Younger evangelicals are backing away from supporting Israel in all cases, saying they're concerned about its treatment of Palestinians.
"Human rights is a core issue to me," Caleb Fitzpatrick, a 21-year-old junior at the evangelical Liberty University, told The Wall Street Journal. "It's less important to me who has dominion over the northern part of historical Israel."
Younger evangelicals are also backing away from some of the other positions their parents supported, and are now more likely to support long-disputed topics such as same-sex marriage and more strict environmental laws.
According to a December survey of more than 2,000 people conducted by LifeWay research, an evangelical polling company, just 58 percent of millennial evangelicals, ages 18-34, had a positive view of Israel, compared to 76 percent of evangelicals ages 65 and older.
The difference is catching the eye of the nation's megachurch pastors, the Israeli government and private groups, which are all working to win back the younger evangelicals.
Evangelicals make up a quarter of adults in the United States, and traditionally keep up pressure on politicians to side with Israel, but more liberal Jewish groups and some younger evangelicals have criticized the decision to move the U.S. embassy into Jerusalem and Israel's decision to open fire on protesters.
The Israeli government is taking steps to attract young evangelicals. Uri Steinberg, the Israeli tourism commissioner for North America, said the issue has been in focus for three years, and two years ago, the ministry of tourism started to fund trips for Christian musicians and young pastors to visit Israel.
Pastors and organizations are also leading trips to Israel with the hope that the experience could make millennial evangelicals more open to Israel.
Israel's critics are also courting the evangelicals by also offering trips to the Holy Land, in hopes of increasing sympathy for the Palestinians.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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