Photo by Patrick Fore

One recent poll from a progressive organization found that 75 percent of Christians don’t trust the Democratic Party. In 2024, Christian voters supported Donald Trump by a nearly two-to-one margin, while 84 percent of atheists and 78 percent of agnostics lean toward the left. The partisan divide in the United States is increasingly a religious one, largely stemming from the Democratic Party’s alienation of Christian voters. However, a growing interest in religion among young people suggests that progressives need to change their approach. To reverse their estrangement from the faithful, Democrats need to invest in understanding the importance of religion in Americans’ lives.

For a long time, it appeared that moving toward secularism would be a winning political strategy for the left. However, it now seems that the reports of Christianity’s death had been greatly exaggerated. Members of Gen Z are more likely to regularly attend church than their Millennial counterparts, Bible sales are booming, and the share of people who identify as non-religious has stopped increasing. That last point is particularly bad news to a secular Democratic Party, as it means it must increase its outreach to the nearly two-thirds of Americans who are Christian rather than hoping they die out.

The much-talked-about shift toward the right among young people is social, not just political. The militant atheism championed by the progressives of the mid-2000s is more likely to be mocked than embraced by young people, who view it as self-aggrandizing and preachy. To be conservative or religious is rebellious in a liberal and secular culture. Gen Z........

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