Tucker Carlson hosted Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos, who has spent years living in the region, to understand better “What It’s Really Like to Live as a Christian in the Holy Land”, see YouTube link below.
At 1 hour and 19 minutes mark, following a short yet deep pause, Mother Agapia says, “I would like to talk a little bit more about the Palestinians themselves.”
Tucker responds, “I would love to!”
Mother Agapia goes on saying, “I think one of the reasons I was grateful to be able to come on is to really give a picture of them and the people as they are. And one thing that has really struck me — I know Muslims and I know Bedouin (nomadic Arab) — all during this time where they have really been suffering, what I really get sense from them is their real belief in God and that their life is in God’s hands and there is such a humility and obedience to their creator and an understanding that this life is not the only one. And there is a real beauty to that I think, so much of the world is missing.
And I think there is a deeper sense to all that is even going on right now, right? We are in the heart of Jerusalem, in the heart of where Christ came. There was a reason for that. And now we have a situation where the people who are the closest to God are being destroyed.
I live next to the Mount of Olives and when you go down the Mount of Olives, it’s where they said, “Hosana in the highest, here comes Christ.” And often I have gone to parish churched in Palestine and the whole community is they know all the service, and they are singing it themselves. And it reminds me as those people that were on the Mount of Olives, greeting the creator, greeting the Messiah who is coming for their salvation and honouring him. And that is what they are doing to this day. And what were doing instead is destroying that. And what does that mean for the world when we let that go?
The last time I was there, I went through Aman, not through Tel Aviv. So I had to go through the border and then I spent a night and in the early morning I was being driven to the airport from Madaba where there is a mosaic from the sixth century that shows you the places in the Holy Land, the map in Madaba it is not a very big city and as I am going out of it, you very quickly before you get to the airport come to lands that are still being grazed by shepherds. And I started to weep because to me that is so emblematic of what the Lord really wanted us to be like in touch with the land, recognizing that our life depends on what we grow and what we produce and what we do. And those kind of people are the ones who I hear from now who say they are suffering. They are literally going be killed, but they have so much more courage and faith than you find in so much of America and in the West, which we have lost.
To me, this whole war is in a way we are killing the Christ message. And that message, whatever your theology is, is one of compassion and tolerance and love and the world is becoming smaller in that way. And I think people sense that, right? How we act to each other and to our neighbour. And the very fact that people and politicians can listen to doctors, listen to what is going on and still somehow have a blank face and think it is okay! How did we come to such a point of darkness?”
Tucker, “Well, I mean, it does seem like part of the broader spiritual war?”
Mother Agapia, “Yes! absolutely.”
