What’s really behind young people turning off on Israel?

The recent Jerusalem Post article that starts with the alarming statistic that “support for Israel among young Evangelicals has plummeted by over 50% in just three years,” doesn’t seem to blame the failure of parents in passing on important values to the next generation as much as it attributes the major shift to being the result of the times in which we live.

While it’s irrefutable that so much has dramatically changed, especially in the last 20 years, those differences in society cannot be viewed as the only contributing factors that account for a 50% drop in support for Israel. That’s just too easy! Could it be that the real truth is too unpleasant to face, and that’s why we have to look for a larger societal evolution? But what about the place where children are supposed to be most influenced – the home? 

It’s time to acknowledge that much of what we’re seeing today, as it relates to the viewpoints of young people, by the time they reach early adulthood, can be traced back to a completely different style of parenting that has occurred over the last 20-30 years. It is one that deferred more to allowing kids to think independently rather than be “trained up in the way they should go.” (Prov. 22:6)

But that Biblical model, as described in the book of Proverbs, actually makes a difference, because most kids don’t usually develop values on their own. Those must be instilled, nurtured and exemplified in order for them to become incorporated into the thinking of a new generation. So, now that we are confronted by startling statistics, among evangelical youth, we can deduce that their present-day opinions were formulated by other outside influences.

If parents spoke openly in their homes about Israel, discussing its significance and central role throughout God’s plan for the redemption of mankind, it would be more than likely that the same love and commitment, for the Jewish homeland, would be transferred to their offspring. Likewise, when evangelical families took trips with their kids to the land of the Bible, or Jewish families enrolled their teens in the summer Birthright programs, the evidence showed that many of these kids have ended up returning, either to work on a kibbutz or, if Jewish, to immigrate to what they sensed was a country which could provide them with a more meaningful existence.

When looking at the troubling statistics, we see that evangelical parents, who, themselves, are supportive of Israel, probably rarely spoke about it, if at all. Had they attended a congregation that was Israel-minded and enthusiastic about teaching the next generation why their support of the Jewish homeland was crucial, the picture might have looked very different.

So where do parents start in this all-important subject which must be a central part of one’s faith, since Israel is so integral to everyone’s spiritual destiny? The best place to begin is to emphasize the blessing that is associated with love for God’s Promised Land and His people. 

Since it was God, Himself who blessed Israel, why would anyone who claims to be a person of faith ignore that fact or consider doing the opposite? There is actually a warning for those who go against Israel, “He who touches you [Israel], touches the apple of His [God’s] eye. Zech. 2:8. But assuming that evangelicals aren’t anti-Israel and just a bit apathetic, it’s good to remind them that a special blessing is associated with those who bless Israel.

Of course, the classic verse is Genesis 12:3 – “I will bless those who bless you… and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So why would any professing evangelical move away from the benefits that have been promised to them just by acknowledging the obvious?

Without the encouragement and passion that flows from a personal conviction, these positions do not automatically transfer over. And when they don’t, there’s always something waiting in the wings to take its place, and that is exactly what has happened.

When parents don’t influence their children’s thinking, to help them form solid Biblical opinions, something else will, and, today, that something else is social media which looks through a completely different lens when it comes to the things that are valued. 

It’s hard to remember a time when there was such a deep need for young people to fit in and feel as if they were accepted, approved and part of a larger group that thinks the same way – bringing us to the conclusion that the once cohesive family unit, where parents spent time with their kids, influencing their opinions and feelings in order to instill right morals, ethics and principles, has been replaced by the fake virtual family of social media.

The bombardment of a larger circle’s values has taken on the family framework, invading the minds and hearts of young people who desire to be part of a unit. Social media is fertile ground for impressionable minds to join a one-dimensional, accepted way of thinking which, coincidentally, almost always goes against Biblical wisdom. But this is not an accident, because the effort to replace one’s birth family, along with parental influence, will seek to undermine the values and positions, carefully replacing it with another set of beliefs.

Parents, of this generation, in an attempt to allow their children to experience a freedom that they, themselves, never had, have done their children a great disservice as they deferred to the whims of kids who lacked the maturity, wisdom and good sense to make the best choices which would serve them throughout their lifetime. That decision has been to the detriment of this generation, who now make up a 50% bloc of those who think that support for Israel is not crucial. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there.

Because if Israel is no longer worth supporting, something else is – and, in this case, the “group thought” is that Palestinian rights supersede all others. Had parents been more involved in what was also being taught in schools, they would have come to realize that the victim mentality of oppressed vs. oppressor was also part of an indoctrination campaign to influence young people as they began to approach an age where they would have to make their own choices as to who was worth supporting.

The marriage of social media, with the Woke education offered in schools, has definitely played an enormous role in the thinking of the next generation of evangelical offspring, but to not squarely look at the proper lack of supervision, awareness and pushback, which should have come from parents, most of whom intended to transfer their values onto their children, cannot be ignored or excused.

For those whose children are still young enough to influence, it’s important to know that the conventional wisdom of “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” is a proactive type of parenting which requires hard work, consistency and a lot of verbal communication in order to transfer these values to your kids. It also wouldn’t hurt to make a memorable pilgrimage to Eretz Israel (the land of Israel)!