Over a week ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted the need to shore up support amongst their base of American evangelicals. Israel has long been aware that the next generations are no longer Zionists nor premillennial dispensationalists. At the time, they cited the failure to reach the youth through TBN and other televangelist networks that primarily target older audiences, so to target the youth, they are enlisting influencers to their aid. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has been allotted $150 million towards public relations, or hasbara in Hebrew.
Show Faith by Works LLC is one firm that has been contracted by the Israeli Foreign Ministry to oversee an influence campaign targeting American evangelicals. On September 27th, Show Faith filed a registration statement under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). This signifies that they are openly registering as a foreign agent.
Chad Schnitger is the CEO of this LLC. He runs a California chapter of Faith and Freedom Coalition, which is an advocacy group designed to promote libertarian economics and Zionism under the guise of Christianity. Schnitger created Show Faith by Works on August 5th and has experience with geofencing for political purposes. Show Faith by Works has been awarded $3.25 million, with potentially an additional $835K for equipment and resources. They are currently budgeting $1.5 million for staffing, which includes pastoral partners who are yet to be retained.
The influence network works by the Israeli Foreign Ministry funneling money through intermediaries like Havas International, which is a French conglomerate with a media segment that is paying Show Faith by Works to run its targeted ad campaign and distribute pro-Israel materials to pastors. Other intermediaries include Bridge Partners LLC, a firm which also does work on behalf of SPLC; SKDKnickerbocker, a Democrat aligned firm which runs bot farms; and Clock Tower X LLC, a firm registered under FARA and managed by Brad Parscale, a Trump campaign advisor most famous for his involvement in the Cambridge Analytica scandal involving microtargeting in 2016. Bridge Partners is participating in the “Esther Project,” which seeks to pay influencers upwards of $7,000 for TikToks.
Clock Tower X will integrate itself into the Larry Elder Show and other Salem Media pundits. In January, Brad Parscale became the Chief Strategy Officer at Salem Media. They are being paid $6 million from the Israeli Foreign Ministry to manipulate ChatGPT to be more Israel-friendly.
These firms are intermediaries of Havas. Havas is using Parscale and Schnitger for their expertise in microtargeting, but it is the latter who is using these skills on churches.
Targeting Churches
Show Faith by Works discloses its desire for the “largest Geofencing and Christian Targeting campaign in US History.” Geofencing works by using cellular location data to deliver targeted advertisements based on users who are identified within specified locations. In this instance, they are geofencing church buildings and targeting the staff and attendees at these various churches with pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian content.
Notable churches in listed in the disclosures included Gateway Church (formerly Robert Morris), Saddleback Church (Rick Warren/Andy Wood), The Village Church (Matt Chandler), Prestonwood Baptist Church (Jack Graham/Jeremiah Johnston), Dream City Church (church partner of TPUSA), The Potter’s House (Sarah Jakes/TD Jakes), Cornerstone Church San Antonio (John Hagee), Second Baptist Church Houston (Ben Young), Lakewood Church (Joel Osteen), Lakepointe Church (Josh Howerton), Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church (formerly Tony Evans), Bethel Church in Redding (Bill Johnson), Grace Community Church (formerly John MacArthur), Shadow Mountain Community Church (David Jeremiah), and Harvest Christian Fellowship (Greg Laurie). There were numerous Calvary Chapels featured in the list.
In total, they plan to target 303 megachurches with an estimated 3.9 million people being targeted. These megachurches had a reported minimum of 1500 members. Though most of the churches appear to be nondenominational, there were a variety of denominations represented, including the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), United Methodist Church (UMC), Assemblies of God, Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), Vineyard, Evangelical Free Church (EFCA), and even the Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod (LCMS). Their efforts will include Christian colleges too. Many of these churches would already be dispensational in their theology, though they are targeting churches who hold more historic positions.
The Message
The messaging of the campaign breaks down into two key areas: pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian.
The inherent problem with the messaging will be that minorities side with the Palestinians because they view Israel as white oppressors, while whites who oppose Israel loathe their influence in US politics, promotion of degeneracies, and the proliferation of Forever Wars. The rise of Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement coincided with skepticism and regret for the Iraq War, which was directly tied to Israeli and Zionist influence. Even Ben Shapiro has acknowledged other narratives, like the mistreatment of Christians by the Israeli’s. If one sees a video of Christians being mistreated in Israel for trying to preach the gospel beside an advertisement claiming that Israel protects Christians, they will doubtless believe the former over the latter.
Show Faith by Works intends to distribute materials to pastors to “highlight the importance of Israel and the Jewish People to Christians,” which, from the churches they are targeting, appears to bolster support where churches are already theologically aligned. Inherently, they require a conflation of modern Israel with ancient Israel, which are the same arguments that have been trotted out by Ted Cruz and left wanting in the face of criticisms. They further intend to create positive associations with Israel while “linking the Palestinian population with extremist factions.” They intend to distribute “Pastoral Resource Packages” with “Pro-Israel support and educational materials sent to every church” in the American southwest.
Another physical presence they are performing is what they call the Mobile 10/7 Experience, which involves an immersive experience whereby they intend to show “some of the atrocities from 10/7.” This is a mobile tour which will visit various churches and college campuses. This is a media-intensive project that will feature VR headsets and media propaganda.
They also plan to have a physical presence at various events, which they specifically name the annual Southern Baptist Convention, Harvest Festival (Greg Laurie), and G3 Conference (assuming they recover from Buice’s scandal) as events they would seek to bring the 10/7 experience. Now, this is not to say they will have a set-up at either G3 or the SBC, but that they will attempt to have a physical presence at these events.
Celebrity Partners
One of the interesting disclosures was the list of potential partners whom Show Faith by Works seeks to retain. Though they have not formally hired these figures, they have disclosed their desire for a partnership, nevertheless.
They specifically name Chris Pratt, Jon Voight, Tim Tebow, Steph Curry, Clayton Kershaw as celebrity partners and Mark Driscoll, Rick Warren, and Greg Laurie as pastoral partners. Driscoll’s Trinity Church in Scottsdale, AZ was not listed for geo-targeting.
There is also mention of using podcasts as partners in promoting their messaging, but no names as to which podcasts they have an interest in partnering with.
Attempts to curtail this through influencer culture will likely fail and be quickly rooted out as inauthentic, as has already been seen with beverage companies attempting to influence MAGA and pro-India campaigns attempting to influence MAGA against US trade policy. Even Brilyn Hollyhand was rightfully met with great suspicion so attempts to astroturf “Christian” influencers will invariably fail to be perceived as authentic. Apart from Driscoll, most of the celebrities mentioned appeal to older generations. Surprisingly, they did not list musicians or women like Sadie Robertson Huff, who might appeal to younger women, but are unlikely to have sway with young men. Overall, their celebrity partner strategy appears very half-baked at the onset.
Conclusion
Zionism is a dying ideology, and the youth have largely rejected premillennial dispensationalism, whether because they are sympathetic towards the Palestinians, they despise foreign influence in American politics, or because they are taken to more historically rooted eschatologies.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry is going to spend $150 million in various marketing and influencing campaigns to reach the hearts and minds of the West. Show Faith by Works LLC is just one partner among many that are being employed for these efforts. Though they will spend tens of millions to reach Americans, these efforts might ultimately backfire as the very presence of foreign propaganda will be found repugnant to the very people whose minds they seek to change. Marketing campaigns attempting to reverse these trends will ultimately validate arguments of pernicious Israeli influence in American politics.
