By Pat Elder, World BEYOND War, June 7, 2026

I have been a regular attendee at a Bible study class at my local protestant Christian church in Southern Maryland. Over the past year, we have been reading and discussing the Gospel of Matthew. As someone who has spent much of my adult life working in the peace movement, I often try to connect Jesus’ teachings on peace, forgiveness, and enemy-love to current events, including the wars in Gaza, Iran, and Ukraine.

The class consists of about twelve people and is led by a priest who shares my conviction that Jesus’ teachings challenge Christians to reject violence. Over time, I have come to understand that half of the group are Republicans who support President Trump. Most are retired from the Navy or from defense contractors. During one discussion, we talked about where we get our news. The most common answers were Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.

When the conversation turns to Gaza or other conflicts, many in the group express sympathy for those suffering, but they also maintain that wars have always existed and that God remains in control and that we must put our faith in God. They often say that our duty is to pray for those under the bombs, including our enemies. Most support Israel’s “right to defend itself” and believe Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. They generally view America’s military role in the world as a force for stability and believe the United States is acting, however imperfectly, for the betterment of humanity.

When I raise topics such as the Iran nuclear agreement, the 1953 overthrow of Iran’s government, the 2014 political upheaval in Ukraine, or the historical differences between Sunni and Shia Islam, the discussion can feel distant and even threatening to them. These are not subjects that typically appear in the media they consume.

One couple in their mid-seventies, however, became curious about my sources and how I could know these things. During a conversation after class, I mentioned Al Jazeera. I explained that I watch it through a Roku device that allows free access to international news channels. I told them that while Al Jazeera is certainly a complex instrument of Qatari statecraft, it also offers something rarely seen on American television: extensive coverage from the perspective of people living in the Middle East. It shows the human consequences of war. It interviews ordinary people on the streets of Gaza, Lebanon, Russia, Iran, and elsewhere. It presents a perspective that many Americans seldom encounter.

To my surprise, the couple began watching Al Jazeera regularly. After only a few weeks, they told me it had challenged many of their assumptions. They began speaking less about military necessity and more about the human cost of war. They now say that manufacturing bombs and launching them into apartment buildings is fundamentally inconsistent with the teachings of Christ. I considered that a hopeful development.

Then an idea struck me.

We should all consider promoting broader access to video-based international news sources. Not necessarily endorsing Al Jazeera itself, but encouraging Americans — and the rest of the world — to step outside their media bubbles and spend time listening to people who live where the bombs are falling.

A Roku streaming device costs about thirty dollars. That is a remarkably inexpensive way to expose people to perspectives they might never otherwise encounter.

The lesson from my Bible study class is not really about Al Jazeera. It is about visibility. People rarely change their minds because of policy papers or geopolitical arguments. They change when they see babies crushed under apartment buildings. They change when distant conflicts cease to be abstractions and become stories about families, children, neighborhoods, hospitals, and communities.

For Christians especially, it becomes much harder to reconcile the destruction of civilian life with Jesus’ command to love our enemies when those enemies are no longer faceless.

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