{"id":32516,"date":"2026-07-24T09:24:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=32516"},"modified":"2026-07-24T09:24:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:24:32","slug":"nearly-half-of-gen-z-less-likely-to-attend-church-because-of-christian-support-for-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/07\/nearly-half-of-gen-z-less-likely-to-attend-church-because-of-christian-support-for-trump","title":{"rendered":"Nearly Half of Gen Z Less Likely to Attend Church Because of Christian Support For Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_32519\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32519\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/07\/Gen-Z-Church_credit-Adobe-Stock-Inset-White-House.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-32519\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/07\/Gen-Z-Church_credit-Adobe-Stock-Inset-White-House.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32519\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock | Inset: The White House<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The faith habits of Gen Z continue to paint a complex and confusing picture as a recent study reveals that around half of Gen Z may be staying out of church for political reasons. The Billy Graham Center Research Institute <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2026\/07\/20\/half-of-gen-z-says-trump-support-keeps-them-out-of-church\/\">conducted a survey<\/a> of 2,365 Gen Z adults (ages 18-28) through NORC\u2019s AmeriSpeak panel from August 9 to Sept. 26, 2024. Forty-eight percent of respondents agreed in some manner with the statement \u201cChristians\u2019 support of Trump has made me less likely to go to church.\u201d 19% strongly agreed with the statement. Overall, 52% disagreed with the sentiment, with 21% strongly disagreeing.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump\u2019s support from evangelicals, particularly white evangelicals, has long been a pillar of all three of his presidential campaigns. His second term has been highlighted with promises of recommitments to faith in public and the conservation of the United States\u2019s Judeo-Christian values. It has also earned some concern and discussion amongst conservatives and liberal alike about religion\u2019s role in government and avoiding the slippery slope of so-called \u201cChristian nationalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, reports have shown a growing spiritual interest amongst Gen Z individuals, yet their church engagement remains low, something the study\u2019s chief investigator, Rick Richardson at Wheaton College, acknowledged. \u201cWe realized that spiritual interest among Gen Z young adults is quite high but engagement with churches has decreased over time. There has been an upturn recently mainly among men and often with more traditional denominations like Catholicism,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/half-of-gen-z-says-trump-support-keeps-them-out-of-church-study.html\">he told <em>The Christian Post<\/em><\/a>. The research found that political partisanship within a church served as a major demotivator to Gen Z.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, blaming Christian support of Trump for a lack of church attendance could be just a bogeyman, given that Gen Z tends to lean left and a significant share of them identify as having no religion. The data shows that the more an individual leans Democrat, the more strongly support for Trump will keep them from attending church. Seventy-six percent of those who identified as Strong Democrats agreed that Trump support kept them from church while, unsurprisingly, only 25% of those that identified as Republicans said the same. Religious affiliation was also a huge factor, with 72% of those who identified as atheist blaming a perceived association between Trump and Church for why they weren\u2019t attending. The lowest number was amongst Protestants at 30%. However, the study did not explore whether Trump was the only reason certain Gen Z individuals were less likely to attend church. \u201cYoung adults are not looking for churches to agree with them on every issue,\u201d said Richardson. \u201cBut they are looking for churches and pastors to be deeply honest and direct about where they are at and why.\u201d He urged churches to be more transparent and authentic in order to reach the younger generations. \u201cKnowing the why helps young adults trust and reengage again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The faith habits of Gen Z continue to paint a complex and confusing picture as a recent study reveals that around half of Gen Z may be staying out of church for political reasons. The Billy Graham Center Research Institute conducted a survey of 2,365 Gen Z adults (ages 18-28) through NORC\u2019s AmeriSpeak panel from&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":32519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nearly Half of Gen Z Less Likely to Attend Church Because of Christian Support For Trump<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nearly half of Gen Z adults say Christian support for Trump makes them less likely to attend church, according to a recent study.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/07\/nearly-half-of-gen-z-less-likely-to-attend-church-because-of-christian-support-for-trump\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nearly Half of Gen Z Less Likely to Attend Church Because of Christian Support For Trump\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nearly half of Gen Z adults say Christian support for Trump makes them less likely to attend church, according to a recent study.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/07\/nearly-half-of-gen-z-less-likely-to-attend-church-because-of-christian-support-for-trump\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-24T13:24:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta 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