Steve QJ
2 min readNov 28, 2024

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No, it doesn't dictate their behaviour. As the saying goes, we judge others by their actions, and ourselves by our intentions. When our actions fall short, we invent some rationale to make us feel better about them. But if we want to commit that action, most people will still do so.

The hypocrisy of Christian nations that you point to here is a great example. How does America, say, see itself? The greatest nation on Earth, right? A bastion of democracy and freedom. A country that, of only it could spread its values across the globe, would usher in a new era of human flourishing. But can you even begin to claim this dictates its behaviour? How many people do you think would be willing to compare America's actual behaviour to this claim? And, of course, this hypocrisy applies to much of the world to a greater or lesser degree.

So I'm not ignoring the role of Christian Zionists per se. I just don't consider the religious motivations or whatever other justification to be as meaningful as the actions. At least not while those actions are ongoing. Once the conflict is over, I think it's valuable to consider what the motivations were, but not during.

And in the case of something like moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, I'm not seeing how knowing that evangelicals are pushing for it helps to stop it.

For example, if I'm fighting the Nazis in 1942, I don't care why Nazis are stuffing children into ovens, I don't care what story they're telling themselves, I just want to stop them. Afterwards, we can think about their motivations with an eye to stopping it from happening again.

Or let's take an even simpler example, if I'm walking down a street and a see a man punching a woman in the face, I don't care why he's doing it. There are, I'm sure, scenarios where what he's doing can be justified, maybe this woman just killed his kid, say, but when I see it happening, I just stop it. Deal with the "why" after the problem is no longer ongoing.

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Steve QJ
Steve QJ

Written by Steve QJ

Race. Politics. Culture. Sometimes other things. Almost always polite. Find more at https://steveqj.substack.com

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