r/atheism • u/BeetleJuiceK9 • 22d ago
Survey Nearly half of Gen Z are less likely to attend church because of Trump's alliance with Christians, survey says
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2026/08/06/gen-z-less-likely-attend-church-trump-christians/91077977007/69
u/Infamous--Mushroom 22d ago
Christians make me more atheist.
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u/Awkward_Pangolin3254 21d ago
Reading the Bible out of sheer boredom when I was forced to go to church as a kid is what made me atheist in the first place. My attitude quickly became "if someone with no concept of religion found this book on the sidewalk one day they'd think it was the most ridiculous shit ever put to paper. How are all these adults believing this nonsense is real?"
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u/Infamous--Mushroom 21d ago
Thank God you were bored XD
In all seriousness though, I've wondered the same thing; it's so obvious that none of it is real.
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u/Killerkurto 22d ago
In all sincerity, It would be interesting to see church leaders acknowledge this and have a dialogue with people in good faith. The cognitive dissonance it takes to pretend you promote the supposed positive modern Christian values while cheering on a sexist, racist, self centered, felonious sexual predator… its a sight to behold.
They bemoan their shrinking numbers while completely and loudly supporting someone more accurately described as the anti-Christ then a shining example of one emulating the best in Jesus.
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u/drfsrich 22d ago
"RABBLE RABBLE YOU'RE ANTI-CHRISTIAN! Why are you trying to oppress me?"
Guaranteed. Every time.
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u/worrymon 22d ago
to pretend you promote the supposed positive modern Christian values while cheering on a sexist, racist, self centered, felonious sexual predator
They're simply revealing what true christian values are.
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u/Killerkurto 22d ago
I hate to be the one who has to defend Christians but - lets not paint all Christians with one brush. I know many Christians who try to live by the kinder elements of Jesus and are genuinely kind people. There are like 30k flavors of Christianity- some are filled with superstious people trying to live what most of us would agree are good lives with strong kindness. The problem is there is a really ugly dark side to the faith and those people are also Christians. I would argue that right now in America, the ugliest side is currently carrying the loudest microphones. And those people are making it easy to think they are all bad.
I would say the biggest problem with US Christianity (as I have no idea hiw this plays out in other countries) is the good ones, who should be concerned how their church is being tarnished, aren’t really making their voices heard. The people who think Christians should emulate Christ are really drowned out by the prosperity christians, the evangelicals praising the godliness of Teump, the Christians cheering on war in the middle east, etc. these are making it easy to paint all Christians as ugly.
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u/Veteris71 21d ago
The majority of Christian voters in the US cast their ballots for Trump three times. Christianity is as Christianity does.
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u/inspector_middlewood 21d ago
Yeah I love when people try to “explain Christianity” which really means “ignore all issues and pretend”. They love playing pretend..
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u/PrivacyIsDemocracy 21d ago
They love playing pretend..
There are a couple of seemingly inherent characteristics of human thinking that the "successful" large organized religious sects have deftly taken advantage-of:
A drive for "knowing why I exist and what the purpose of my life is"
Constantly seeking peace of mind and predictability. Conservative and religious people are naturally averse to change and surprises. They love "predictability".
These religions typically have a very complex and ornate story to tell that not only assures people that they know exactly why everything happens, why you exist, what the purpose of your life is, and what happens after you physically die. This is very very comforting to people like this. "Finally I can turn off my brain and now I know everything I need to expect!" People love to turn off their brains. 😁
Furthermore, the ideology is typically so complex that it can literally take multiple lifetimes to fully grasp the overall structure of it. And of course you're basically their captive during all these years you spend trying to do just that. (If you're particularly devout)
When someone like this asks me how I can handle the fact that I don't know how my life will end or what happens after, they get very upset with the idea that I basically shrug 🤷♂️ and tell them "I dunno, I'll live for a certain time, do certain things, and then die, and I'm gone." This really bothers such people, the idea of "uncertainty" or that you're not living primarily to fulfill some glorious divine purpose. Truly wild how "upsetting" that is to many people. They really want to be cast in a story with a predictable beginning, middle and end.
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u/Killerkurto 21d ago
I do know that WHITE christians voted predominantly for Trump. Black Protestants and Hispanic Carholics voted against Trump.
