Her response was, frankly, terrifying. In short, she said that ‘there must be a good reason for it’ because ‘God called us to support them no matter what’. The conversation went a bit longer, and eventually said she would be willing to consider what it means to ‘curse or bless’ them and learn more about the prophecy in scripture (and whether it covers anything Israel does or allows for a nation to discipline them).
The problem I ran into was that her beliefs shaped her opinion on the matter: Palestine is occupying land promised to Israel by God, so this is self-defense. Because I don’t believe in the prophecy, it caused a division that was difficult to overcome. I want to believe (perhaps naively) that my parents wouldn’t be so nonchalant about genocide, but I don’t know enough about that prophecy to make sense of it. Of course, they don’t bat an eyelash at the idea of billions of people roasting in Hell for all eternity, so maybe genocide isn’t a big deal to them.
Anyways, any thoughts on how to approach this discussion? I tried to not override her beliefs, and just ask her to reconsider their meaning, but even that was met with resistance. Perhaps it’s not worth it at all. If anyone’s had success on this topic, I’d love to hear from you.
Continue reading at http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueAtheism/comments/2zj760/discussion_i_asked_my_mom_if_she_would_continue/