Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
Evangelical Christians remain firmly behind Israel in its war against Hamas, in part because of the belief that “God’s covenant with the Jewish people remains intact today,” according to a survey. Motti Inbari, Ph.D., a professor of Jewish studies at UNC Pembroke, and Kirill Bumin, Ph.D., associate dean of Metropolitan College, conducted the research.
“We’ve been doing this research for quite some time,” Bumin said. “And one of the things that I find particularly interesting is the degree to which the attitudes that we see in the Christian community are crystallized or rigid. We have seen relatively little change in attitudes toward support for Israel, support for Palestinians or support for neither from 2021 onward.”
The survey found generational differences among young evangelicals, who tend to be less supportive of Israel.
“This is the case even after we take into account their religious attendance, their specific religious beliefs, political beliefs, socialization in pro-Israel circles,” Bumin said. “There’s definitely something very distinct about the under-30 crowd, especially in comparison to the 50- to 64-year-old respondents who are even more supportive of Israel than the 65-plus crowd.”
Inbari said the younger generation has more access to information on social media and other platforms, which are tools that older generations aren’t as accustomed to. He said these platforms by design create an echo-chamber dynamic as people primarily are served only the content they want to see and hear.
“You’re in your own mindset, and you’re not exposed to other views,” he said. “And this creates a lot of polarization also as a result. Another aspect is that it’s very visual. You can see things that, back when I was younger, in that age, when I was opening the newspaper, I was reading. Now, they see. They don’t read; they see. It creates a different effect.”
As for evangelical support more generally, Bumin said an embrace of the biblical narrative, particularly the Abrahamic covenant, is “exceptionally important” to explain why evangelicals have such a positive view of Israel.
“Support for Abrahamic covenant — this notion that God’s covenant with the Jewish people is intact and eternal and that, as a result of Gentiles supporting Abrahamic covenant, that there are blessings for the Gentiles to be had — that aspect has repeatedly received support, not only in the evangelical community, but indeed across all Christian denominations … that we have studied,” he said. “In fact, in our 2024 survey, that is the No. 1 most impactful variable that we’ve considered in terms of relative impact on people’s attitudes in terms of support for Israel.”
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice
