The Embassy Move & Selfish Gain

It’s quite interesting reading articles about the American Christian and Jewish perspective on Jerusalem and its territory. I find it very hard to imagine being from America and thinking I have any say when it comes to a city on the other side of the world, even being raised Christian. In the Religion News Service article on Trump’s relocation of the US embassy in 2018, a lot of American opinions are shared. For me, that’s hard to use as any sort of validation for the movement of the embassy. American culture is so entirely different, and to believe that we have any understanding of the outstanding conflict and violence that defines Jerusalem is bigotry. The article lists people such as “Tommy Waller, an evangelical Christian from Missouri” and “Rev. David Swaggerty, the leader of CharismaLife Ministries in Columbus, Ohio”. To be a Christian is one thing, but to be an American Christian is so different from Christians residing in Jerusalem and areas around it. 

There seems to be quite a selfish drive when it comes to these plans, and we even see how once Christians realized Jews returning to Jerusalem meant the coming of the Messiah, suddenly they wanted to make amends and be best friends. The article says, “Once Christians discover the Jewish roots of their Christian faith, Eckstein said, they become eager to reach out to Jews and, often, seek forgiveness for Christian-led persecution.” For me, this emphasizes the hypocrisy within all of these religious conflicts about Jerusalem. It’s about what’s best for their religion, and everyone else has to follow it. 

This was very evident as well in the 60 Minutes video we watched in class. The archaeological dig is being done mostly because of the fact that it gives Jews a better claim to the area. What I found more interesting about the video was the complete denial of these motivations. Both men the interviewer spoke with never admitted that there would even be a benefit politically or in terms of power, which is obvious. Instead they dodged the question, and one even got mad, denying it with strong emotions. 

I think this just all goes to show how weaponized a religion can become when it comes to control of power. It’s terrifying to think that just because a leader of a religion says something, people will follow blindly, hating others because of what they’ve been told.