The Rev. Eamon Kelly, a Catholic priest from Notre Dame in Jerusalem, says that when Christians visit Israel and see where Jesus lived and died, the gospel becomes more real.
"It's a powerful experience of the reality of the gospel," Kelly told J.D. Hayworth, Miranda Khan and Republican strategist Ford O'Connell on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
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"I would say we're living in a culture of relativism, and that means out of all the different faiths we've learned to respect that there are different ways to believe and so on, and then it gets translated philosophically," he explained.
"Everybody needs their myth, but when you come to the Holy Land, you say, 'Wow, there's the Sea of Galilee, this isn't a myth.' When you walk up the Mount of Olives, it's for real," he said. "You can touch it."
Contrary to what some may think, Kelly says that the parts of Israel where tourists travel are actually very safe.
"There is much suffering in the Middle East, but all the pilgrims that we accompany to Bethlehem — and that's in the West Bank to Jericho . . . we always have an experience of safety," he said.
"I've had groups there during times when there was extreme action going on, let's say in Gaza, and it's not more than an hour and a half away from Jerusalem," he added. "Our people who are visiting would not know anything was happening if it were not for phone calls from home because they saw something on CNN or Newsmax."
However, Kelly says that "there are challenges everywhere, and the human family is going through great complex situations almost everywhere in the world — politically, socially, internally and spiritually" and "we need to pray a lot for this."
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