| Publication |
2013.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948, Evangelical Protestants in the United States have been regarded-with good reason-as Israel's most reliable supporters. In 2008, Jody C. Baumgartner and a number of other researchers reported that Evangelicals are "more likely than other Americans to have sympathy for Israel in its dispute with the Palestinians and to agree that the United States should take Israel's side more often in the Middle East."1 More recently, a poll conducted by the Pew Charitable Trust indicated that Evangelicals are more likely than other American Jews to believe that God gave the land to the Jewish people.2 In addition to the belief that God's promises endure forever, much Evangelical support for Israel is motivated by an understanding of the religious component of Arab hostility toward Israel. Evangelicals, Baumgartner and her colleagues reported, are "significantly more likely than other Americans to agree that Islam is a more violent religion than Christianity, Judaism, or Hinduism."3 Other factors related to Evangelical support for Israel include an adherence to premillenial dispensationalism (an eschatology that posits that the return of the Jews to their homeland is a precursor to the return of Jesus Christ),4 gratitude to the Jewish people for their scriptures, and remorse over the Holocaust.5
|