Hunter Biden pardon, Israel ceasefire veto, Syria, and Synod implementation

(LifeSiteNews) — On this episode of Faith and Reason, founder of the Vulnerable People Project (VPP) Jason Jones joined John Henry-Westen and Deacon Keith Fournier to discuss his conversion story, as well as his advocacy for Syrian Christians and others those impacted by war and violence in the Middle East and across the globe.

The panel then analyzed the latest headlines, including the Biden administration’s veto of a ceasefire in Israel, Biden pardoning his son Hunter after promising he wouldn’t, Pope Francis saying that the Synod’s final text is part of his magisterium and asking that it be accepted, and more.

After opening the episode with Jones discussing his conversion story and why he started the VPP, Westen asked him about the organization’s current efforts with Syrian Christians and the link to the Biden administration’s recent veto of a ceasefire in Israel.

Jones dove into his recent efforts mobilizing Syrian Christian communities in Pennsylvania before the 2024 election and emphasized that the suffering of Christians in Syria, Israel, Iraq, and the entire Middle East is intimately connected. Thus, the veto of the ceasefire in Israel affects the whole region.

“So, I was in Pennsylvania mobilizing the Syrian Christian community to vote, leading up to the election. And I said to them, ‘I promise you that I’m not just here to ask for your vote; I’m here to let you know we will serve you after the election,’” he said.

“And so I wanted to go to Syria to visit with the embattled Christian communities and Lebanon in December as part of my promise to the Christian community in Pennsylvania, and many of those Syrian Christians in Pennsylvania are from the very communities in Syria now suffering assaults by what the mainstream media calls rebels,” he added.

Jones then explained how these “rebels” are really ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and other Muslim extremist groups who have the full backing of the U.S. and the surprising defenders of Christians in the Middle East.

READ: World War Syria: Why is the US backing ‘rebels’ who butcher Christians?

“Israel’s war against Hezbollah and Hamas in Iran has weakened Assad. Assad and Russia and Iran are strangely the defenders of the Christians in Syria. So right now … you have U.S. airstrikes, Russia, Assad, and Iran targeting Islamist extremist groups. But our government has admitted that these extremist groups are also acting as proxies for the United States and their interests,” he said.

He added that the U.S. and other Western governments aren’t interested in a ceasefire because they want a long, drawn-out, endless war in the region.

“The West’s interest is that Assad doesn’t win, and the Islamists don’t win. In other words, they want a bloody, drawn-out quagmire. They believe this is in the interest of the West. Well, unfortunately, there are women and children and civilians and families and the oldest Christian communities in the world that live there,” Jones said.

A bit later, the panel shifted gears to another controversial decision Biden made this week, pardoning his troubled son Hunter after repeatedly promising he wouldn’t interfere with the case. In fact, it’s a sweeping pardon covering all crimes Hunter may have committed from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024.

Westen underscored that this pardon and the ceasefire make the U.S. look like a “laughingstock” to the rest of the world.

Jones agreed and said the pardon and Israel’s aggression in Gaza show that the rules don’t apply to Biden, the U.S. leadership, or the Israeli leadership.

“Well, how can we claim to be the defenders of a rules-based international order and then say the rules don’t apply to us? And it’s linked. Joe Biden’s son, Joe Biden said, again and again and again, ‘I will not pardon my son.’ The rules do not apply to Joe Biden, the rules do not apply to the United States, the rules that apply to Israel,” Jones said.

“If you look at how Israel waged its war in Gaza, there’s a direct comparison right now in the region. You can look at the way Russia is hammering Al-Qaeda and ISIS forces in Aleppo, and they’re doing it. And they’re effective, and there are not nearly the unimaginable casualties of civilians that we saw in Gaza. … I mean, they’ve bombed every church and every Catholic school and every Catholic hospital and every Christian school and every Christian hospital in Gaza,” he added.

Deacon Keith stressed that in light of all this troubling news, the faithful need to do their part to help the most vulnerable:

The child in the womb is one of the most vulnerable, if not the most vulnerable. And not only that, … solidarity begins in the womb because that child in the womb is our first neighbor, and it is always and everywhere wrong to take the life of an innocent neighbor.

And we are engaged in that very act, and we are calling it legal. So it should not surprise us that it does, in fact, happen outside of the womb, because we have lost an understanding of the dignity of every single human life, and a particular understanding of the right definition of what the Church means when she speaks of a ‘preferential option.’ I don’t even like the term ‘option’; I prefer ‘preferential love’ for the poor. Who are the poor? Who are the poorest of the poor? The child in the womb, the vulnerable people.

He added that we are seeing a cultural shift in both the world and the Church, and the faithful must persevere through these dark times.  

For more discussion on the wars in the Middle East, their impact on Christians in the region, Biden’s decision to veto a ceasefire in the region plus give his son a sweeping pardon, and much more, watch or listen to the full episode of Faith and Reason.

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