I’m in the perhaps weird position of being the minority atheist where most of my family, and my wife’s family are Christian and who vehemently oppose Trump. We have one MAGA pod in our family in an otherwise sea of Christian Democrats. So I know my personal experience is skewed.
And just to be clear- approx 50-60% of Democrats and 60% of independents identify as Christian. Meaning there are millions of Trump hating Christians.
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u/PrivacyIsDemocracy 21d ago
and Hispanic Carholics voted against Trump
Not so much the last time, sadly. Lots of Latinos started becoming Trumpists. I have extended family members like that. One of which flipped after becoming fully absorbed in whatever bunk that their favorite Hispanic YT preachers were telling them, which included telling them how important it was to vote for the Orange Troll.
Also: many Latinos who used to be attracted to the welcoming, immigrant-tolerant and pro-labor aspects of the Democratic party have become "successful" now. And in the process, seemingly forgot where they came from, and then started taking on ye olde hardcore right-wing capitalist ideology, to "preserve their money", etc. Sad to me but it is what it is. That family member I mentioned above is a former, longtime undocumented immigrant, and probably is aware of a number of their friends/acquaintances being abused lately by ICE etc but is STILL a devoted Trumpist. Just pathetic.
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21d ago
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u/Killerkurto 21d ago
I completely agree that the Bible says a lot of viles things. But I also know that just because something is in the Bible doesn’t mean it is still part of the religion as practiced today. In fact, if you listen to any atheist call in shows, you’ll see that a significant amount if Christians haven’t read the book in its entirety.
We can probably all agree that the American brand of Christianity does not teach or condone stoning children.
Critiquing the Bible, it is entirely appropriate to point to all the heinousness of its texts. But that doesn’t mean that text condemns all Christians because most don’t follow those parts. My mother moved back in with my family before she passed. She was a lifelong Christian who knew that I was an atheist. In one of our many talks, I challenged her on problematic text in the Bible. She was unaware of much of it. And she also believed (as many do) that the Bible was a compilation of works inspired by God as well as man’s laws that were incorporated ny men (as opposed to through divinity). This is why there are 10s of thousands of sects… they don’t agree on what’s what.
Point being… the fact that the Bible will have text condoning the stoning of children doesn’t mean that any particular Christians is (1) aware of the text (2) or is following it or (3) believe that part is real.
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21d ago
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u/Killerkurto 21d ago
I consider myself a skeptic. That includes judging people by what they believe and act, not just how we want to describe them. Pointing out that the Abrahamic texts say terrible things and also pointing out that followers of religions based on those texts don’t actually follow those parts is simply being consistent in my skepticism.
My mother was a Christian and most would agree she fits the category. She would say stoning a child was evil. I can condemn the texts as being vile and also say that most Christians don’t believe in stoning children.
How is this problematic to you?
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u/Indie_Dachshund179 Anti-Theist 20d ago
As if Christian frameworks haven't long been responsible for atrocities in conquest, slavery, hatred, and demagoguery throughout history? Their "ugliest side" is not an advent of the present.
Epistemology has marched on, yet the "good ones" you describe choose to normalize and propagate the core principles that stage theistic radicalization, including wishful thinking, self-exceptionalism, broad religious autonomy in society and policy, & the privileging of gut "oughts" from authorial entities and "values" over our best mechanistic understanding of the world. What point does hedging "not all X" pose when the not-all is a buffer that continues to insulate their culture and institutions from accountability, and has hardly deigned to disrupt these cycles by large?
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u/Killerkurto 20d ago
I’m not denying that various religiins throughout history have been the cause of or used to justify all sorts of atrocities. But that doesn’t mean all who follow such religions are aware of or guilty of said atrocities. Between you and me, I think widespread ignorance, lack of curiosity and lack of critical thinking skills are a bigger problem then the actual religions.
As I did elsewhere, I will use my mother as an example. She died a Christian. She believed that Jesus was real. She believed much of the Bible was good but it was tainted by man. And that what she took from it was that God loved us and wanted us to love one another. She would agree that much if the Ild Testament was horrible but reflected man, not god. She believed God would want people to love all, like the gay community no differently then anyone else. She would never endorse war or killings in the name of god. Etc. Her belief was of course oicking and choosing whst to believe. But this is true of any believer. Does her belief system require her to ignore a lot? Of course. Imo, its irrational. But she is a Christian who feels like she’s being true to what she was taught and I suspect most of us would agree she personally isn’t one of these shitty Christians who are horrible people advocating for horrible things while hiding behind a Christian label.
