(OPINION) Some 51% of Evangelical Protestants in the United States say they believe Jews are God’s chosen people, according to a recently released survey. Titled “The Jewish Connection: Evangelicals and Israel,” the findings were announced this week by Infinity Concepts, a faith-based communications agency that co-produced the report with Grey Matter Research.
Drawing from a survey of approximately 1,000 Evangelical Protestant Americans, the report found that 51% of respondents believed that Jews were still God’s chosen people. By contrast, 19% said they were unsure, 17% said they believe Christians have replaced Jews as the chosen people, 10% said they believe Jews were never God’s chosen people, and 2% held an “other” view.
There was a generational difference in this sentiment, with 59% of respondents who were 70 or older saying they believe Jews were still the chosen people, while only 44% of those aged 40 and below agreed.
The report measured priority status for Israel and the Jews, using a scale of 1 to 5, in which 1 meant not important while 5 meant very important. This part of the survey found that 48% of respondents believe that “supporting Israel and the Jewish people to be important in their own charitable behavior,” ranking the issue as a 4 or 5.
The report also found that 20% of Evangelical respondents were “Israel loyalists,” which meant they not only believed Jews were the chosen people, but also placed “a very high priority on supporting them.” “From the Jewish and Israeli perspective, the Evangelical community is often viewed as a monolithic group that is both pro-Israel and pro-Jewish,” said Mark Dreistadt, CEO of Infinity Concepts, in comments to The Christian Post on Wednesday. FULL REPORT
