Far-right Christian nationalists are feeling empowered during Donald Trump’s second presidency. Idaho-based evangelical Christ Church, led by pastor Doug Wilson — who believes that women never should have been given the right to vote — is openly embraced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And Vice President JD Vance, speaking at Turning Point USA’s recent AmericaFest 2025 convention in Phoenix, told the MAGA crowd that the United States “always will be a Christian nation.”
Vance received an aggressive fact-check from MS NOW’s Steve Benen, who attacked his statement as “offensive, ahistorical nonsense” and reminded him that President Thomas Jefferson described the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment as “a wall of separation between church and state” back in 1802.
But as much support as Christian nationalism is receiving within the MAGA movement, reporting by Axios’ Russell Contreras describes a pattern of “unchurching” in the United States — with many Americans having either a secular outlook or embracing a milder version of Christianity.
“The U.S. is undergoing its fastest religious shift in modern history, marked by a rapid increase in the religiously unaffiliated and numerous church closures nationwide,” Contreras explains in a post-Christmas article published on December 26. “Why it matters: The great unchurching of America comes as identity and reality are increasingly shaped by non-institutional spiritual sources — YouTube mystics, TikTok tarot, digital skeptics, folk saints and AI-generated prayer bots. It’s a tectonic transformation that has profound implications for race, civic identity, political persuasion and the ability to govern a fracturing moral landscape.”
Contreras continues, “By the numbers: Nearly three in 10 American adults today identify as religiously unaffiliated — a 33 percent jump since 2013, according to the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). That’s quicker than almost any major religious shift in modern U.S. history, and it’s happening across racial groups, an Axios analysis found…. The shift in religious activity also is leaving behind a trail of ‘church graveyards,’ or empty buildings that are now difficult to sell or have been abandoned.”
The Axios reporter notes that according to Gallup, roughly 57 percent of Americans seldom or never attend religious services — an increase from 40 percent in 2000 — and that an “unprecedented 15,000 churches are expected to shut their doors this year” compared to only a “few thousand expected to open.”
PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman told Axios that there is no evidence of a widespread religious revival.
“Despite anecdotal and media reports about Gen Z men returning to church,” Contreras notes, “there’s little evidence it’s happening beyond scattered examples to reverse the overall decline, she said. The bottom line: The old religious map is disappearing.”
Read Russell Contreras’ full article for Axios at this link.
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