Just three years since the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel from the Gaza Strip, Christians are being bombarded with increasingly negative narratives around Israel. It’s important that we, as believers, take a moment to assess the dangerous language circulating on podcasts and social media and respond in a Christ-centered way.
Famous podcast host Shawn Ryan recently declared in a conversation about Israel, “I’m just tired of us funding everybody’s wars.” This quote was shared widely across social media platforms, and its broad assumption about the U.S.’s support for the only democracy in the Middle East deserves pause. It’s a dramatic oversimplification that could lead people to believe that Israel is the aggressor, not the victim.
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Just hours after the recent attempted hijacking of the FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv, there were thousands of documented X posts blaming the incident on Israel, the Mossad, Benjamin Netanyahu, Zionists, or Jews. There are even podcasters and influencers who have blamed Israel and its government for Oct. 7, saying they allowed it so they could justify a war — a familiar tune we heard in absurd conspiracies surrounding 9/11, accusing the U.S. government of being involved. Christians must avoid speculation and conspiracies at all costs. We must use discernment in whom we listen to, the assumptions we form, and in testing everything we scroll past through the lens of Scripture.
OUR SAVIOR IS JEWISH. WHY ARE SO MANY CHRISTIAN LEADERS STAYING SILENT?
Christians need to be on alert for skepticism of defending allies like Israel that descend into hate. We need to be on alert for those who use “Zionist” or “Zionism” like a slur, a reemerging trend that has been painful to relive for many Jews today. And we need to be on alert for Israel as a frequent scapegoat in general. The comments section in a post about Israel will immediately inundate you with reprehensible, antisemitic screeds. Christians simply cannot be lured into thinking Israel is the enemy or that its right to exist is unimportant or outdated.
Standing with Israel does not mean agreeing with every decision its government makes, just as loving our own country does not mean agreeing with every decision our leaders make. A heated debate about how one ally supports another must never supersede the truth about Israel’s past and its future. And it must never supersede our mandate to love our neighbors as ourselves. Because discussing government policy is one thing — it’s a valuable discussion — but the individual responsibility of each Christian is most important.
As the watching world looks to the church for its response to perpetual attacks against Israel, we must work toward the hope of a united front, not one that contributes to the anti-Israel voices that have materialized on both the right and the left. Believers should be wary of cursing whom God blesses, a charge that directly applies to our personal responsibility to navigate political unrest with grace. His love for the people of Israel is as old as the Abrahamic covenant, established as unconditional in Genesis 15.
As believers today looking to the promise of a one-day restored peace in the Holy Land, we must also cling to the biblical charge to seek the welfare of the nations, live in peace under the authority God has established over us, and remember that we, too, are beneficiaries of the ancient promises made to Israel by God (Galatians 3).
I’m imploring all Christians to commit to praying about Israel’s conflict more than you speculate about it. Seek relationships with Jews in your own circles and get to know their perspective. Engage both your church and your neighbors with dialogue — seeking peace, truth, and hope over hostility, skepticism, and apathy.
In the end, we must frame our responses to this topic delicately, especially online, which aren’t often approached with the same level of care as face-to-face conversations. Unleashing one’s outrage without knowing the full story, tunneling frustration into antisemitic commentary, and propelling damaging narratives where nuance is desperately needed is most certainly not helpful to the Christian witness.
To dialogue about the conflict with our neighbors and in the pews on Sunday, we must choose to reconcile any politically charged or otherwise uneducated assumptions with what we can acknowledge is true about the situation. A viral tweet might catch your attention, but don’t limit your engagement there.
SAYING YOU LOVE YOUR JEWISH NEIGHBORS MEANS NOTHING IF YOU WON’T SHOW UP
When political factions look for scapegoats, Christians must cling to the truth. When culture changes its tune, the church must hold fast. What the world around us needs is a church that knows how to pursue truth well, and even more than that, combine our efforts to administer tangible hope to those near to God’s heart. That’s always been our global church network’s mission within Israel, where we continue to provide emergency housing support for the elderly and those with special needs, therapeutic trauma care for children, and food packages for families that need them.
Christians have turned their back on the Jews in the past, falling victim to demagoguery. We can’t let that happen again.
Wendell Vinson, a senior pastor for over 40 years, is the President and co-founder of CityServe International, a church empowerment network that provides basic essentials and disaster relief to communities in need throughout the United States and around the world.