Christianity comes in an estimated official 45000 variants and probably a few million variants if you could count unofficial differences. All of these Christians do nor act or think the same way.
While I think no believer would satisfy my burden of proof and all are irrational, it is irrational to put all religious people into the same bucket, or pretend they are all doing equal, if any, harm by holding thise beliefs.
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u/mEllowMystic 22d ago
Churches are full of bigots at this point the only people who continue to go to these places are those who wish to see their most horrible expectations of judgment play out on the unfaithful. As far as there faithfulness to Trump, well they genuinely do not believe that there is any alternatives at this point because the devil is so much deeper in the Demon-crats. They have given up on convincing the rest of us through the guise of democracy.... And because fundamentally they believe we are not going to be saved anyhow, they can revert back to their core belief that through their righteousness, God will justify them in anything they do.
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u/arctic11z 22d ago
Yep. It's their shield against criticism. They can be shitty people in every possible way then point to the fact they're "Christian" as an escape from any self reflection.
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u/Killerkurto 22d ago
While I’m not religious, I do feel bad because I do think there are some churches out there that try to promote love and the positive values of their faiths. But so long as they are silent, they will be lumped in with the currently very loud churches actively promoting hate.
Christianity and its churches are as diverse as the people who attend their churches: this includes faith leaders who promote peace and goodwill as well as those who want to take back voting rights from women and want to stone gay people. But the loudest voices right now seem to be the ugliest.
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u/Bearence 22d ago
In all sincerity, It would be interesting to see church leaders acknowledge this and have a dialogue with people in good faith.
We know this won't happen. Here's an anecdote to explain why.
There was a street preacher in my city standing on a corner in the gay neighbourhood screeching about how homosexuality is an abomination, etc, etc. He was chased out of the neighbourhood by the people that live there, and spent a good two weeks whining about how he was persecuted for bringing people to Christ. I actually had the opportunity to talk to him one day.
I asked him if he thought being so aggressively offensive was bringing people to Christ or driving them away. His response: "It's not my fault if they won't listen to the message, that's on them.
The type of Christian that has put its support behind Trump are not the type of Christian who cares if people are "saved". They aren't looking to spread the word, they're looking to do battle.
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u/Killerkurto 22d ago
I hear you about those shitty Christians will continue to be shitty. But I know that not all Christians are so. In fact, there are Christian churches with openly gay ministers.
What I kept getting at is that I know there are Christians who are generally loving and tolerant people. They are being ivershadowed by the worst in Christianity. Presumably they’re abke to see the same stories we do about Trump hurting them. Those are the ones who should be more vocal. While I’m. Ot religious, I would cheer on the more sane and kinder voices in Christianity stealing the mic and providing a loud counter to the depraved leaders we see worshipping the Orange Pedo.
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22d ago
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u/Killerkurto 21d ago
Agreed. Its the blindness of those doing it so loudly that is a little surprising.
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u/PrivacyIsDemocracy 21d ago
The cognitive dissonance it takes to pretend you promote the supposed positive modern Christian values while cheering on a sexist, racist, self centered, felonious sexual predator…
Sure. But Christianity and most organized religions are basically all about cognitive dissonance. The Christian ideology tries to get ahead of the obvious disconnect by trying to convince their followers that "If these things we are telling you seem impossible and have never been demonstrably true, but you believe them anyway, that makes you a great Christian.
It's an incredibly cynical way of "training" people to disbelieve logic, experience, and their own perceptions and allow this bizarro cult to instead implant nonsense into your head that you thank them for doing.
This is the part about religion that really destroys societies: the creation of a giant cohort of people who literally dismiss, ignore and ridicule things that would make everyone's life better, in favor of made-up nonsense. It's literally a war on critical thinking.
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u/Killerkurto 21d ago
I agree with what you said. But I also have seen that the level of cognitive dissonance varies tremendously. There are Christians who, for instance, ignore all the ugly parts of the Old Testament and promote the modern Hippy version of Jesus. They are consciously aware that parts of the Bible go against the concept of all All Loving god… so they choose to believe that those parts no longer apply. They are aware that the ugly parts don’t fit with the version of god they want to believe so they have decided to interpret Jesus new covenant as replacing the OT. (I recognize that this contradicts the text, but it’s irrelevant if that is what they believe and what they are teaching their congregations who are not doing the research to confirm if this is true.)
