In my survey of more than 1,000 young Christian men, church attendance did not predict antisemitic attitudes. What they believed about God’s promises to the Jewish people did. That finding should get the Church’s attention. Young Christian men are being shaped in more than one place. What they hear in church matters. So does what they watch online. In early summer 2026, I surveyed 1,090 Christian men ages 18–30 in the United States.
I asked about their faith, media habits, politics, views of Jewish people, and comfort discussing Israel. The men came from Catholic, Evangelical, mainline, nondenominational, and other Christian traditions. The strongest predictor of antisemitic attitudes was beliefs that God’s promises to the Jewish people have ended. When I compared the factors together, these beliefs were about four times as strong a predictor as political conservatism.
Church attendance, by contrast, did not predict antisemitic attitudes in the study. There was also a hopeful finding. Men who believed that God’s covenant with the Jewish people continues had lower antisemitic-attitude scores. That means what churches teach matters. Christians need to ask a basic question: What does Scripture say about God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people? Romans 11 offers a clear place to begin.
Paul warns Gentile believers not to boast over the Jewish branches. He reminds them, “you do not support the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:18). Later in the same chapter, Paul says the Jewish people are “beloved” and that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28–29). Christian faith cannot be separated from its Jewish roots. Jesus was Jewish. His first followers were Jewish.
Much of the New Testament assumes the story, promises, and Scriptures of Israel. In Understanding the Jewish Roots of Christianity (2021), theologian Gerald McDermott argues that Christians better understand