Gen Z Christians are creating their own playbook when it comes to the intersection of faith and politics.
Whether they are becoming more cynical about party politics or finding hope in the power of political change, this generation sees itself branching out beyond the issues that have long driven the Christian Right.
Younger believers are quicker to name creation care, prison reform and immigration as the political causes most influenced by their faith than abortion or sexuality. But even those seeking to get involved in politics do not align so closely with the two major parties in the US and are not enthusiastic about the prospects for 2024.
At Calvin University, Micah J. Watson has noticed a change among students.
“I think there’s been a fatigue among Gen Z in some of the ways their parents and grandparents did politics in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s,” said Watson, associate professor and director of politics , philosophy and economics. program. “Some of the culture war practices were seen as problematic.”
For young Christians who have the chance to vote in their first presidential election next year, the milestone comes with trepidation, knowing the political polarization that surrounded the 2016 and 2020 races.
“Having gone through COVID and the Trump and Biden elections, students have seen parental relationships fall apart,” Watson said, “and there’s a fear of speaking out and being invalidated.”
Growing up, Rachel Smith remembers her mother decorating the family car with political bumper stickers to reflect both their party affiliation and their Christian values. But Smith, now a sophomore at Wheaton College, doesn’t want to cover her car with candidate names and slogans.
She has not voted in the past but, looking at the political landscape today, she does not believe that only one party or person represents the principles of her faith.
“While I’ve always seen how the Democrats got it wrong — and I still think they’re wrong about a lot of things — as I’ve gotten older and done more research, I’ve seen how the Republicans got it really wrong, too,” he said. Smith, a psychology major and cabinet member of the International Justice Mission Campus chapter. “I’ve felt closer to God because my views are not dictated by what’s important to a party, but what’s important to God.”
Smith is among the roughly half of Gen Z adults who don’t identify with either party in a new American Enterprise Institute (AEI) survey..
Gen Z and millennials grew up with the greatest skepticism of politicians. more than six in ten said they did not see political leaders as trustworthy during their prime, while the vast majority of Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation looked to politicians to do the right thing.
Daniel Cox, director of AEI’s Center for Research on American Life, says members of Gen Z — born between 1997 and 2012 — are surrounded by high levels of cynicism and low levels of trust in America’s political leaders.
“People came of age when they didn’t believe there were adults in the room handling these big issues and important threats in ways that were effective,” he said.
For many in Gen Z, their teenage years were filled with high school active shooter drills and seismic political events like the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. They saw the former president go through two impeachment investigations, one on charges of inciting rebellion.
The political landscape during Gen Z’s youth has led many to question whether politics is a meaningful arena for change or a “necessary evil.”
Ahead of the 2024 race, Jasmine Chan, a junior political science major at Pepperdine University, already realizes that her first vote for president won’t go to a candidate she’s excited about or lives up to her expectations for high office.
“I think Gen Z does a good job of pointing out that we shouldn’t just focus on two political parties, but … that’s the reality we live in,” he said. “It’s hard to be optimistic in times like these, but there’s not much we can do about it now.”
According to AEI, even though pessimism in politics has become ubiquitous, young people remain optimistic about their lives: 70 percent of Gen Z adults say their best days are ahead of them.
While constant exposure to political content on social media and increasing polarization has proven overwhelming for some Gen Z Christians, others have felt fired up with a passion for politics.
“Governments are arguably the most powerful institutions we have, and being a good steward of them is important,” said Rosalind Niemeier, senior fellow at Calvin. “We can help people through politics and international relations. We can leave net positives in people’s lives.”
Niemeier majored in international relations and Spanish and is the president of the school’s Political Dialogue and Action Club. He sees an “aversion to politics” on campus and wants people to get involved with the club for the sake of promoting civic dialogue and ethics.
But even she has to fight her cynicism or disillusionment with the political situation.
“We’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Niemeyer said, watching the recent battles in Congress to avoid another government shutdown. “Especially people in political science classes think that the way things are framed is never the way things are.”
Karie Riddle, assistant professor of political science at Pepperdine, notes that while many of her students fear for the future, the political science major at Pepperdine University’s Seaver College is growing.
“There is a great loss of confidence in democratic institutions,” Riddle said. “But I think the fear and uncertainty has gotten students excited to participate.”
Chan sees the multi-layered influences that led her to her own political positions and inspired her interest in studying politics. After interning in Washington, D.C., last summer, she plans to apply to law school and work as an advocate for women experiencing domestic violence, a calling inspired in part by the Christian call to love and protect the vulnerable.
“I find myself torn or not fully understanding how to portray the relationship between my religious and political values in one sentence because it’s more complicated,” Chan said. “You have to consider everyone’s intersection and their experiences, and it’s not cookie-cutter.”
Raised in California by a Mexican Catholic mother and Burmese Buddhist father, she then converted to Protestant Christianity in high school. She believes the opportunity her parents gave her to choose what she believes instilled an open mind that permeates her politics.
Chan remembers sitting on the couch with her parents at age 16 and watching footage of the protests in Los Angeles following the death of George Floyd in 2020. “There were people fighting for their lives and their rights and they looked like us. Chan said. “Even thinking about it now, it’s still shocking because not only did I experience this, but so many young Americans, or Gen Z in general, had to explain [to their parents] what did that mean.”
Members of Gen Z are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation, which also complicates their place in a two-party political system. FOREVER were found that cohorts of younger generations have more diverse identities and experiences than previous generations.
Gen Z is also unique in how women and men engage with politics. According to the AEI, when it comes to views on gender-related issues, there is a clear gender gap among Gen Z adults that is more pronounced than among older generational cohorts.
Political trials such as the #MeToo movement, the election of Trump and the coup Roe v. Wade they were uniquely influential for young women but not for young men.
“We did in-depth interviews with a number of young men and women,” said AEI’s Cox. “For young men, when you ask them about the #MeToo movement, it hasn’t been as exciting.”
“There’s a lot more apathy among young men,” Cox said. “There is no particular issue that we see young men interested in. If nothing else, it’s loneliness and depression.”
However, Wheaton sophomore Bram Rawlings said his male friends seem just as politically aware and interesting as his female friends. He admitted that he has yet to vote in a US election, but he still follows international politics.
“Maybe that reveals some apathy on my part or some apathy toward US politics,” Rawlings said.
While Rawlings is more optimistic about politics at the local level, he becomes increasingly cynical about the ability of any human-designed system to work for the most vulnerable. Instead, he will ask, “How can the church deal with the problem or deal with the fact that there are people who are economically and financially vulnerable?”
Campus ministries like InterVarsity Christian Fellowship see potential for their discipleship programs to help support and sustain the next generation of Christian activists, advocates and voters.
“If [we] don’t want to, others will,” said Jonathan Walton, senior resource specialist in InterVarsity’s Multinational Initiatives Division and author of Twelve Lies That Hold America Captive: And The Truth That Sets Us Free.
Walton believes that Christian foundations need to shift their focus from protecting their longevity to assets that “people really need.” “This is a fundamental problem with how we approach Gen Z,” Walton said. “They’re looking for relationships, not inclusion.”
Walton believes campus ministries can help students who feel passionate about activism “slow down and follow Jesus.”
“Communities are falling apart,” Walton said. “People are falling apart and instead of falling together, we must fall together. And land together. We need community as we do this.”