The following is an excerpt from Dr. Jeff Myers’ Daily Wire Op-Ed titled Congratulations America, You’ve Raised A Generation Of Terrorist Sympathizers.
Visit the The Daily Wire to read it in its entirety.
Hats off to the American education system: you’ve raised a generation of terrorist sympathizers who hate Jews.
Worldviews matter. Sympathy with violent terrorists arises out of a radical worldview which rejects truth, insists that America is evil, and asserts that the free-market system is immoral. Is anyone surprised that a generation this untethered from reality might cheer for a terrorist group such as Hamas? As Voltaire said in a very different context, “Surely whoever can get them to believe absurdities can get them to commit atrocities.”
This isn’t new in America. In the 1930s, according to Gallup, the vast majority of Americans deplored the Nazi treatment of Jews. Yet eight in ten opposed giving Jews sanctuary in America and more than half believed that the persecution of Jews was at least partly their own fault.
Meanwhile, Hitler was busy indoctrinating German young people en masse. Failing to win majority support among the populace, Hitler bolstered his power by radicalizing the youth. In just the first year of Nazi dominance, the Hitler Youth grew from 50,000 members to 2 million. That’s about one in five German youth.
One in five youths would only be about five percent of the total population. But history shows that it doesn’t take a majority to destroy a nation. It requires only the activation of an outraged minority and the acquiescence of the rest.
A similar thing happened during Mao’s cultural revolution in China. The youthful Red Guards rose seemingly out of nowhere, sweeping through the streets with a doctrine of destroying the “Four Olds”: old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. They humiliated and murdered those they thought held power, such as teachers and property owners.
No, we don’t see swastika-wearing goose-steppers yet. To understand violent movements, though, you have to look past their uniformity of clothing to the uniformity of beliefs they hold in lockstep.
And that uniformity of belief is growing among Gen Z. Most young adults now believe that absolute truth is not knowable. They embrace cancel culture and are ashamed of America. A rapidly growing number reject religion. They’re primed to accept without question the propaganda of those who wish to overturn Judeo-Christian civilization.
As G.K. Chesterton pointed out, when people stop believing in God it isn’t that they believe nothing, but that they will believe anything.
Some say that violent ideologies can’t take root in America. We’re too smart for that. That’s what they said in Germany. But decades of indoctrination in the anti-God philosophies of Nietzsche, Wagner, and Heidegger eroded their moral decision-making ability. Jews were singled out first for harassment, then persecution, then extinction. It was all very slow, until it wasn’t.
Today’s anti-Jewish bigotry is more than a geopolitical struggle. It is a spiritual battle. Those wishing to attack society’s stability know that they must first attack God. Attacking God means attacking the Judeo-Christian worldview that says that humans have value because of God.
Jews are an ever-present reminder that there is a God and that he has a plan for the world. Every anti-God movement, from Haman in the Old Testament, to the Bolsheviks, to the Nazis, seeks to destroy them.
How do we respond to such a time as this? Parents, educators, and pastors all have a role to play.
Parents must reinforce to their children that every person bears the image of God and that individual violence is never the solution. They must explain how the Judeo-Christian worldview has provided greater political, religious, and economic freedom than any other form of society in human history. Communist, Nazi, and Jihadist ideas always — always — lead to wreck and ruin.
Educators must equip students with thinking skills based on truth and teach the difference between propaganda and persuasion. Persuasion is using ethical arguments to enlighten an audience to the truth. Propaganda is using any arguments — ethical or unethical — to deceive an audience from seeing the truth. Schools that refuse to acknowledge that truth exists should be held accountable. Take your kids out. Stop donating. There will always be thieves who try to steal the minds of the young. But why in God’s name would we bankroll them?
After World War Two, the Jewish community admonished us to “never forget.” We have forgotten. Most of today’s college students weren’t alive on September 11, 2001. They have no visceral reaction against terrorism. Little in our culture encourages them to remember why it is wrong.
It is up to us to replant the seeds of truth once more.
Want a tool to understand the current Israel-Palestine conflict? Whether you’re seeking answers for yourself or looking to discuss the issue with others, Dr. Myers’ new book, Should Christians Support Israel? provides essential insights.