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By Bob Smietana

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Older American evangelicals love Israel—but many younger evangelicals simply don’t care, according to a new survey from Nashville-based LifeWay Research.

Three-quarters (77 percent) of evangelicals 65 and older say they support the existence, security and prosperity of Israel. That drops to 58 percent among younger evangelicals, those 18 to 34.

Four in 10 younger evangelicals (41 percent) have no strong views about Israel.

Fewer younger evangelicals (58 percent) have an overall positive perception of Israel than older evangelicals (76 percent).

And they are less sure Israel’s rebirth in 1948 was a good thing.

“For the most part, younger evangelicals are indifferent about Israel,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.

Most evangelicals support Israel

LifeWay Research asked 2,002 Americans with evangelical beliefs about a wide range of issues involving Israel—from its place in the Bible to its treatment of Palestinians. The survey focused on Americans with evangelical beliefs rather than self-identified evangelicals.

Overall, this group was supportive of Israel.

Sixty-seven percent have a positive view of that nation. Nine percent have a negative view. Twenty-four percent are not sure.

One-fourth (24 percent) support the existence, security and prosperity of Israel, no matter what Israel does. Forty-two percent support Israel, but not everything Israel does. One percent do not support Israel. Thirty-two percent have no strong views about Israel.

Few (14 percent) agree when asked whether Israel’s rebirth was an injustice to Arabs in the Middle East. Fifty percent disagree. Thirty-six percent are not sure.

About a quarter (22 percent) say modern Israel has been unfair to Palestinians. Forty-one percent disagree. Thirty-seven percent are not sure.

Younger evangelicals (19 percent) are more likely to see the rebirth of Israel as an injustice. Only 34 percent disagree. Forty-seven percent are not sure.

Among older evangelicals, 9 percent see the rebirth of Israel as an injustice, while 62 percent disagree. Twenty-eight percent are not certain.

Older evangelicals (49 percent) are more likely to disagree that Israel has been unfair to Palestinians. Young evangelicals (32 percent) are less likely.

Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries, which helped underwrite the survey, said he was glad to see that most evangelicals support Israel.

Still, he found the decline of support among younger evangelical believers worrisome.

“I am concerned for the obvious decline in support for Israel among millennial followers of Jesus, who either do not know what they believe or do not seem to care,” he said.

Darrell L. Bock, a board member for Chosen People Ministries and director of cultural engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary, wonders if Israel is on the back burner for many younger evangelicals.

When they think about the Middle East, they’re more likely to think about Iraq or Iran or the impact of terrorism in the world, he said.

“The terror attacks on 9/11 changed the Middle East equation, and young people just aren’t sure where Israel is supposed to fit,” he said.

The Bible plays a big role

Most evangelical believers in the LifeWay Research survey say faith shapes their views on Israel.

Three-quarters (76 percent) say Christians should support the right of the Jewish people to live in the sovereign State of Israel. Five percent disagree. Twenty percent are not sure.

Sixty-nine percent say the Jewish people have a historic right to the land of Israel. Six percent disagree. Twenty-five percent are not sure.

Only 19 percent say Palestinians have a historic right to Israel. Forty-six percent disagree. Thirty-four percent are not sure.

Forty-one percent say Jewish people have a “biblical right” to Israel but have to share it.

Twenty-eight percent disagree. Thirty-one percent are not sure.

African-Americans with evangelical beliefs are least likely (54 percent) to say Jewish people have a “biblical right” to the land of Israel. They are also least likely (50 percent) to have a positive view of Israel.

Among other findings:

• Forty-five percent say the Bible has had the biggest influence on their views of Israel.
• Sixty-three percent say they support Israel primarily because “God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people.”
• Twenty-two percent are not sure if biblical promises about the land of Israel are still in force.
• Eighty percent say God promised the land of Israel to Abraham and his descendants for all time.
• Eighty percent say the rebirth of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

Author Joel C. Rosenberg, who also helped underwrite the survey, said most evangelicals see a connection between the Bible and the modern nation of Israel. But he said he’s worried that’s not the case for younger evangelicals, which could cause evangelical support for Israel to drop in the future.

“Unless the church gives younger believers a healthy, balanced, solidly biblical understanding of God’s love and plan for Israel, overall evangelical support for the Jewish state could very well plummet over the next decade as millennials represent an ever-larger percentage of the overall church body,” Rosenberg said.

Israel and Palestinians

Evangelical believers are uncertain how to resolve differences between Israelis and Palestinians. A quarter (23 percent) say Israel should sign a treaty allowing Palestinians to have a sovereign state in the West Bank and Gaza. Thirty-one percent disagree. Forty-six percent are unsure.

