A new survey examining ideological and religious attitudes among young Christian men indicated that specific theological views served as a far stronger predictor of antisemitic attitudes than regular church attendance.
Katie Posey, a Ph.D. student in Antisemitism Studies at Gratz College, conducted the survey. The study was funded by the Academic Engagement Network and the Israel Institute at Regent University. Posey detailed the survey's findings in an op-ed published in The Christian Post on Monday. The survey is yet to be published in full.
Posey said in a statement to The Jerusalem Post, “It was during my Quantitative Approaches to Antisemitism course at Gratz College that I started to design this study. Over the last few years I watched antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews and Israel gain traction among young Christian men, which was shocking to me and it was often through popular online voices.”
“So I wanted to know whether what they believed about the Jewish people theologically made any difference. After Oct. 7, I wanted to see more Christian communities engage their young people to confront antisemitism in all its forms, and I noticed that wasn’t happening everywhere - that also led me to certain kinds of research questions,” Posey said.
In early summer, Posey surveyed 1,090 Christian men aged 18 to 30 across the United States. The participants came from diverse backgrounds, representing Catholic, Evangelical, mainline, nondenominational, and other Christian traditions. Respondents were questioned about their faith, media habits, political views, perceptions of Jewish people, and their level of comfort discussing Israel.
Perspective on God's covenant with Israel the strongest predictor of views on Jews
Posey said 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?”
To address these theological roots, Posey pointed to Romans 11, with Paul warning Gentile believers not to boast over the Jewish branches and reminding them, “you do not support the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:18). Later in the same chapter, Paul points out that the Jewish people are “beloved” and that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28–29).
Emphasizing that Christian faith cannot be separated from its Jewish roots, given that Jesus and his first followers were Jewish, and much of the New Testament assumes the story, promises, and Scriptures of Israel, Posey highlighted that theologian Gerald McDermott argues in Understanding the Jewish Roots of Christianity (2021) that Christians better understand their faith when they recognize those foundational ties. Ignoring or severing them, she emphasized, opens the door to supersessionist narratives and allows damaging theological replacement views to take root unchecked.
Ideas heavily shaped by the media landscape
Posey also emphasized that young Christian men's ideas were heavily shaped by what they watched regularly online. Posey said her study revealed distinct patterns in media consumption: respondents who frequently watched media figures such as Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, or Nick Fuentes recorded higher average antisemitic-attitude scores than men with little or no engagement with them. Notably, the study found that about one in six men surveyed watched Fuentes at least monthly.
Posey cautioned that those were not before-and-after scores and do not prove that watching those figures directly caused antisemitism, but rather that engagement with those figures and antisemitic attitudes were closely linked within that demographic. Furthermore, media exposure remained significantly linked to antisemitic attitudes even after controlling for theology, politics, contact with Jewish people, gaming, and church attendance.
Posey highlighted one of the study's most critical findings: men who believed God’s covenant with the Jewish people continues did have lower antisemitic attitudes, but they were not less likely to engage with those media figures. Stronger beliefs about God’s faithfulness did not automatically translate to different media choices.
At the same time, beliefs that God’s promises had ended linked directly to greater engagement with those figures, showing that theology and media habits overlapped, but one did not simply cancel out the other.
Posey noted that the survey revealed a gap in how ready young men felt to talk about Israel. Fewer than half said they felt comfortable discussing Israel in church or ministry, and only 44% said they felt equipped to discuss it from a biblical perspective. Nearly four in 10 respondents indicated they avoided conversations about Israel entirely because they tended to become tense.
Relationships also played a pivotal role in the data. Men who reported no personal contact with Jewish people registered higher antisemitic-attitude scores, with almost half of those surveyed answering “no” or “not sure” when asked whether they personally knew a Jewish individual.
Emphasizing the practical implications of those figures, Posey argued that churches needed to build real relationships with Jewish neighbors and communities.
“Christians also need opportunities to know Jewish people as people, rather than just as names in a Bible lesson or a news story,” Posey said, adding that antisemitism should not be addressed solely as an abstract idea.
Posey concluded that the “study cannot tell us whether this media content causes antisemitism. Because the survey captured one point in time, it is also possible that men who already hold antisemitic ideas seek out voices that echo those ideas. More research is needed to sort out cause and effect. But the practical lesson is already clear: churches need to address both theology and media habits. Good theology does not automatically change what young men watch, and media literacy cannot provide the theology they need.”
Read the op-ed by Katie Posey that this article draws from at: https://www.christianpost.com/voices/the-belief-that-predicts-antisemitism-in-young-christian-men.html