Israel, Stop Using God to Settle Real Estate Disputes

In the US, Christians and conservatives are increasingly supportive of Israel and its claim to the "Holy Land." But "there’s too much at stake to use God as a real estate broker," writes former CNN Jerusalem bureau chief Walter Rodgers in the Christian Science Monitor. This "loyalty born out of a literal interpretation of the Bible" is "at the heart and history of the conflict in the Middle East," and its only result has been "several millenniums of war and shameful bloodshed."

Not to mention the fact that the concept of the "Holy Land" didn't even emerge until centuries after Jesus walked the earth, and nowadays many of the so-called holy sites are traditional, not historically verified. And, as Rodgers pointed out to one Israel-supporting pastor, God technically promised Jews a lot more land than just Israel—but no one today would argue that they should claim "a huge chunk of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq." (More Arab Israeli conflict stories.)