Six in 10 (59 percent) say Christians should do more to love and care for Palestinians. Sixteen percent disagree. Twenty-five percent are not sure.

Among younger evangelicals, two-thirds say Christians need to do more to care for Palestinians. That drops to 54 percent among those 65 and older.

Most evangelical believers (73 percent) agree they are concerned for the safety of Christians in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Five percent disagree. Twenty-two percent are not certain.

Evangelicals are certain God wants the State of Israel to exist, said McConnell. But they think Christian love should include Palestinian people.

“They believe God wants Israel to be there,” he said, “but they also think God cares how the nation of Israel acts.”

Bob Smietana is senior writer for Facts & Trends.

Methodology:
LifeWay Research conducted the study Sept. 20-28, 2017. The study was sponsored by Chosen People Ministries and author Joel C. Rosenberg. The survey was conducted using the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®, a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population. Initially, participants are chosen scientifically by a random selection of telephone numbers and residential addresses. People in selected households are then invited by telephone or by mail to participate in the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®. For those who agree to participate but do not already have internet access, GfK provides at no cost a laptop and ISP connection.

Sample stratification and weights were used for gender by age, ethnicity, region, education and household income to reflect the most recent U.S. Census data. The completed sample is 2,002 surveys. The sample provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 2.7 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

Respondents were screened to include only adults with evangelical beliefs. Evangelical beliefs are defined using the NAE LifeWay Research Evangelical Beliefs Research Definition based on respondent beliefs. Respondents are asked their level of agreement with four separate statements using a four-point, forced-choice scale (strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree). Respondents are categorized as having evangelical beliefs if they strongly agree with all four statements:

• The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.
• It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.
• Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.
• Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.

LifeWay Research is a Nashville-based, evangelical research firm that specializes in surveys about faith in culture and matters that affect churches.

Download the research
Download the Evangelical Attitudes Toward Israel Research Study Report

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The Greater Sydney Commission has highlighted that the future of Sydney will not be centred around the Harbour and the CBD but rather it will be a city of three cities.

The Plan for a Growing Sydney outlines what Sydneysiders are increasingly doing - living, working and connecting within their region of this global city.

The Commission defines these three “30-minute cities” as the Eastern city encompassing the harbour and CBD all the way west to Macquarie Park; the Central city, which runs from there, west to incorporate Blacktown; and the Western City which extends all the way to Penrith and the foothills of the Blue Mountains.

Not only is the Hills district strategically located in the heart of this Central city, but it is one of the few areas in Sydney outside the CBD which is already achieving the goal of “a city with smart jobs”. The Hills district has more than 80,000 local jobs and a population a bit over 160,000 people.

Therefore, it has one local job for every two residents. Compare this to South West Sydney, Southern Sydney and Greater Western Sydney, which each only have one local job for every three residents.

Based on the current growth, by 2037 the Hills district will have increased its population by almost 100,000 people. To keep this impressive local jobs provision ratio, by then it will have to add almost 50,000 new local jobs.

This entrepreneurial hotspot, located close to the geographical and population centre of Sydney, and with the help of the growing number of small businesses, will probably achieve this goal.

Based on the current rise in the number of businesses in the Hills Shire, growing at more than 4% per year, there will be twice as many businesses locally in 20 years than the 20,000 operating here today.

We have been delighted to work with Mulpha recently on the launch of the Norwest City vision.

Twenty years ago, the first stage of Norwest Business Park was just getting underway and Norwest Boulevard did not connect through to Old Windsor Road. 

In twenty years’ time, Western Sydney airport will have been up and running for a decade, Norwest Business Park with the Metro and high-rises will feel a lot like a CBD and the local population will exceed a quarter of a million people.

If the current infrastructure investment and local economy keeps pace, the Hills will achieve all the elements of the Greater Sydney Commission vision to be not only a growing city, but an efficient, resilient, diverse, collaborative and equitable one as well.

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Black Friday is the retail super-day popular in the US and in 2017 it is November 24. It is the day following the Thanksgiving public holiday and in some states it is an additional holiday. 

All of this has combined to make it the unofficial start to the Christmas shopping season, and the biggest single shopping day of the year. 

It has grown significantly over the last decade and last year, more than 100 million Americans went shopping on this one day, ringing up sales exceeding US$50 billion. For many stores, Black Friday and the shopping season launches a revenue boon that pushes revenues into the black, thus the eponymous name.

