Jason Jones

but to enrich the experience knowing how the muslim call for prayer for you is background music for this question so um father steve bannon asked you've been here for 2 000 years by the way steve when he said that they were the first church i challenged him with arm wrestling match didn't realize he was actually the parish priest for the church of the nativity so i've just added a lot of time to purgatory but steve wants to know what was the community like here 2 000 years ago when the holy family

was over our left shoulder, my left shoulder, your right shoulder.

You've got a square with pilgrims and tourists coming to witness this tonight. You've also got a mosque and the church nativity, all of it. So just take your time and walk us through this. All right, thank you, Steve. So Father Isa, Steve would like to know, and the audience would like to know, what was it like when the Holy Family, when the Blessed Mother and Joseph walked down that little road

and found no room at the inn. What was Bethlehem like then? And how did it evolve into what it is today with the pilgrims, the church, the mosque over my shoulder? So it's the history of the living stones of the church, right? Exactly.

until now you know one of the things father that i've noticed in my time working with the palestinians whether it's the church in gaza or here in the west bank is there is this magnanimity there's this charity this forgiveness and i've prayed about it and what is the source of it and i thought as catholics our theology tells us that grace builds upon our nature and i and it dawned on me that grace has been building upon the nature of this christian community for 2 000 years

also actually to give blessing and grace from it. You know, I was an atheist until my late 20s, and when I would hear Christians talk about the good news, the gospel, I thought that's an awful strange expression, good news. But when you look back, what good news is it that the Caesar is not God, the Pharaoh is not God, but I, I could be a humble peasant, I can be a slave, but I am made in the image of God. That's right, God, an image of God.

to life can i ask you about saint joseph you look at saint joseph it's kind of quiet kind of hidden always but i i look to him as what a man should be he had calloused hands he was a cow see if you talk about muscular christianity and i think of saint joseph he was muscular but he had calloused hands he was a carpenter he was amiable he was kind he was gentle

Yeah, yeah, sure. Father, Steve's question was, it's surprising to a lot of American audiences to hear that Muslims and Christians, Bethlehemites, get aligned together. You're Greek Orthodox. The Greeks were for so many, 650 years, one of the control, the Ottomans. But today in the world, we see political Islam, Islamist extremism as a horrible threat to the

Christianity in Nigeria. Nine out of ten martyrs this year will be in Nigeria, yes. So can you help us explain the dynamic in history between Islam and Christianity and then maybe what's the difference or similarities with Christians and Muslims together in Bethlehem?

But we've seen just in the past two decades with the rise of ISIS, for example, in Iraq and Syria, the decimation of Christian communities. We've seen this in Nigeria. Can you help us understand? Yes, Steve. Jason, hang on one second. We're going to take a break. I want to get the full answer on that when we come back to Bethlehem.

I want to thank you and my son fought ISIS in Iraq and Syria nose to nose. But father, I want to go back to the question. We saw your community, Orthodox community, survive for 750 years under the Ottoman Caliphate. But just in the past two decades, we've seen the decimation of the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria. Can you help us understand the nature of political Islam, the challenges that we face now as a church with the political Islam?

It depends on how they live. We see today in Syria the brutalization of the Christian community. In India, Hindu nationalism, just yesterday Christians were attacked. 300 churches were burned down in one state alone, Steve, this year in India. So we see Hindu nationalism, we see the CCP communist ideology, and then political Islam. We see settlers attacking Christian communities here in Tebe. There are only 800 Christians left in Gaza.

Steve, thank you very much. Vulnerablepeopleproject.com is our website. Vulnerablepeopleproject.com or Protect Holy Land Christians. We provide it as a Christmas present. Every Christian family in Gaza has received a pop-up home to keep them warm, but we also need to get them firewood. We'd love your help with that. This is the great Elise, a Christian activist here.

in bethlehem in betsahora and she is the biggest steve bannon and donald trump president trump fan

Instagram, all my social media and my sub stack is the Jason Jones Show, my podcast, the Jason Jones Show. And if you want to stand in solidarity with the most vulnerable Christians in the world, we provide security in Nigeria. We serve the persecuted church here and in Gaza and around the world in India. Go to vulnerablepeopleproject.com. If you want to deliver firewood into Gaza with us, go to protectholylandchristians.com.

And Steve, it's just been an honor to share Bethlehem with you and your audience. It's a great privilege. Thank you for this. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you.

For 35 years, one Jersey City tradition included a Christmas and Hanukkah display in front of City Hall.

But the American Civil Liberties Union sued, forcing the city to remove the display.

Thanks to Judge Samuel Alito, the inclusive holiday display was restored.

Tonight on Linus' America, are Christians an endangered species?