All Rights Reserved

Both groups are far more religiously and politically conservative than other Americans. A strong majority of evangelicals have long been staunch Republican voters, and as Pew now reports, Orthodox Jews have trended in that direction too, going from 57% Republican or Republican-leaning in 2013 to 75% this year.

Yet, in other ways, evangelical trends are beginning to resemble those of non-Orthodox American Jews. Both groups are steadily declining in population share and are graying. The percentage of Americans identifying as evangelical has shrunk from 25% to 15%, and the median age within that community has risen to 56.  And most significantly for their futures, both groups evince a widening gap between older and younger members on social and political issues, including the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Already in 2014, Pew’s Religious Landscape Study found that evangelical Protestants who are millennials (those born from 1981 to 1996) are much more likely than their older co-religionists to support recognition of same-gender coupling and to accept alternative lifestyles, although they remain considerably more traditional on these issues than their peers in general society. The same study also found that younger evangelicals show greater support for stricter environmental laws and bigger government and view immigration favorably.

A new survey commissioned by researchers at the University of North Carolina and conducted in March and April of this year makes strikingly clear how the widening of this age chasm is now affecting evangelical support for Israel. It asked young evangelicals for their political leanings and found they are more likely to consider themselves centrist (37%), rather than conservative (31%) or liberal (31%). When respondents were asked whom they support in the “Israeli-Palestinian dispute,” 33% chose Israel, 24% chose the Palestinians and 42% percent remained neutral. Contrast this with a 2018 survey in which 69% of young evangelicals sided with Israel.