Without the Thanksgiving marker, or any public holidays, Black Friday is currently not a big event in Australia. In fact this national research we have just conducted shows that less than 1 in 20 Australians (4.7%) are expecting sales, and more than 1 in 4 (27%) have never even heard of it.

40% of Australians say Black Friday doesn’t really happen in Australia and another 39% don’t know.

Most Australians (54%) don’t know whether Black Friday is online only or also in stores.

Cyber Monday, the Monday after Black Friday, popular for online shopping super sales, has even lower awareness in Australia. Considering we are in a global marketplace, used to adopting retail trends from the US, the current low awareness of these sale super-days in Australia may be a surprise. However, the mass engagement with Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US is really only a decade old, and so the years ahead will see a higher profile for these sale days in Australia.

Australians are up for a bargain, whatever the day is called, with 1 in 3 Australians (34%) agreeing that they will definitely be looking out for stores offering discounts. Even without the tradition of these sales, or the associated public holidays, late November presents an ideal opportunity for local retailers to kick start their Christmas sales, and so we can expect to hear more about Black Friday in coming years.

Download the summary report here.

Mark McCrindle in the media

SBS "Will Amazon join Australia's Black Friday party?"

Courier Mail "Black Friday 2017 sales: Australia missing out on best shopping deals because of ignorance"

What do Gen Z aspire to be when they grow up? Social researcher Eliane Miles was recently asked to unpack the latest findings from the Australian Institute on Family Studies on ABC The Drum.

Gender-based career preferences

The research identified there are significant gender differences among Gen Zs aged 14 and 15 when they think about their possible futures. Boys gravitate most towards engineering (14% of those who stated an occupation), information technology (10%), construction (9%), automotive (8%), or sports (6%), while the top five occupations chosen by girls were medical professionals (13%), education professionals (11%), legal (11%), personal services (7%), and performance arts (7%). Just three occupations (health, design, and performance arts) overlapped among both genders when looking at the top ten list.

Girls need more inspiration to move towards STEM

While are naturally career preferences that appeal to each gender (with Eliane’s commentary highlighting that this is strongly linked to parental influence, as shown in our work with the Career Industry Council of Australia), there are challenges that may emerge for women in future-proofing their careers.

We know that Australia’s workforce is at the cusp of significant change. In 2030, the majority of the jobs that we will do (85%, according to Dell Technologies) are not yet invented. Yet 75% of the fastest growing careers require STEM skills – qualifications and skills in science, technology, engineering and maths. As we look across Australia’s educational landscape, just 16% of STEM graduates in our nation are female, highlighting the continuing need to lift the profile of STEM careers for female school-leavers among parents, educators, and media personalities.

Fantasies or a new work order?

There were a disproportionate number of ‘fantasy-type’ occupations listed in the AIFS study, things like ICT (‘games developer’, ‘YouTuber’, and ‘blogger’), sports (professional AFL player), and performing arts (actor, ballet dancer). And, not surprisingly, 41% of young people aged 14 and 15 didn’t have a clue as to what they want to do when they are older.

This uncertainty of the future is to be expected, and not only among Gen Z. In an era of multiple careers, lifelong learning, the gig-economy, in which digital disruption is bringing whole sectors to an end, and new jobs are emerging each year (nanotechnology, virtual reality engineers, user-experience managers, data designers etc.), what will the future of work look like?

Our average length of job tenure is now less than three years, and three in ten workers now work casually or contractually (up from one in ten three decades ago). Today’s school leaver will have multiple jobs (17) across many (5+) careers, and part of their reality on the job is that they will constantly be learning. We all will be. By 2030, workers will be spending at least 30% more time on the job learning.

As the workforce shifts (with 32% of our workforce comprised of Gen Z in a decade’s time), so will our mindsets in regards to careers and the future of work. Yes, Gen Zs will bring idealism and self-assuredness, but they will also bring a new wave of entrepreneurialism that might just be what we need to face disruption and manage change. They, and we all, will need to increase our level of critical thinking, problem solving, and digital skills as we move towards this new reality.

About Eliane Miles

Eliane Miles is a social researcher, business strategist and Director of Research at the internationally recognised McCrindle. From the key demographic transformations such as population growth and the ageing workforce to social trends such as changing household structures and emerging lifestyle expectations, from generational change to the impact of technology, Eliane delivers research based presentations dealing with the big global and national trends. 

If you would like to have Eliane Miles speak at your next event, please feel free to get in touch. 

Download Eliane's full speakers pack here and view her show reel video below.

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