Dr. Mike Evans, a prominent Christian Zionist leader and author of 119 books, has issued a public challenge to Tucker Carlson after the conservative commentator called Christian Zionism a "dangerous heresy" and a "brain virus infecting the church."
Evans, who leads Churches United with Israel, the largest Christian Zionist network in America with over 30 million followers, said he wants to confront Carlson directly about what he describes as dangerous antisemitic rhetoric.
Interview with Mike Evans at the Ynet studio
"Silence gets Jews killed. It happened in the Holocaust," Evans said in an interview. "Jews are not killed in Israel over land. They're killed because they're Jews. Words kill people."
Evans traced his lifelong commitment to defending Jewish people to a traumatic childhood experience with his father, whom he described as an antisemite who believed Evans's mother had an affair with a Jewish man.
"At 11, he strangled me and left me for dead when I tried to defend my Jewish mother," Evans said. "So I know all about professing Christian antisemites. My father was one of them. That inspired me to dedicate my life to defend the Jewish people."
Evans said he previously debated Carlson months ago and believes Carlson lost that debate. He expressed his desire for another public confrontation.
"Tucker Carlson came on recently and said that a demon attacked him and I believe him," Evans said. "I believe there's a demon in him, a demon of Jew hatred that needs to come out of him."
Evans identified Gulf oil money as his primary concern, warning that countries like Qatar are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to undermine support for Israel and the Jewish people.
"We know it already because we've seen the results in university campuses. But now they're moving to AI and they're using algorithms to try to break down our base," he said. "They're targeting our Christian base."
Evans pointed to Carlson's recent interview with Holocaust denier Darryl Cooper, who referred to Holocaust victims as "cookies," as an example of this trend. He noted that 20 million people viewed that video and criticized the Heritage Foundation president for defending Carlson.
4 View gallery
Pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University
(Photo: AP/Stefan Jeremiah)
Evans emphasized the size and potential influence of the Christian Zionist movement, stating that 750 million Bible-believing Christians worldwide identify as Zionists who believe Jewish people have a homeland in Israel.
"We are united. We are going to speak out louder than we've ever spoken," he said. "Our pulpits need to speak louder than the propaganda, and that's what we're about."
Evans credited evangelical Christians with helping Donald Trump win the presidency in 2016, noting that 52 million evangelicals united behind him. He said Trump's pro-Israel policies, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, resulted from evangelical support.
"Everything basically that he did for the state of Israel, he did because of us, us evangelicals," Evans said. "He knows how strongly behind him we are."
Despite the strength of Christian support, Evans criticized Israel's performance in the information war, calling the country "a banana republic when it comes to the media."
"They're losing the ideological war. Hamas has defined the terms of the debate with propaganda and lies," he said.
Evans explained his understanding of Christian Zionism in theological terms, questioning how Christians can follow Jesus while not supporting the Jewish people.
"How can you call yourself a Christian if you don't believe in a Jewish Jesus from Zion? Jesus was Jewish and he was from Israel," he said.
He recalled a conversation with Mother Teresa, saying she told him, "You can't love Jesus without loving the Jewish people, because Jesus is Jewish."
Since October 7 and the war in Gaza, antisemitism has surged globally, particularly on college campuses and in Western nations. Evans sees Christian communities as essential in confronting this hatred.
He argued that the current rise in anti-Jewish sentiment is not primarily about land disputes but about fundamental hatred of Jewish people, making it crucial for Christian leaders to speak out forcefully.
Evans has been a longtime supporter of Israel, conducting multiple campaigns in support of Trump's pro-Israel policies, including one called "Cyrus's Alive" that gained international attention when Trump visited Jerusalem.
The debate Evans seeks with Carlson would place two influential voices in American conservative circles in direct conflict over the role of Christian support for Israel and the nature of antisemitism in contemporary discourse.
Churches United with Israel continues to mobilize evangelical support for the Jewish state, viewing such advocacy as inseparable from Christian faith and identity.