American support for Israel isn’t the most important thing at stake in this debate — truth is at stake.
Is it a heresy to be a Christian Zionist? Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens think so. And as Carlson and Owens’s respective podcasts continue to top charts and reach millions, younger Christians are starting to think so, too.
That is, at least, what Christian leaders have noticed, they told National Review at a recent Cornerstone Chapel event featuring Pastor Gary Hamrick; Charlie Kirk’s former pastor, Rob McCoy; former Ohio Representative Bob McEwen; and Israeli businessman Samuel Smadja. It’ll take serious discipleship to educate younger Christians on why the State of Israel matters and is worth defending, McCoy said.
Support for Israel has declined among younger generations. Some think that Israel’s retaliatory attacks in Gaza were unjustified; others believe that the U.S. should simply avoid involving itself in foreign entanglements. Carlson and Owens have presented both criticisms — as well as peddled conspiracy theories about Jews — to their massive audiences.
“Christianity has its roots in Judaism, and it’s that simple,” McCoy said during the event. “Our Messiah is Jewish.”
Speakers emphasized support for Israel for a number of reasons: biblical, strategic, geopolitical, ethical. And to hyper-online figures who criticize Israel’s response after terrorists killed more than 1,200 citizens on October 7, 2023, McEwen asked the audience to put Israel’s situation in perspective.
“That would be the equivalent of 60,000 Americans dying on a single day,” he said. “What do you think America’s response would be, if across the border, let’s just say, from Mexico, terrorists came into the United States and slaughtered 60,000? We would annihilate any nation that would do that.”
Israel’s strategic positioning in the Middle East makes it an obvious ally for the U.S. Genius Israeli intelligence benefits the U.S.; America was founded on the Judeo-Christian moral commitment to justice, truth, and virtue; and under any other circumstance, if a nation was under attack from terrorists the way Israel was on October 7, interfaith coalitions would be likely to support Israel. Nevertheless, younger Christians find anti-Zionism wildly attractive. That’s due in large part to the chokehold that figures such as Carlson and Owens have on the younger generations, the speakers suggested. They’ve created a “carnal Christian soap opera,” McCoy said, that’s quickly turned into a fierce spiritual battle.
The most successful part of the evening, which I’d encourage people to watch here, was the masterly way Cornerstone broadcast Carlson’s and Owens’s own words (it’s worth mentioning that Owens has been particularly hostile to this group of speakers). It wasn’t Hamrick’s intent, he said, to quarrel, but to address the deception and misinformation that constantly spews from each commentator’s mouth (like Owens’s claim that Kirk was a “time traveler,” or Carlson’s claim that Senator Lindsey Graham thinks “God will kill you if you don’t support Bibi Netanyahu”).
Over 2,500 people were at Cornerstone’s event — young, old, male, female. Younger audience members took notes. The audience was completely engaged. My guess is that many of the younger folks didn’t receive exactly what they came for — the speakers did a great job justifying America’s support for Israel, and demonstrating how loony Carlson and Owens sound, but their biblical justification for why Christians should support the Jewish homeland was nonlinear and at times confusing. Cornerstone did, however, provide resources for anyone looking to dive deeper into scripture.
The faith leaders’ willingness to engage with antisemitic rhetoric was inspiring. So was their position that American support for Israel isn’t the most important thing at stake in this debate — truth is at stake. The greatest guidance McCoy, the co-chair of TPUSA Faith, gave, was to suggest that Christian leaders address antisemitism by starting at the root: the erosion of truth in a society that promotes clicks and conspiracies over facts.
Hamrick ended with this prayer: “May God give us his heart to the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. It’s okay if you disagree with their government or their policies, but listen, God’s favor has not been lifted off of Israel or the Jewish people and transferred to the church. He’s not done with Israel. He’s not done with the Jewish people, and may God protect them, may God bless them, and may God help us in America to have the right biblical perspective for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people.”