The Online Rabbit Hole of Antisemitism Sucks in Christians

Christians are falling through the rabbit hole of antisemitism as it spreads through social media feeds, podcasts and influencer-driven platforms. Alarmingly, says Sen. Ted Cruz, the damage is no longer confined to politics.

In a recent interview with CBN News, the Texas Republican warned that anti-Jewish rhetoric on the right is fueling hatred, twisting biblical language and seeping into parts of the church in ways that undermine Scripture and the historic Christian understanding of the Jewish people’s enduring place in God’s covenant story. “I have seen more antisemitism on the right than at any point in my life,” Cruz said. “It is dangerous, and it risks consuming our party.”

Cruz’s warning is borne out by data as antisemitic incidents in the United States remain at record levels. For the last full year data is available, the Anti-Defamation League reported 9,354 antisemitic assaults, acts of harassment and vandalism in 2024, a 5% increase over the prior year and the highest number since the group began tracking the data in 1979. The organization warns that extremists are increasingly weaponizing ordinary phrases, symbols, and coded language on mainstream social-media platforms, helping hatred travel farther while flying under the radar of the average user.

READ: Free Kansas City conference to tackle Israel in God’s plan 

For Cruz, that is not just a headline in yet another story about antisemitism. He directly challenged Tucker Carlson, one of the most influential voices on the political far-right, and said Christians need to recognize what is happening around them. “Look, everyone’s going to have to decide where they stand,” Cruz said. “Ronald Reagan in 1964 gave a very famous speech, a time for choosing. And I think this is a time for choosing.” He argued that evangelical believers who support Israel are being targeted in the process. “The target of this operation is you and me,” Cruz said. “It is evangelical Christians.”

Cruz was even more blunt when he described Carlson’s attacks on Christian Zionists, a term for Christians who hold to the “everlasting promise” of Genesis 15:18 of God to Abraham, and where the term “promised land” in reference to Israel derives.  “Tucker Carlson has said there is nobody he hates more on planet earth than Christian Zionists, and he names specifically me and Mike Huckabee,” Cruz said. “I think it’s unfortunate that I am the person he says he hates most on earth. Now, why does he hate me? He hates me, number one, because I’m a Christian and that is my faith and I’m not going to run away from it or apologize for it. But he hates me, number two, because I’m a Zionist,” he told CBN.

He also criticized the growth of replacement theology in some circles, including Evangelicalism, which has traditionally been the strongest friend to the Jewish people. “I think that is absolutely wrong,” Cruz said. “If God breaks his promises to the people of Israel, that suggests that God could break his promises to Christians as well, and I don’t believe God breaks his promises.” But it is not just evangelicals. Catholics are also at risk of it spreading.  That concern, he suggested, is now colliding with a digital culture where slogans often outrun careful teaching.

Cruz pointed to the phrase “Christ is King” as one example of language he says has been warped and is now used online, not in the true and spiritual sense as Christians would understand it, but in an explicitly antisemitic context. “It is being used online in a way that is meant to say, ‘screw you, Jew,'” he said. “It is being used in a context very directly to say, ‘I hate Jews,’ and that’s almost an online code word.” His point was not that the phrase itself is illegitimate, but that people can weaponize Christian language as cover for contempt. He contends that is one reason pastors and church leaders need to get out of their comfort zone and confront the issue directly.  For Cruz, it is especially important to educate younger believers who are more connected with the platforms where the hate is happening.

As Metro Voice regularly reports, Cruz is not alone in his warning to the church.

Influential Christian leaders and commentators have been warning for years that antisemitism is creeping into some church and conservative spaces. Most pastors have chosen to ignore it, fearing wrongly that it is only a political and not a spiritual issue.

At a 2026 Jerusalem summit covered by Metro Voice, attendees focused on support for Israel and confronting antisemitism. One pastor, Jesse Bailey, stated “the pulpit has become quiet,” and warned that cultural voices, including anyone with a microphone or phone camera, are reaching believers faster than pastors are. But another problem is that many pastors have ceded their role and are refusing to stand up.

That concern is repeated by ministry leaders and Christian commentators who point to examples of online clips, slogans and unvetted influencers shaping opinion on Jews and Israel instead of real news or sound bible teaching.

The wider public mood has shifted, too, especially since the Hamas invasion of Israel, which launched a two-year war fought primarily in the terrorist enclave of Gaza. Pew Research reported in 2025 that 53% of U.S. adults held an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 42% in 2022  before the war. Many news outlets used death numbers from the Gaza “Ministry of Health” run by Hamas for reporting. Since the war’s end, some media have been forced to retract their numbers, brought on by a Hamas admission that the vast majority of those killed were men of fighting age, and not women and children. Yet, those earlier false claims of “genocide” at the hands of Israel still spread on social media.

Still, it shows there’s a harsher climate around Israel and Jewish concerns than existed only a few years ago. In that atmosphere, unvetted online influencers, relying on “I heard it from a friend of a friend” reporting, can shape opinion faster than true journalism, and viral clips can carry more weight than careful facts, according to Pew.

As the boomers and millennials, traditionally the generations containing the strongest support for Israel,  abandon social media or die, the scriptural, pro-Jewish, zionist point of view also disappears. One problem is the lack of education.

On Wednesday, March 25, Calvary University will be part of the solution. It’s holding a historic “Israel in God’s Plan” free conference from 8:30 to 4pm at the school’s Liberty Chapel. It will focus on whether Israel continues to hold a distinct place in biblical prophecy and theology, an issue that has long shaped evangelical teaching and debate. It also covers antisemitism and “replacement theology,” the dangerous belief that God has broken His promise with the Jewish people and that modern Christianity is not the “Chosen People.”

The topic, according to Calvary, is so important that they’re making the event free to the public and encouraging pastors, lay leaders and the public to attend. Interested readers can visit the school’s website HERE.

This type of event is desperately needed to help educate a new generation. Cruz’s warning to younger Christians is direct. “Listen, you’re being lied to about Israel,” he said. “Those who attack Zionism – Zionism simply says Israel should exist.” He tied that argument to the Holocaust and the creation of the modern Jewish state, saying Israel’s existence remains a reasonable moral proposition in light of Jewish history. Whether Republicans and Democrats, pastors, priests and Christian media figures take that warning seriously may say a great deal about where this debate goes next.

–Dwight Widaman

All photos Gage Skidmore, wikicommons license. Graphic: Metro Voice using Adobe photo.