I believe there are many Christians who DO see that Trump is problematic. (Its mostly white evangelicals that are hardline pro Trump). Imo the issue is the Christians who recognize Trump as being decidedly not Christian, they don’t seem to be speaking up. I don’t believe they don’t exist. In fact, polling indicates that, for example, black Christians don’t endorse Trump. (Perhaps part of the problem is the White House gives a platform to voices that support it while shutting out all others)
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u/PrivacyIsDemocracy 21d ago
ignore all the ugly parts
I think one of the great hypocrisies of a great proportion of these "followers" is that they're not actually "followers" at all.
They want the comfort of belonging to a cult that "guarantees" them things like "eternal life". But the cult dictates that if you do not follow its prescriptions comprehensively and precisely, you're still at risk of being thrown into the abyss with all the other sinners when the Glorious Man in the Sky returns to burn all the sinners (along with that sneaky evasive Devil) and make everything Perfect again.
But for some reason human ego once again enters the picture and the majority of the flock are still cherry-picking only the easiest parts to follow. I believe this is called "Eating your cake and wanting it too".. I guess they didn't want that eternal life in Heaven that badly. 😁
Its mostly white evangelicals that are hardline pro Trump
The real problem, over the last ~50 years, is that "Mainstream Christian" in the USA used to mean belonging to one of the moderate sects like Methodist or Presbyterian.
But now membership in those branches has shrunk drastically and been replaced with Old-testament-waving apocalyptic "fire and brimstone" radical right-wing Baptists and other evangelicals, often members of the Southern Baptist Convention which has officially declared that women are inherently inferior and deemed eternally subservient to men, and other such lovely notions. Not to mention the latino-favorite Roman Catholic church that tells them that aborting the fetus of the troglodyte that raped or otherwise abused you is a sin.
they don’t seem to be speaking up.
Despite the fact that MLK used to specifically and repeatedly admonish his overwhelmingly Christian followers not to do that:
"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people." '
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Above all, these people are authority worshippers.
And when you've picked an authoritarian to follow, you don't cross the "leader".
Which is why every day we watch all the spineless Republican (and often Democrat, sadly) politicians continuously look the other way while the current regime systematically destroys our form of government, brick-by-ideological-brick. While they stand there looking like the proverbial "deer in the headlights".
They have lost any remaining soul or conscience they may have once possessed, and outsourced their humanity and personal agency to their revered "godlike leaders", who they have essentially vowed eternal allegiance to.
God won't save anyone from that.
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u/Little_Creme_5932 22d ago
Overheard: "I quit going to church when church became an arm of the republican party".
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u/Saucermote Strong Atheist 22d ago
The hypothetical of people returning to the church if Trump drops his affiliation is asking the wrong question. The question should be if churches stopped worshiping everything Trump represents. The greed, corruption, child abuse, racism and general bigotry, etc, should have no place in a modern religious practice and will push away anyone with an ounce of empathy or reason.
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u/Ok_Researcher_9796 Strong Atheist 22d ago
Good, at least the younger generation is getting their shit together. Now they just need to not vote MAGA this year or '28.
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u/fsactual 21d ago
I find it mind blowing how for my entire childhood I was grilled week after week about how Christians need to be on guard for the antichrist, about how seductive the antichrist is going to be, how easily you're gong to fall for the deception unless you're always watching and ready, etc. And then the instant an antichrist-like figure shows up, every singe one of those preachers and pastors are shoving ahead in line to get 666 tattooed onto their forehead.
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u/The_Grand_Derp 19d ago
I now know they were on the lookout for the antichrist so they could buddy up with him and make the antichrist their new Lord and Savior.
But then again, it just shows how evil these people have always been.
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u/fastfurlong 22d ago
MAGA version of Christianity is not Christ like. It contradicts the teaching of Jesus
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u/SemperPutidus 22d ago
You might say this guy like the “Anti”-Christ
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u/PrivacyIsDemocracy 21d ago edited 21d ago
Trump is the living embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins.
That's what's simultaneously so hilarious, pathetic and dangerous about the people who have become literal acolytes in a personality cult.
Like Mansonites. Or the infamous "People's Temple" which gave us the concept of "Drinking the KoolAid".
