Why evangelicals influence US foreign policy in the Middle East | EP1 | Witness Documentary

The Praying for Armageddon series looks at how and why evangelical Christians influence US foreign policy in the Middle East. Share your thoughts with us in the comments below. Please note that hateful and inappropriate comments will be removed. Watch the second episode here: https://youtu.be/_iQhbcOgfqw Q&A with Tonje Hessen Schei, the director of the series: 1) Could you tell us about the image in the poster? What was the creative thought process behind it? ▫The poster is a literal presentation of what some of the Evangelical fundamentalists believe, that Jesus will return as a warrior with an AR-15. As they interpret the Armageddon prophecy literally they believe Jesus will come down from the heavens on a white horse. This symbolizes the beginning of Armageddon. 2) Can you tell us what surprised you most when shooting the film or researching the story? ▫We started working on this film over 8 years ago, before Trump & Pence, and it has been a wild unbelievable ride with lots of surprises. Most concerning to me is the increase in the real political power the fundamentalist Evangelicals have in the US now. 3) Will Tonje do a sequel regarding the new events happened since October 7th? ▫I have no plans of making a sequel at this point, but there are many films being made on this topic and on this catastrophic time in our history. 4) Why is he trying to make Christianity look like they are wack jobs or terrorists? ▫This is not an anti-religion or anti-Christianity film, and we are treating all of our characters and protagonists with the utmost respect. This film takes a hard look at fundamentalism, which is important for all of us to do within our communities, cultures and societies across the world. 5) According to Tonje will the election of Trump worsen the situation for Palestine? ▫Unfortunately, there is no way to know what Trump would do, and I hope that the rest of the world and our international institutions will step up to take more responsibility and help with the governance of the catastrophic situation of Palestine. 6) Have you had any backlash from the evangelical community about the film? ▫There has been quite a bit of buzz about the film in dark religious corners of the internet, but most Evangelicals who see the film are surprised and support the message of the film that we have to fight religious fundamentalism. 7) Brazil is full of evangelists too but it shows support to Palestine, are they different from American evangelicals? ▫There are very strong similarities between US Evangelicals and the Brazilian fundamentalists. I am not an expert on the Brazilian situation, but Praying for Armageddon has been shown at several film festivals there, and from the response we are getting their relationship to Bolsonaro was very similar to the bond these groups had to Trump. More from Witness on: YouTube: aje.io/WitnessYouTube Facebook: www.facebook.com/AJWitness X: twitter.com/AJWitness Instagram: www.instagram.com/ajwitness/ Website: aje.io/Witness

I know we're all brainwashed somehow but American brainwashing is next level😅.

It's ridiculous that these Evangelicals think that Jesus is gonna love them more when he comes back and finds their fingerprints all over this genocide that brought about the end of the world.

Real Christian’s will pray for peace not destruction. Blessed are the peacemakers

AS a European, I am ashamed of Europe politicians. I give my full support to the people of Palestine💚♥️🧡

A group of people so eager to see unimaginable violence and death talk about a battle of good vs evil don't realize how evil they are.

As a Christian my love and Solidarity will always will be for the people of Palestine the bravest and most honorable people on God's earth 🙏❤ 🇵🇸

As a Black man this was extremely hard to watch. Trigger after trigger after trigger. When the woman said “you’re stealing my house” and the settler replied “if I don’t steal it someone else will” just exemplified what yt power. This is what your yt supremacy is.

I’m Catholic so we do not have the theology that supports the oppression of Palestinians. We don’t recognize the modern state of Israel as the biblical Israel - for us the Catholic Church is the continuation of biblical Israel. God bless Palestine and the Palestinians. 🇵🇸🇻🇦

These people are absolutely nuts.

It is so ironic that some Christians choose to support Israel, whose people have no faith in Jesus over Palestinians, who love and respect Jesus.

‘It is inconceivable to me that God would want us to be treating other human beings like this. It’s impossible that Jesus would be in favour of oppressing other people’ - Brave Rabbi Arik Ascherman

As a Christian, it’s sickening to keep seeing people take the teachings of Jesus & use it for evil. Jesus was about obeying God, treating each other with love & respect for one another. All the madness going on in the world is NOT what he wants for us. His teachings was to warn us against this madness. People are being deceived & that’s not God or Jesus doing.

As a Muslim I fully support my Palestinian brothers in faith. Greetings from Somalia 🇸🇴

Evangelical politicians complaining about Iranian theocracy is like an arsonist complaining about charred landscapes that he himself set fire to.

I just can’t express enough how above and beyond Al Jazeera goes compared to other news outlets. This 2 part series is truly outstanding reporting and I am so impressed by and grateful to Al Jazeera. Thank you.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

As an evangelical Christian myself, I am infuriated at these people who claim to speak for Jesus while they use Him to justify the oppression of the Palestinian people. I think many of them at the end of their lives are going to hear, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice wickedness.” God, forgive us for what we’ve done. Free Palestine 🇵🇸

I’m a God loving Christian, a Protestant, and I support the Palestanians 100%

May Palestine and Palestinians be free from occupation and injustice🙏❤️