Season 3 | Episode 1

What Would it Take for Gen Z to Support Israel?

Will the same things that helped previous generations get a heart for Israel work for the younger generations?

Welcome to Season 3 of the “Beauty. Truth.” podcast. Adam Lee Rosenfeld shares his observations about the connection between faith, art, and culture, pointing to God.

This episode talks about:

  • What happens when you like everything on Facebook.
  • A harrowing statistic for those who care about Israel.
  • What the “patriarchy” really means.

Resources

Hey, how are you doing? I’m Adam Lee Rosenfeld. I talk about the Junction of Culture, Art, and Truth. I talk from that place. And I am brought back to the thought of an article that appeared on Wired magazine about 10 years ago. And the title of the article was, I Liked Everything I Saw on Facebook for 48 Hours, for Two Days. And it’s a hilarious account of some millennial guy, journalist working in a hit publication, liking everything that came his way on Facebook and the chaos that ensued. Pop up ads and suggestions and notifications being sent to his own friends. He was getting messages asking if his account was hacked. But in the middle of all those things that were served to him through social media, through Facebook, was a post about Gaza. During the time, Israel was in one of its offensives dealing with the security threat located within Gaza, Hamas. And I thought it was a curious reaction that this author, that this web writer, had to being served a suggestion about Gaza. And what he said was, he said, Oh, man, now I have to like something about Gaza? And that was such a concise way to communicate that the younger generation has a problem.

That problem is it does not have a clear stance on issues regarding Israel, and Israel is seen as an inconvenience. Taking aside on an offensive in Gaza, be it only in social media, media, illuminated to this writer that he did not have a clear stance. He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t prepared to like or unlike something about Gaza. And also, he was inconvenienced by it. One of Israel’s main papers, maybe arguably Israel’s main newspaper, recently published findings of a survey and some research that in quick summary, say, evangelical support for Israel has gone down by 50% in recent years. This points to the fact there’s a turnover in generations, even amongst the evangelical Christians, which is resulting in less support for Israel. My question is, what would it take for support not to only stop diminishing, but support for Israel to actually increase? And I think it might be a good idea to ask, what is it that Israel actually needs? Does Israel need this writer on Wired website to like something? Does Israel need you to like something on Facebook? Does Israel need you to do a podcast, to to do a protest, to do a march and print out flyers?

What does Israel need? And my only way to look at it is to dive into Genesis 12:3, where God says, I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you, and in you all of the nations shall be blessed. At the end of the day, Israel needs blessing. That’s the need. Now, what does blessing mean for the new generation? I can’t answer that for everybody. But if each seek in their own heart to bless Israel, I believe that it will truly be a blessing, and it will truly bring a blessing not only to Israel, but to the nations of the world. The need here is to bless Israel. Why? Why is there a need to bless Israel? Well, beyond fact or in relation to the fact that it appears in the Bible in Genesis 12:3, we can also point to the fact that God has a pattern. For his own reason, God decided that you are to bless Israel and be blessed, or go ahead and curse Israel and be cursed. But this points to the fact that there is a sovereign God who has a sovereign plan. He likes when people honor his plan for things.

And in younger generations, there’s a pushback. There’s a pushback to the fact that, what do you mean there’s a plan? And there’s a hot button word called patriarchy that refers to imposed limitations that’s being brought on you from above. You can’t do this, you can’t do that. Why? Because of the patriarchy. The patriarchy of God decides that you are to bless Israel. That’s the pattern. Honor Don’t honor it. Don’t honor it. It’s God’s pattern. But what is the problem with the next generations? Why is there a difference in the next generations? What are the next generations looking for? Well, being a member of one particular younger generation, I straddle the line between Generation X and the millennial generation. But I believe that we are in a hyper-saturated media generation that has experienced a second industrial revolution, a digital revolution, which has eradicated a lot of meaning. People are looking for meaning. And when that meaning is taken away, there’s also a loss of safety. There’s a longing a longing to be safe, a longing to find meaning, a longing to find beauty. And all that stuff has hurt. And so there’s a longing for healing as well.

If you can provide beauty healing, meaning, safety to the younger generations, you can reach those generations. Who provides those things? None other than God, the same entity that calls us to bless Israel. For various reasons, the hearts of the sons being turned to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers being turned to the son and having it not be applied, there’s a disconnect. The younger generations are suffering. There are needs. People are just trying to get by. There’s a disconnect in the pursuit of gainful living. There’s income inequality. And you might find yourself at the end of the day finding somebody to say, Hey, I don’t even have any money to go to Israel. Why should I care about Israel? And forget about that, I don’t even have time to care about Israel. How will younger generations actually bless Israel? I believe that there is only one way. It is not through tradition. It is not through religion. It is not through politics. There is value for all those things. But a true change, a true transformation, a true meaning of the younger generation needs only comes from approaching God, the same entity that says to bless Israel.

I encourage you, when you interact with younger generations, to be mindful of this, to be mindful of the needs of younger generations and mindful of the answer to those needs, which is God, and to trust that God is faithful on his own to illuminate the need to bless Israel to those younger generations. Thanks.

April 2, 2024

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