NASHVILLE (BP) – The tide of antisemitism is rising on the American political right, according to some conservative politicians and commentators.
“There are activists on the political left, and have been for years, that have been pretty aggressive on their antisemitism,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., in an interview with Baptist Press. “We saw this in the explosion on college campuses after Oct. 7 two years ago … We have seen it now rise on the right just in social media posts and people promoting more antisemitic tropes. That is very concerning.”
Conservative media outlets have echoed Lankford’s concern. This fall, a Wall Street Journal op-ed bemoaned “the MAGA right’s antisemitism problem.” Conservative columnist Rod Dreher wrote that rightwing antisemitism “is not going to burn out on its own; it must be stopped.” World reported on a “conservative rift over anti-Semitism.”
Others are more cautious in their assessment of how far antisemitism has infiltrated the political right. Yet evangelical commentators agree that followers of Jesus must stem the tide.
‘High-profile’ antisemitism
Discussion of anti-Jewish prejudice came to the fore following the appearance of far-right political commentator Nick Fuentes on conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s podcast. Fuentes bemoaned the influence of “organized Jewry in America” while also claiming there is “no harbor for cruelty, hatred [or] prejudice” in the nation.
Controversy erupted at the conservative thinktank The Heritage Foundation after the organization’s president, Kevin Roberts, defended Carlson for interviewing Fuentes. Roberts later denounced antisemitism. Still, the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism disaffiliated with Heritage amid the episode.
Following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk this fall, Gateway Seminary President Adam Groza denounced “anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” about Kirk’s death circulating online. “Centuries-old anti-Semitic conspiracies” are “spreading online with alarming speed and ease,” he wrote in a BP column, “including (and sadly) among Christians.”
Other alleged conservative purveyors of anti-Jewish rhetoric include rapper Kanye West and podcaster Candace Owens, World reported.
Antisemitism on college campuses has surged to record levels, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation Leage, an organization that documents and combats anti-Jewish prejudice. Anti-Israel incidents of assault, vandalism, harassment and protest increased 628 percent between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024. The incidents “included both blatant acts of antisemitism, as well as anti-Israel activity, which is not always antisemitic.”
Does the flurry of political analysis on antisemitism mean is it a fundamentally political issue? Absolutely not, says Gary Hollingsworth, interim president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC).
“There have been some very high-profile examples of antisemitism on the right wing of our political spectrum recently, but let’s not forget that the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish protests on college campuses in 2024 came from the left-wing of the political spectrum,” Hollingsworth said. “This is not a right-left issue, but ultimately a sin issue.”
He cited FBI statistics stating that anti-Jewish hate crimes increased 63 percent in the U.S. from 2023-2024, and that one third of American Jews reported being personally targeted by antisemitism in the past year.
“There seem to be waves of antisemitism throughout history,” Hollingsworth said, “and unfortunately, we may be at a crest of one of those waves right now. How much of that is right-wing antisemitism versus left-wing antisemitism is impossible to tell. Regardless, Southern Baptists should oppose it – as they always have.”
A spiritual problem
Ric Worshill, president of the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship, has not seen anti-Jewish prejudice concentrated on the political right. But wherever it appears, he said, antisemitism is a spiritual problem. Satan “wants to kill and destroy anyone who has a relationship with the Lord God of Abraham.”
Among the most intense hatred of Jews in recent memory occurred when the terrorist organization Hamas murdered hundreds of Jews in its Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against Israel, Worshill said. Yet antisemitism rages in America’s cities too.
“You go into some places in the inner city, and you cannot be an orthodox Jew and walk down the street without getting attacked in some way, shape or form,” he said. “It’s getting so obvious and so prominent.”
In Christian circles, Worshill claimed, replacement theology makes the ground fertile for antisemitism. Replacement theology is the notion that, under the New Covenant, followers of Jesus have replaced Israel as God’s chosen people. Lankford, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, agreed with Worshill’s assessment.
“God is the defender of Israel, and God is the defender of the Jews, and that is always His people,” Lankford told Baptist Press. “That promise never ends.” Replacement theology “is a real threat” because some might think that “if God’s blessing is removed, then maybe these are bad people and antisemitism is OK.”
Yet Lankford acknowledged there are grounds for all Christians to oppose antisemitism, regardless of their view of the relationship between Israel and the Church. Israel is a strong U.S. partner for national security and economic prosperity, he said.
“People’s iPhones do not work without Israeli technology,” Lankford said.
Southern Baptists articulated theological grounds for all Christians to support Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, releasing an “Evangelical Statement in Support of Israel.” The dignity of all people, God’s love for all people and His offer of salvation to all preclude antisemitism, according to the statement.
“While our theological perspectives on Israel and the Church may vary,” stated the more than 2,000 signatories, “we are unified in calling attacks against Jewish people especially troubling as they have been often targeted by their neighbors since God called them as His people in the days of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3).”
The SBC has expressed support for Israel in resolutions dating from 1873-2024. SBC messengers in 2024 echoed the language of the Evangelical Statement in Support of Israel, expressing unified abhorrence at antisemitism.
Messengers stated in an 1873 resolution that they “gratefully remember[ed] this day our unspeakable indebtedness to the seed of Abraham, and devoutly recognize[d] their peculiar claims upon the sympathies and prayers of all Gentile Christians.”
A Gospel solution
Pastor and theologian Baruch Maoz, who is Jewish by ethnicity and Reformed in theology, claims antisemitism goes hand in glove with rejection of the Gospel.
“Anti-Semitism is probably a sublimated form of a rejection of Christ, who is described in the New Testament, not only as the messiah promised and come to Israel, but as being himself Jewish,” Maoz wrote in his essay “Anti-Semitism, the Death of Jesus and the Jewish People.” “Anti-Semitism is the guise under which a large part of the Western world has chosen to reject the God of Israel.”
Individual churches can combat antisemitism by loving and sharing the Gospel with their Jewish neighbors, Worshill said.
“Come around those communities of Jewish people and be supportive of them,” he said. “Most of them really want to seek God’s face. They just don’t know who the Messiah is because they have been told that Jesus is not the Messiah and that if they follow Him, they are following a foreign god.”
Back in Washington, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, says addressing antisemitism on the political right is more urgent than some may realize. If unabated, the same anti-Jewish sentiment that has spread among many on the far left could infect the right.
“In the last six months I’ve seen more anti-Semitism on the right than at any time in my life,” Cruz said. “And I believe Republicans and conservatives have an obligation to stand up and speak out against it, or the same thing that happened to the Democrat Party can happen to ours.”
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