Infected by the MTG disease

It’s said that if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes truth. Sadly, that was displayed recently by someone with whom I was once friendly and who hosted me multiple times on his radio program, enthusiastic about my work building bridges between Jews and Christians in support of Israel. 

Brian Glenn used to host an afternoon radio program, “In the Know” in the Dallas area. We met nearly a decade ago in the context of Run for Zion, the first Christian program around the Jerusalem Marathon. 

In our first of several conversations, he was enthusiastic, effusive, about the program, and a sincere desire to visit Israel. Brian went on about how Israel was a “country I would love to go to,” and that “If there’s one place to make a trip for the rest of your life,” it would be Israel. When speaking of walking where Jesus walked he said, “I cannot imagine standing and going to the same places.” And when discussing Neil Armstrong’s famous quote that walking where Jesus walked was more meaningful than being the first man to walk on the moon, he agreed. “I couldn’t think of any place I would rather be.” 

Brian was not paid to say any of this. He spontaneously endorsed Run for Zion and the Genesis 123 Foundation, as a way to “get involved in an insane opportunity to do good in this world.” Then he added, “I want to keep following up and promoting this whatever we can do I want to help. I’m hooked.”

At one point Brian’s co-host Luke added that they should put their prayer in the Western Wall.  But it seems that Brian has flipped and he’s the one for whom prayers are needed. 

Brian left to pursue other options including political reporting. I reached out once in a while over the years, but we did not stay in touch. Over the years it became clear that he had turned away from Israel if only by association with his fiancée, Marjorie Taylor Green (MTG). I suspected that for political reasons he didn’t want to publicly disagree with her anti-Israel venom, but had no sense that he pivoted the way he has. It seems that he’s been infected by the MTG disease. He’s become Brian Taylor Green (BTG). While the diagnosis is obvious, the remedy is clear: a dose of truth. 

Recently, BTG made a post on his social media that was not only seething in anti-Israel venom, but antisemitic tropes as well. The first 156 words were copied from (or by) his girlfriend. What’s not clear is who wrote the original text. But it was identical to hers, reinforcing the reality of repeating lies. It almost doesn’t matter who initiated it, but how often, and by whom it is repeated. 

BTG and MTG posted: “Today I had the honor of meeting with Maher N. Canawati, the Mayor of Bethlehem (the birthplace of Jesus), who is also a Christian. He told me about Christian persecution happening in Bethlehem and also in Gaza and the West Bank. Christians have been killed in the bombings in Gaza and churches have been attacked. Others have told me this as well, and I’ve seen videos on line.”

“The Mayor says they only want to live in peace alongside their Jewish and Muslim neighbors in their homes that they legally own yet the settlers continue to take their homes. There are approximately 139 IDF checkpoints now in Bethlehem which one was 41 sq miles but has now been reduced to 7 sq miles.”

“Bethlehem is the birthplace of Jesus. American Christians are largely unaware of the Christian persecution happening there, but need to learn about this and speak out. What is the Holy Land without Christians?”

I am not suggesting that BTG made up his conversation with the esteemed mayor of Bethlehem. But that, generously, they got the facts wrong. 

While it’s true that perhaps some of the fewer that 1000 Christians in Gaza were killed during the war that followed the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel, one convenient fact that they omitted is the persecution of Christians by their Muslim Arab neighbors. Bethlehem for instance, used to be more than 80 percent Christian before the Palestinian Authority control. Today most Christians have fled, not because of Israel, but because of persecution by their Muslim neighbors. Today, Mayor Canawati governs a city estimated at about 10% Christian. 

I experienced the fear of Christians in Bethlehem as a result of this persecution firsthand. When ordering coffee mugs as swag for Run for Zion, a friend connected me with a Christian Arab in Bethlehem who gave me a fair price for a good product, and it was my pleasure to support him. When I suggested that we take a picture together after paying him, he froze and insisted that a picture with me, an Israeli Jew, would be dangerous for him.  Sadly there’s no selfie, but the mugs are evidence. 

Another lie is the notion of 139 checkpoints. I live there.  I can see and hear Bethlehem from my community. It’s simply baseless. Rather, there may be 139 or more big red signs in Hebrew, English and Arabic, that it is dangerous and illegal for me – an Israeli Jew – to go into Bethlehem and other nearby Palestinian Arab villages. Those are the facts on the ground.

But BTG added 67 words that his girlfriend excised, or he just added so as not be stuck in her short shadow. His lies morphed into a blood libel. Not only baseless, but evil. 

“The American church needs to wake up. Christians are being persecuted and even killed in the very birthplace of Jesus by the hands of Israel and the IDF. Why are very few people talking about this? Are we not a Christian nation? Are Zionist brainwashing the American church in an effort to coverup this persecution against Christians that’s happening in plain sight?”

The persecution of Christians in Bethlehem, Gaza, and throughout the Palestinian Authority and most of the Middle East is at the hands of Muslim Arabs. Israel is the only country in the Middle East in which the Christian population is growing, and in which Christians can worship freely and are equal citizens. So the trope of Christians being killed by the hands of Israel and the IDF is just another lie. 

BTG’s slippery slope of lies devolved into overt antisemitism, accusing “Zionists” (read Jews) of brainwashing the American church, with a nefarious goal of covering up a persecution he alleges is being perpetrated by Jews, but is really happening by Muslims. 

But the mayor could never say this, lest he be killed, by his Muslim neighbors. So, as a good dhimmi, he blames the Jews. And Brian Taylor Green lapped it up to ingratiate himself with his girlfriend. 

BTG is either a liar or a fraud. Maybe both. Call me Brian, I have your remedy, a big dose of truth. Maybe all hope is not lost.