By Filings on
Society & Culture
Gen Z
American Culture
Evangelical Support of Trump

“…has the strong alliance between Christians and Donald Trump actually pushed some people out of church? We now have data to answer this question with a great deal of specificity among those who would be the future of the church” - Ryan Burge

Discussion

Fri, 07/24/26

dgszweda wrote: If a young person were to visit the church and to hear that prayer for the first time, they would tag the church as a Christian Nationalist church, because from the pulpit they are stating that the US is a special blessed nation by God, which is one of the very core tenants of Christian Nationalism. They would further see the flags at the front of the church auditorium and further tag this as a dog whistle for the kind of theology the church is based on.

What if they heard that prayer but didn't see the American flag?

I can't change my brother's perspective on America.

I guess we're doomed to not have GenZ folks attend our church until this elder dies.

Except, we do have a lot of young folks and young families attending our church...

Fri, 07/24/26

If a church deliberately fronts patriotism and Trumpism aggressively, I can see why it would drive younger people away. It would drive ME away!

But, I suspect most solid churches are not shilling for Trumpism in a grotesque way, and likely advocate patriotism as a consequence of God’s blessing.

So, I guess it depends. This data needs to be interpreted to be used. I’m just not willing to pay to have Ryan Burge interpret it for me! 🤣

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

Wed, 07/29/26

T Howard wrote:

dgszweda wrote: If a young person were to visit the church and to hear that prayer for the first time, they would tag the church as a Christian Nationalist church, because from the pulpit they are stating that the US is a special blessed nation by God, which is one of the very core tenants of Christian Nationalism. They would further see the flags at the front of the church auditorium and further tag this as a dog whistle for the kind of theology the church is based on.

What if they heard that prayer but didn't see the American flag?

I can't change my brother's perspective on America.

I guess we're doomed to not have GenZ folks attend our church until this elder dies.

Except, we do have a lot of young folks and young families attending our church...

I don't think the flag matters. It is what he said. Definitely not saying that you won't get young people into your church. Just that in general GenZ is more attuned and concerned about this. I am not sure, but I am making the assumption that the prayer also made you "cringe" a bit. Obviously a generation more attuned to this and visiting for the first time and hearing this will paint a picture in their mind. Of course, there are GenZ people who are full blown MAGA, Christian Nationalist, White Supremacists and all kinds of other flavors that may appreciate this more. And then of course there are those GenZ people who don't focus on one particular thing and are okay with shrugging certain things off because their priorities are different or broader, and this type of thing doesn't bother them.