away mercy, the trademark of Christians. \u2026 . . I\u2019m talking about this because someone should.\u201d He got that right. At least the clergy were not inciting the demonstrators. That is some, albeit small, consolation.<\/p>\n Christopher Brauchli<\/strong>\u00a0can be emailed at\u00a0brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu<\/a>. For political commentary see his web page at\u00a0http:\/\/humanraceandothersports.com<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n