Israel is often seen as a central biblical issue for Christians, specifically evangelicals. But a new poll has found that younger evangelicals are less likely to care about the country than their elder counterparts.
While 77 percent of older American Millennials supported Israel’s security and prosperity, just 58 percent of Millennials between the ages of 18 and 34 said the same, according to LifeWay Research.
In fact, four-in-10 Millennials have no strong views at all about Israel and only 58 percent have a positive perception of the Middle Eastern nation.
Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research, said that the data shows that younger Americans are essentially “indifferent.”
Millennial evangelicals are also more likely (19 percent) than evangelicals more broadly (14 percent) to see the birth of Israel as an injustice to Arabs in the Middle East.
The LifeWay Research results left some worried, as Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries — an organization that helped fund the research — said that he has some qualms about the Millennial evangelical response to Israel.
“I am concerned for the obvious decline in support for Israel among Millennial followers of Jesus, who either do not know what they believe or do not seem to care,” Glaser said.
Overall, though, evangelicals as a whole are still quite favorable of Israel, as 67 percent hold a positive view and just 9 percent hold a negative one. Additionally, 69 percent believe the Jewish people “have a historic right to the land of Israel,” with just 6 percent disagreeing.
Read the full results here.