The Stumbling Block of Political Comfort
God Help Us See Our Own Idolatry
An interesting study has emerged from the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center Research Institute. This study is the result of a survey conducted in 2024 of Gen-Z participants. These are young people born between 1997 and 2012. The study data shows results that had anecdotal assumptions from many clergy and those who look at religious trends. The results are not surprising to me or to many clergy. Evangelicals alliance with President Trump and the Republican party has an affect on how Gen-Z views church attendance. I will link the source article below that Ryan Burge participated in for more context. But here is the quote that should wake us up.
But 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: Generation Z. The Wheaton College Billy Graham Center Research Institute fielded a survey of 2,365 Gen Z adults (ages 18-28) through NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel between Aug. 9 and Sept. 26, 2024. This effort was supported by the Lilly Endowment, and the lead investigator for this project was Rick Richardson at Wheaton College. Buried in a battery about political de-motivators for church involvement was this statement: “Christians’ support of Trump has made me less likely to go to church.”
I shared the article in a group of Nazarene and holiness clergy for discussion. The majority took this as an opportunity to reflect and comment on how we might do things differently, what kind of language we may use, and how cheerleading for partisan politics harms the witness of the church. But then we have those who took another path. Here are some quotes.
It’s no surprise. Gen Z has grown up in an environment where education, the culture, even much of the church, is stridently opposed to the teachings of the Scriptures. We have a lot of work to do.
The assumption in this comment is twofold. One, Gen-Z avoids church because of opposition to scripture. Two, the Republican party is aligned with scripture. My response read in part:
Gen-Z is staying away from church in spite of being open to spiritual ideas. The reason given is insistence upon support of a partisan political framework.
Gen-Z rightfully sees that the policies and actions of Donald Trump do not necessarily line up with Christianity. They are not mentioning doctrinal issues, but partisan issues. Your statement assumes they have doctrinal issues, but that is not supported by the data.
The truth is that political parties and governments are often at odds with Christian ethics and morals. No party has a monopoly on Godly thought. This was once widely accepted in American Christianity (including evangelicalism). But we lost our way and assumed that political partisan power would give us cultural power. On that note, here is another comment:
I read the article. “In some part” is too generic to mean anything at all. Everything people do is, “in some part,” due to some things. This is just convenient ammunition for those who want to blame evil conservatives for ________________.
The obvious misunderstanding of how statistics work aside, do you see an obvious problem? This is assumed to be an attack to make political conservatives look evil. Sure, if you assume Wheaton University and the Billy Graham Center Research Institute are likely to attack conservatives those being bastions of liberal thinking and all. (that last is sarcasm by the way) The conversation continued:
I’m not going to waste the time to prove it, but for every “48% say they won’t go to church because of Trump” there’s 52% who will. Statistics say what we want them to say.
Once again, not how statistics work nor is this accurate per the data. In the data, less than a quarter said support had no impact. While we can suppose that of that number, some go specifically because of support, but way less than 52%. But I have a bigger issue with this line of thinking. I also believe that it exposes an idolatrous relationship with political partisan politics and a disregard for those outside the church - the “lost” if you will. One of the hallmarks of the call for clergy in the Church of the Nazarene (COTN) is a concern for all the lost. Notice we don’t say only those who support x political party.
Here is my response to the comment:
But beyond that, are you willing to leave a large group of people out of the opportunity to hear about holiness? I want to reach as many people as possible for the Gospel and our holiness message. That means as many as possible.
Those who love Donald Trump and those who reject Donald Trump should both find respite from the world’s demand for political allegiance in our holiness churches. I know our church has people from across the spectrum politically. We don’t alter a thing about holiness and we probably make it uncomfortable for different people at different times. But that’s the power of the Gospel. It calls us to be different, not to be the world.
It is sad that you appear to be willing to write off people who need to hear the Gospel because you insist upon embracing a worldly ideology rather than imagine the kingdom as wholly other.
Another clergy friend mentioned that she has sat in countless seminars and conferences where the question of what, why, etc. about younger generations comes us. Here we have an answer about one stumbling block that should be easy to remove. But we want to argue why we don’t have to give up our partisan cheerleading. It is unbelievable to me that we would be willing to block people from coming into our churches over politics. That is evidence enough to diagnose apathy toward human beings at best and idolatry at worst.
When did political comfort come before holiness? You want to know why the church is not experiencing revival? Because we put roadblocks up to the very people needing revival. We may get some cheers for using outrage against the other political party, but at what cost? Are we so entrapped by partisanship that we cannot fathom being in communion with people who vote differently? The COTN claims to be a missional people. Missional people are willing to be willing cultures that are foreign and different. But we can’t get along with people who are almost exactly like us but voted differently. God forgive our hard hearts.
Not surprisingly one of the commenters above was part of a discussion leading up to the 2016 and 2020 elections on how to strip COTN clergy of credentials if they either voted for Democrats or, for some refused to vote for Donald Trump. Their reasoning centered on abortion. Well, concern for the lost is also important and in the Nazarene Manual so...
Holiness is hard, but not because it places undue burdens. Holiness is hard because it demands that we see fellow human beings as God does, that we reject the ways of the world (including political power), and that we lead with love. Transformation is possible, but we need to get out of the way of the Spirit. Prevenient grace tells us that God is working in ALL places. Are we willing to be more exclusive than God just to make ourselves feel good about politics?
There are real world consequences to the attitude shown toward those who see partisan support as a deterrent to going to a church. That attitude is infectious and can seep into every level of a denomination out of fear. The fear of upsetting “the base” can lead to silence and inaction. You cannot multiply by zero, so maybe we need to be more humble and repentant. For a good example of this, the Maryland Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church is lobbying for Haitian immigrants currently facing a sudden revocation of temporary protected status. A status given to refugees who follow the rules and “do things the right way.” Meanwhile, save for a few voices, the thousands of Haitian members of the COTN are not being advocated for publicly. We should feel the shame of that in light of the Gospel.
The solution here is simple. Repent of partisanship and preach Christ and holiness. Yes, we will preach on politics, but a politics shaped by the Kindom of God rather than human greed or desire. Doing this may upset everyone at some point, but the Gospel can be offensive. We often speak as if it is offensive to the world, but it is most offensive to the religious ones who demand God be in their image.