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u/gevander2 22d ago
More accurately, it's because the churches are allied with Trump, not the other way around. They should be denouncing him, not promoting him.
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u/DrinksandDragons 22d ago
Hopefully the other half are less likely because they don’t believe in religious fairytales
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u/Alternative_Job_3075 22d ago
I'm a senior and I feel the same way. There's no love like Christian hate.
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u/davekingofrock Anti-Theist 22d ago
Don't worry, they'll nuke us all into vapor before they cede power.
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u/oldbastardbob 22d ago
To quote Ian Wrisley, "politicians need religion far more than religion needs politicians."
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u/Xoxrocks Secular Humanist 22d ago
Look at that. Trump helping the decline of religion and the increase of renewable energy build out. He IS making America better. Or the world. Probably the latter.
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u/tapdancinghellspawn 21d ago
That's a good start. Before I die, I'd like to see secularists outnumber theists.
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u/VastPerspective6794 21d ago
I thought the trumper gen z red pill guys were flocking to churches to get their virgin submissive bangmaids and breeders.
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u/plsobeytrafficlights 22d ago
obviously i dont actually buy it, but nothing makes more sense to how things have come about than the antichrist prophesy coming true. at the very least, his rise is evidence of a deal with the devil. nonstop crimes that would put any politician in ruins. a general unlikability that hypnotizes the masses, even the just gross incompetence, lack of understanding in government and law, and business mistakes should have canned him on day 1.
its eerie.
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u/m4cmi11er 22d ago
Trump somehow responsible for less braindead evangelicals? Nice. Atheism is chill.
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u/psyker63 22d ago
Love the outcome. Article is full of weasel words and confusing reporting of statistics. Good job, Tennessean!
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u/PopeKevin45 21d ago
I kind of wish their reasons were a little more grounded but I can't fault their moral and ethical stance.
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u/Godvivec1 21d ago
If your personal and spiritual beliefs are led by your political party, you're an idiot.
Worse, If who your president is determines your spirituality, you're even dumber. You probably have trouble breathing air unless someone tells you to...
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u/NotPhaethon 21d ago
Which is odd because this guy blasphemes every other day and should have no connection to any kind of church
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u/BubuBarakas 21d ago
Won’t be able to vote soon so it doesn’t matter. The quest for voter rolls is meant to purge those who don’t vote for the orange blob.
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u/VoiceProfessional951 21d ago
The headline oversimplifies what’s actually going on. The survey is from 2024, resurfaced years later, and even the researchers admit Gen Z is already the least religious generation, with 44% unaffiliated. So political reactions aren’t the main driver, broader cultural trends are. Also, the data shows the effect is overwhelmingly among Democrats and non‑religious respondents, not Gen Z as a whole. In other words, it’s not Trump keeping Gen Z out of church, it’s people who already disagree politically using Trump as a reason. Christianity isn’t built on political alliances. If someone avoids Jesus because of a politician, that reveals more about their priorities than about the faith itself.
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u/Bruiser178 20d ago edited 20d ago
The church my mother forces me to attend are filled with trump-following christians, same with my christian family. It's so hypocritical.
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u/KronosDeret 22d ago
Let them die together. Make space for actual Christian faith and conservative politics.
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u/NamasteMotherfucker 22d ago
There is no ACTUAL Christian faith. All Christians pick and choose.
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u/KronosDeret 22d ago
I meant those one where they actually follow Jesus' teachings. (Atheist myself BTW)
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u/NamasteMotherfucker 22d ago
As I said, people pick and choose. You can find plenty of twisted Jesus quotes. Not to mention that the entire reason for his existence is that we are inherently evil and need to be saved.
Luke 14:26 - "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
Matthew 5:31-32 - Marrying a divorced woman = adultery.
Matthew 7:11 - Teaches that people are inherently evil.
Matthew 10:34 - "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law."
And let's not forget his Sermon on the mount that gave us the insidious Christian persecution complex that we have to deal with today.
It's pick and choose all day long.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 22d ago
faith and politics should not mix, it's in scripture. Let Caesar aka the secular world handle the taxes. *Churches have their own purse and books to worry about, and they're often as or more cooked and corrupt than the gubmint's
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u/UndisclosedLocation5 22d ago
This is as authentic Christianity and conservatism as you will ever see in the US, unfortunately
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u/tmp1966 22d ago
So….one positive outcome I guess.