Evangelical Support For Israel Constant, But Future Shift Looms
U.S. evangelicals are as supportive of Israel as they were four years ago, Infinity Concepts and Grey Matter found in their latest poll, although findings portend a possible generational shift.
The 49 percent of evangelicals who view Jews as God’s chosen people is statistically unchanged from the 51 percent who said the same in 2021, Ron Sellers, president of Grey Matter Research Consulting, told Baptist Press.
“Even with all of the various things and how much this has been in the news and how much people have spoken out against Israel and its actions, and for Israel, and all the anti-Semitic situations that have gone on worldwide,” Sellers said, “evangelical attitudes have been 100 percent constant, which truly was amazing and I think heartening.”
Evangelical support of Israel is more spiritual than political, researchers found, with 74 percent of evangelicals prioritizing spiritual support of the nation and people, compared to 60 percent who prioritized political support.
“It’s nice to see beliefs that don’t change with the news cycle,” Sellers said. “It’s nice to feel that important religious beliefs, whether you agree with them or hold those same beliefs or not, are not affected by who’s president, what’s going on on CNN or Fox News or MSNBC, that the beliefs are staying constant.
“And I think that’s an incredibly important thing for evangelicals, and for evangelical leaders to note that their people are not just swaying with the wind.”
A generational subset of the poll of 1,008 Evangelical Protestants found that 29 percent of evangelicals under age 35 believe that Jews are God’s chosen people, and that cohort is more likely to embrace a replacement theology or express uncertainty.
“The difference between younger people and older people in the evangelical community is definitely statistically valid, statistically relevant,” Sellers said. “In every way, younger evangelicals are less engaged with Israel, less supportive of Israel, less likely to see the Jews as God’s chosen people. And if those attitudes don’t change as they get older, long term, we’re looking at a very different environment on how Israel and the Jewish people are thought of within evangelical circles.”
When younger evangelicals don’t see Jews as God’s chosen people, they are less likely to prioritize Israel in their own spiritual lives, Sellers said.
“And we’ve seen other studies that look at this from a political perspective or a social perspective that show the same thing,” he said, “that younger people are less likely to be supportive of Israel politically.”
But evangelicals are not monolithic in their interpretation of what it means, in practical terms, for Israel to be God’s chosen people. Sellers cautions against stereotypes.
“There is a stereotype that evangelicals all are conservative, all are Republican, all voted for Trump, all support Israel, etc., and that’s absolutely not the truth,” Sellers said. “Israel and the Jewish people are more likely than not to find support among evangelicals, but there are significant subsets who either are not supportive of Israel and the Jewish people, or they are generally supportive.
“But they take pains to point out that that does not mean that that’s just a blanket support of anything that Israel might do militarily or politically,” he said, although the poll at hand did not delve into political beliefs. “So it’s not a cut-and-dried issue for many people.”
Leaders can use the findings to understand that more evangelicals want to focus on a spiritual relationship with Israel, rather than political.
“A lot of times, what it means is placing a special emphasis on blessing Israel and the Jewish people,” Sellers said.
evangelicals might practice their support in any number of ways, he said, perhaps praying for the peace of Jerusalem, opposing antisemitism, helping the Israeli Defense Forces defend its citizens, teaching Jewish people about the Gospel, providing humanitarian relief, helping Holocaust survivors or engaging in other outreaches.
By the numbers, 65 percent of evangelicals said they are interested in what the Bible teaches about Israel, 55 percent voiced interest in Bible prophecy, and 44 percent said they wanted to learn about the Jewish roots of Christianity. Far fewer, 30-41 percent, voiced interest in how Israel is treated by the U.S. media, or the political relationship between Israel and the U.S.
This article has been republished courtesy of Baptist Press.
Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.