SkiUtah420

Mahmoud Abbas is a moderate.

The West Bank is not Hamasified Gaza.

While its not Dubai, the standard of living is closer to that of Jordan.

While Christians only comrprise 1% of the population, they are the societal elite and exert alot of influence in everyday society.

Ababas would be a decent ruler for a sovereign and secular Palestinian state.

A good compromise would be a corridor , like the West German Hwy to Berlin, to allow free egress/ingress from West Bank to Gaza.

US should also help build a commercial airport on the Gaza Strip that can also serve as an Airforce/Army Base

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I agree. But before casting stones, how much is the Catholic Church worth?

Do immigrants get to go to the Vatican and claim asylum?

Glass houses and stuff.

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How much is the Church of England worth? Or Hillsong Church? Or any other Mega Church.

Much of the Church's wealth lies in its priceless art and holdings that date back hundreds of years.

As a cradle catholic I've never been mandated to give to the "Vatican"...I donate to my local parish and maybe the Arch Bishops' fund or to certain religious orders.

I don't care how much money the Vatican is sitting on, as its a Sovereign State that is arguably the most influential Religio-Political entity of all time.

It is quite different than donating to Buckhead Church, so Andy Stanley can buy another Lake House

Here’s what we need:

No income tax on first $200k for married couples who have more than 1 child

Baseball grip neutral to slightly weak (to counteract a duck hook that I developed at Golftec)

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What kind of grip do you have?

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That would be a dream selection. The next Pope will need to unite the Orthodox Catholics and the Roman Catholic Church. Settle the differences and become a united front is addressing the growing issue of Islamic expansion into Christian lands. Supporting and defending all Christian’s in Islamic land and growing the Catholicism. We have strayed to far from the foundational teachings.

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If we can get everyone on board to come to a compromise on Filioque we should be there

Let us pray that the Holy Spirit moves the participants in the conclave to elect a Pope who will serve as a proponent of a more traditional and reverent church that will serve as a moral compass to all Christians.

It truly feels like there is a wave of Protestant to Catholic conversion right now and I think a theologically conservative pope will help move things in that direction further.

Folks attending the Ted Talks with a Concert at their local mega church have got to be yearning for something more substantive

In the modern political imagination of Western Evangelicals, the State of Israel has taken on an almost mythic role — a divinely sanctioned actor whose existence is intertwined with prophecy, redemption, and the Second Coming. This interpretation, however, has come at a cost: the erasure and betrayal of the Palestinian Christians, whose roots in the Holy Land stretch back over two millennia.

The overwhelming support of many Evangelical Christians for Zionist policies — both religious and political — is often couched in theological language, appealing to Genesis 12:3 (“I will bless those who bless you...”), and fueled by apocalyptic expectations rooted in dispensationalist eschatology. But this theological framework has proven devastatingly indifferent to the lived realities of Palestinians — Muslim and Christian alike — who have suffered under decades of occupation, dispossession, and systemic discrimination.

What’s particularly tragic is the utter disregard Evangelical Zionism has shown toward the Palestinian Christian community. These Christians are not recent converts or immigrants — they are the living descendants of the earliest followers of Christ. The irony is striking: those who claim to love Jesus the most are backing policies that marginalize, exile, and silence the very communities that have preserved his legacy in the land of his birth.

The modern Palestinian Christian Diaspora, scattered by successive wars, occupations, and economic strangulation, once formed a vital part of the Arab world's intellectual and political vanguard. From Beirut to Jerusalem to Haifa, Palestinian Christians played a crucial role in building civil society. They were editors, educators, jurists, and founders of political movements — injecting sophistication, pluralism, and a cosmopolitan sensibility into Arab nationalism and cultural life.

Palestinian Christians were also bridge-builders, often mediating between Arab nationalism and Western liberalism. They articulated a vision of Arab society that was inclusive, modern, and rooted in local traditions while open to global ideas. Their exodus — driven by war, economic collapse, and a sense of abandonment by both the West and the Arab regimes — has deeply impoverished the social and political fabric of the Levant.

In their absence, the region has witnessed an increasing polarization: a hardening of ethno-religious identities, a rise in militant ideologies, and the erosion of the secular and pluralistic Arab polity that once seemed within reach. The Palestinian cause, once a unifying issue among diverse Arab and global leftist movements, has become fragmented and marginalized. In no small part, this is due to the uncritical, one-sided support for Israel by Evangelical political actors, whose influence in Washington has ensured consistent military aid, diplomatic cover at the UN, and the shielding of Israel from any meaningful accountability.

This Evangelical support often masquerades as "pro-Israel" but renders Palestinian Christians invisible. It is a cruel irony that churches in the U.S. send mission trips to Israel, yet have no awareness of — or interest in — the indigenous Christians of Bethlehem or Ramallah.

If Evangelicals truly seek to honor Christ and walk in his footsteps, they must begin by listening to the cries of his followers in the land where he once walked. They must acknowledge the suffering not only of Muslims but of their own brothers and sisters in faith who have been pushed to the margins. They must confront the uncomfortable truth that support for an ethno-nationalist state, built on dispossession, cannot be squared with the Gospel's call for justice, mercy, and peacemaking.

Ultimately, the tragedy of Evangelical Zionism is not just its complicity in the erasure of Palestine, but its betrayal of the Christian ethic it claims to uphold. By siding with power over the oppressed, with empire over witness, and with prophecy over people, it has rendered itself morally incoherent.

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This is a Catholic thing. They don't know where any of that stuff was exactly.

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But they do know … There were thousands of Christians within years of Christs Death and Resurrection who were taught by the Apostles.

The Apostles set the tradition and precedent of visiting sacred sites : I.E. Golgotha, Bethlehem, Garden of Gestheme etc

When the Romans sacked Jerusalem 30 years or so after Christs death , The Emperor Titus built a a temple to Venus over Golgotha as it had become a pilgrimage site for the burgeoning church.

There is even graffiti uncovered in the catacombs under Church of the Holy Sepulcher confirming the site was being visited as a pilgrimage site in the 1st century, thus confirming its the site of the death/ resurrection

That the Israeli Police are blocking Christians from accessing tomb of the Holy Sepulcher.

LINK ==

Are we sure the Israelis are the good guys?