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(JNS) — A prominent American evangelical leader said Thursday that the faith-based Christian community needs to take a more verbal stand against antisemitism, and “shut down” people like the right-wing political commentators Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson who feed hatred of Jews and Israel.
The unequivocal remarks come at a time when polls show a drop in support for Israel among young evangelicals due to the fallout from the two-year war in Gaza and follow last month’s assassination of the American conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was a major advocate for Israel.
“We need to be more verbal and take a more open stand against antisemitism, shutting down people like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson who call themselves Christians and whose strategy is to divide the Christian community from standing with Israel,” Pastor Larry Huch, founder and senior pastor of the Dallas-based New Beginnings Church, told JNS in an interview in Jerusalem. “This avalanche of antisemitism has to be stopped now.”
Charlie Kirk’s legacy
The 74-year-old conservative pastor who has won accolades for his staunch support for Israel over the years said he sensed a “great awakening” happening in the United States among young conservatives following Kirk’s assassination which, he opined, coupled with the strong support for Israel voiced by U.S. President Donald Trump during his recent visit to Jerusalem would turn the tide back in favor of Israel among the traditionally supportive conservative evangelical community which makes up the backbone of the Republican party.
“Charlie Kirk was very pro-Israel, no matter what Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens said,” he noted. “Their whole false narrative is backfiring against them,” he added, suggesting that one should follow their financial sponsors.
“The moment the bullet hit Charlie Kirk it didn’t extinguish the light but exploded it into millions of sparks that have hit the souls of people all over the world,” he said. “The devil woke a sleeping giant and a massive army is being raised up for America and for Israel.”
Still, the evangelical leader concurred that Israel’s PR failure during the war, coupled with heavily negative media coverage of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, has shaken even traditional bastions of support for the Jewish state such as the conservative evangelical community.
“We need to very loudly educate the world to defeat the false propaganda against the nation of Israel,” he said. “I know we are pastors, but this is what God has called us to do.”
Huch noted that through his global ministry and seven churches in the United States and Australia, he would speak up “louder than ever before” in both refuting Replacement Theology and working to teach Christians the biblical truth about the Land of Israel, including its history, archaeology and politics.
Outreach to American Jews
The evangelical leader, who said he would be meeting with a group of American Jews in Los Angeles soon following his return from Israel, said it was essential for Jewish community leaders in the United States to join forces in the fight against the world’s oldest hatred, even if they don’t see eye to eye on domestic issues.
“We need to wake up the Jewish community so that they know that millions of Christians stand with you and together we can defeat this darkness called antisemitism,” he said.