Gen Z Has Arrived. Now What?
September/October 2024A group of Christian college students consider the intersection of faith and civic duty.
Gen Z voters are preparing to make their mark in November’s presidential election with a projected 7 to 9 million new voters, born between 1997 and 2013, set to cast their first ballot. In all, there are a staggering 40 million eligible Gen Z voters this year, representing nearly one fifth of the American electorate.
How will these freshly minted voters impact America’s political landscape? According to a 2023 national survey, members of Gen Z have a finely tuned social consciousness.1 While millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) are more likely to list issues such as inflation or housing as their top political concerns, Gen Zers have a comparatively greater focus on such issues as racism and gun violence. The generations also differ on their sources of political information. Social media, rather than mainstream media, is where members of Gen Z are most likely to consume political news and commentary.
And when it comes to questions of religion, Gen Z also breaks new ground. More than one third (34 percent) of Gen Zers identify as “religiously unaffiliated,” a significantly larger proportion than millennials or Gen Xers (29 and 25 percent, respectively). Members of Gen Z are also more likely than any other generation to identify as agnostic or atheist.2
Charis McRoy, a rising senior at Washington Adventist University (WAU) in Takoma Park, Maryland, is one of the millions of Gen Zers set to vote for the first time in a U.S. presidential election. She recently led a conversation with some of her fellow WAU students exploring how they—as both Christians and members of Gen Z—feel about their new civic responsibilities.3
Charis: How important would you say one’s religious views are in shaping voting decisions, particularly for our generation?
Junior Aguilar: Religion can be a very important consideration. Not just Christianity but all religions are moving toward something. There’s always an end goal in mind, and the state can either hinder or help you progress to whatever that religious end goal is.
An example is the fundamentalist Christian understanding of the end-times, which says that the state of Israel has to be restored. In the U.S. elections there’s one clear party that supports Israel a lot. So a certain demographic of voters will be more inclined to vote for the candidate who’s going to directly or indirectly advance what their religious belief informs them to be the end goal of the world.
Charis: Among some people there’s also the idea of America being a “Christian nation.” But there is quite a diversity of beliefs even within Christianity itself, and there are so many other religions, as well as people who are not religious. And so all this informs people’s voting decisions, because their faith or nonfaith is a part of their core identity.
Catusha Desjardins: Even though it’s unlikely you’re going to find a candidate who shares the exact same religious beliefs as you have, it’s not like you can just say, “I’m not going to vote.”
But it’s very important to remember that religion, throughout history, has caused very good things to happen, but also very bad things to happen. And so this should be a very important aspect of determining who you’ll vote for.
Charis: And that leads me to my next question. Even if we may not necessarily want to directly legislate religious morality or our religious beliefs, we still bring the values or ideas behind these beliefs to the political table. Gen Z is a far more secular generation. So what would you say to fellow Gen Zers who are concerned that the religious views of some people are influencing their politics?
Cathrina Schoonard: I don’t think they should necessarily feel any direct sense of threat from the religious voters. We all have a moral compass, whether that’s based on religious views or not.
Charis: What about the places GenZers get information about voting? Social media generates strong emotion when you just see a clip or a headline. So where can we look for information about whom to vote for?
Catusha: It’s hard to know where to find information, because more often than not, information can be biased or misconstrued. But a Gen Zer is very socially aware; our generation cares a lot about social matters like equality. And when Gen Zers believe in something, we will act on it. Sometimes that’s a very good thing, but sometimes it can be used in the wrong way if it’s based on misinformation.
We need to try to fact-check anything we see on social media by looking for government-approved sources, or other reliable sources of information about voting.
Junior: With everything on the news and social media, not just about elections, we should have a healthy skepticism. You don’t have to dismiss something entirely, but also don’t just go with it and say, “This is true. I saw it on TikTok or Instagram, so it must be true.”
Cathrina: It’s also important that everyone doesn’t let their personal biases affect facts. It’s good to get both sides of a story—to personally attend some things or watch debates, versus just accepting hearsay. We need to come up with our own ideas rather than just going along with someone else’s truth.
Charis: Do you think that being politically active or voting could be seen as an extension of our Christian duty?
Junior: There are many perspectives on this among Christians. Those who are actively waiting for Jesus to come might discourage people from voting: “Why does it matter if I vote, because Jesus can come anytime now, and He is going to be the king of the world.”
But in Jeremiah 29:7, when the Israelites were sent into Babylon, God told them to pray on behalf of the city and to seek its welfare. As Christians we are waiting for the coming of Jesus, which will end all governments of this world. But while we are still here, it is also our duty to seek the welfare of the place where we are. It is our duty to elect the candidate we believe would most fit with God’s agenda of bringing justice. And it’s up to each person’s opinion who that candidate is.
Charis: Jesus tells us not to be idle on until He comes. Voting is a way—especially if we represent populations that have been underrepresented in the past and continue to be underrepresented today—to ensure that voices of all kinds are able to be heard. Christ cared about spiritual nourishment, but He also knew that people need to eat now.
So do you think churches should encourage voting? What role do you think they should play in that?
Cathrina: I think it’s important that churches encourage involvement. I think they need to be careful, though, not to promote candidates; so it’s more of a sense of Christian duty they’re promoting rather than political ideas.
Catusha: There have been a lot of moments in history during which there was a religious backing of a candidate or candidates. I don’t think churches should say, “If you vote for these candidates, you’re doing what God wants you to do.” Churches should encourage involvement in a more general way.
God called us to be stewards, and so He’s left a lot of things to our responsibility. Churches could promote the idea that voting is one way we can exercise that responsibility, but they have to be careful with how they do it, because many people can take it the wrong way.
Charis: So to wrap up our conversation, how can we find a balance between separation of church and state, and voting based on what we, as religious people, believe?
Junior: There’s no real conflict between those things, because you can vote totally as a Christian; it’s OK to vote based on your Christian beliefs. But if you’re voting for someone who promotes the combination of the state and the church—we know that doesn’t end up well.
Cathrina: When we vote, I think our Christian values should influence that. We’re trying to promote the values we stand for—the kindness, the temperament, the character.
Charis: You bring out a good point. We can apply the principles of our faith rather than the specifics that our faith may mandate.
I think if we look at many of the major religions in the U.S., we’ll find commonalities. There’s ingrained in all of us a sense of morals and values. And while there can be deviation on many things, if we put our heads together we can realize how much we really have in common.
1 Ruby Belle Booth, “Gen Z, Aware of Its Power, Wants to Have Impact on a Wide Range of Issues,” The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, March 2, 2023.
2 Daniel A. Cox, “Gen Z and the Future of Faith in America,” The Survey Center on American Life of the American Enterprise Institute, March 24, 2022.
3 Discussion has been edited for length and clarity.