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When the editor of the Christian Post published an article yesterday titled "Trump's Christian support is driving half of Gen Zers away from church," it caught my attention.
It further caught my attention when I saw Billy Graham's name associated with the study they were using to advance the idea that Trump is causing people not to go to church.
As I continued, when I reached the bottom of the article, the "study" story began to make sense.
And I remembered why I resigned from the board of the National Association of Evangelicals some years ago.
It wasn't that I was no longer an evangelical; it was because I was an evangelical and could not support the direction the new NAE president was taking the 55-million-member organization.
I didn't believe then, nor do I now believe that Christians should worship the "creature" rather than the "Creator."
Nor should we as biblical Christians choose to bow down to so-called "climate change."
Or now, in this story, bow down to the Christian Left's "open border" activists.
Be informed, not misled.
The Christian Post story begins with, "Nearly half of Gen Z Americans say Christians' support for President Donald Trump is a reason they're less likely to attend church, according to a new study."
"The Billy Graham Center Research Institute surveyed 2,365 Gen Z adults, ages 18-28, through NORC's AmeriSpeak panel between Aug. 9 and Sept. 26, 2024. The study was funded by the Lilly Endowment," they say.
This survey of 2365 Gen Z adults (18-28) is concerning to me on several levels.
First, as you read through this article, you begin to see the direction the survey message is going. The fact that the end result is made public, but the research details will be published later in a book, is concerning. Why the rush to get the results out but not the methods or the details of the survey?
Who are the 2365 people surveyed?
Did the survey interview in person, on the phone, or by email or text?
If "Nearly half of Gen Z Americans say Christians' support for President Donald Trump is a reason they're less likely to attend church," it should be supported with more weight than 2365 young adults.
What kind of "church" are they talking about? Any church? Or far-left Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc? Or biblically based Calvary Chapel, including Pastor Jack Hibbs, and many other Calvary Chapel churches across the nation, Southern Baptists, Catholics? Independent?
Prominent megachurch pastors who openly support Trump include Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas, Franklin Graham of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel, and Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church. These and other leaders have formed a key base of national support and a core base of evangelical support.
This is a partial list of pastors who publicly support Trump.
These and other churches like them represent hundreds of thousands of people who attend them. And they are all growing in attendance, including Gen Z adults.
In using the "Billy Graham Center Research Institute," are the people paying for the survey using the Billy Graham Center to add weight to their results?
The Post continues:
According to the research, 48% of respondents said they agree with the statement “Christians’ support of Trump has made me less likely to go to church.”
That included 19% who "strongly agreed," 14% who "agreed," and 15% who "slightly agreed." By contrast, 52% disagreed, including 21% who "strongly disagreed," 16% who "disagreed," and 15% who "slightly disagreed."
Rick Richardson, professor of evangelism and leadership at Wheaton College and the study's lead researcher, told The Christian Post on Tuesday that the research is yet unpublished and being adapted into a book.
“We realized that spiritual interest among Gen Z young adults is quite high but engagement with churches has decreased over time,” Richardson said. “There has been an upturn recently mainly among men and often with more traditional denominations like Catholicism.”
He added, “We wanted to understand the spiritual motivators and demotivators of young adults ages 18 to 28, and among many other factors, we found response to Trump [has] been one.”
Richardson said he was surprised by several of the study's findings, including that "young adults are more positive toward churches and toward engagement in churches than we expected."
“We also found that factors included political, moral, and social media demotivators like the political partisanship of many churches,” said Richardson, who also serves as the Luis Palau endowed chair of evangelism.
I was a personal friend of Luis Palau. I'm quite certain he would support Trump if he were with us.
Franklin Graham has often said his father supported Trump
But I'm not trying to make the case that a lot of pastors support Trump.
I'm trying to make the case that while there are those who say they would not attend church because of President Trump, many more are attending church or Christian rallies, etc., because Trump has removed restrictions from the church, allowing it to be the cultural, moral compass for the culture. And to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ more freely.
Did those who say they won't attend church because of Trump attend church while Biden was president?
Would a "President" Kamala Harris have caused them to attend services? What about Hillary or Obama?
The Christian Post says, "In recent years, there has been much debate over Trump, and his political movement is impacting the nature of American Christianity, especially among self-identified Evangelicals."
Here's the bottom line
Earlier this year, during a press call, National Association of Evangelicals President Walter Kim expressed concern that the Trump administration’s effort to deport criminal illegals was “having such a profound and deleterious effect on the Church.”
According to Kim, many predominantly immigrant congregations are shifting to virtual services, closing down, or are suffering drastic attendance drops "because of a deep climate of fear.”
“This is not simply within immigrant churches. Many multiethnic churches are experiencing this sort of secondary trauma as they’re witnessing their neighbors undergo [a] drastic climate of fear," Kim said. “This policy approach is reshaping American Christianity.”
So if Trump would reopen the borders to all who want to come to America, Gen Z would feel free to attend church?
Takeaway
It was Rev. Charles Grandison Finney, a prominent Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening, who wrote the famous article in 1873 titled "The Decay of Conscience".
This is the better path. Preach the Gospel. And preach it more when we have an ally in the White House.
Rev. Charles Finney said this:
If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discernment, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.
If we preach the Gospel, they will come.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.
