CrossPolitic Gets The Call After Sponsored Vacation To Israel

On September 3, 2025, the CrossPolitic hosts Toby Sumpter, Gabe Rench, and David Shannon (“Chocolate Knox”) filmed an episode called “What Should Christians Make of Modern Israel?”. The impetus for this was that Sumpter and Rench had recently traveled to Israel on a trip sponsored by the Herzl Institute. This organization is named for Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. The purpose of these field trips is to provide Zionist talking points to influential American Christians so they might increase support for Israel in the USA.

For the most part, Toby Sumpter was the main speaker out of the two, while Gabe Rench voiced agreement while Toby was talking. The takeaways were broken down into the following:

• Israel is the front line of the war against barbarism (e.g., Islam, LGBTQ).
• There is a conservative resurgence in Israel.
• Love the land.
• Israel needs the gospel and Jesus.

After introducing these talking points, Toby Sumpter covered the history of Israel (broadly) from 70 AD to present. The framing was very clearly from a Zionist perspective, emphasizing the constant presence of at least some Jews in the land as well as their virtue and industriousness. Chocolate Knox mostly just listened during this portion of the episode.

At around the 33:41 mark, Sumpter transitions into talking about his first two talking points regarding Israel’s stand against barbarism and an alleged conservative resurgence. It’s at this point that Chocolate Knox decided to start pushing back. You can hear a representative clip of this exchange on 𝕏, in which Knox’s questioning causes Sumpter’s propaganda to fall apart.

Toby Sumpter expanded on his prior point, asserting that modern Israel acts as the front line defense against anti-Christian and anti-Western barbarism. He argued that Israel’s existence draws Islamic attention and resources, preventing worse incursions into Europe and Britain, and he highlighted a conservative resurgence there, which emphasizes values like hard work, family, honesty, and anti-Islam stances. This resurgence could serve as a model for other Western nations to resist cultural suicide through wokeness, Toby claimed.

Chocolate Knox challenged this view persistently, questioning how Israel serves as a bulwark when similar issues (e.g., Islamic influence) are already rampant in places like Britain, France, Sweden, and even Michigan without Israel falling. He pressed Toby on the mechanics of how Israel’s “Christless conservatism” blocks the spread of Islam into the West, expressed skepticism about the longevity of any kind of secular conservatism (e.g., punishing homosexuality, promoting marriage and equality under law) without a Christ-centered moral foundation, and compared it unfavorably to flawed American conservatism.

Toby responded in turn by emphasizing Israel’s geographic proximity to threats as a key factor, framing their resurgence as a “common grace” exercise of dominion that inspires other countries to fight for their existence. He conceded that true success requires finding Christ but sees the current shift as progress toward that. The exchange remained cordial but pointed, with Knox refusing to let Toby’s points go unchallenged. Toby eventually conceded that the magical resurgence is heading towards Christianity, but the Jews “don’t know that yet.” Yikes.

Ultimately, this exchange highlighted the limitations of Christless conservatism, which is ironically what Moscow has always been against. Chocolate Knox seems to be the last man standing on the Palouse who remains consistent on this issue, and thank God for him. Furthermore, this propaganda session is a stark reminder that we desperately need a class of Christian influencers who will resist the Israeli wine-and-dine timeshare salesmen. Christian nationalism in the USA requires an uncompromising America First perspective with Christ at the forefront, not merely as an afterthought.