Not going to lie, as someone from a society where religious buildings are generally never reused into something else, I get mixed feelings seeing them being reused. Yes it’s good that they can still bring people together, it’s good not to knock decent walls down, but I don’t know. I’m not very religious but I often feel like in my community the church brings people together, even if the services don’t mean very much to me after two decades of Catholic school all but beat my faith out of me.

“Churches in the west being changed into parking garages/clubs/restaurants/forced toddler trans surgery centers/mosques” is kind of a meme among the older generation of Christians in Lebanon. And by meme I mean they believe that 110% of western churches have been destroyed and that it’s a sign of the end times.

I have mixed feelings on this topic usually. But boxing? Boxing in an old church sounds rad as hell.

I don’t know why but it feels like it works. Community space, an activity that requires mutual respect, something raw that people have done for thousands of years, there’s an undeniable cool factor.