Gen Z’s Conflicting Opinions on Faith, Religious Practice
Friday, October 13th, 2023, was the first time in my life that I took my yarmulke off in a public setting for fear of antisemitism. It was less than a week after Israel had been attacked by Hamas which had subsequently called for a global “day of Jihad” against the Jews. But I wasn’t really scared of Hamas. The people I was afraid of were the people my own age on the college campus that I walk through each morning on my way to work.
At the time, it was hard to see the vicious anti-Israel advocacy of members of Gen Z as something other than antisemitism. But as the distance between us and the events of October 7th continues to grow, more and more Americans are starting to wake up to the fact that antisemitism has often been the canary in the coalmine. The reactions to the attacks have proven that the canaries on college campuses have been dead for a very long time.
New data supports that thesis. According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s 2023 Religious Freedom Index, an annual survey and analysis of American attitudes toward religion, views on religion and religious freedom are positive overall. But the report contains a striking outlier: Gen Z, whose views on religion, people of faith, and religious liberty depart starkly from their predecessors, for better or worse.
Overall, 59% of Americans see religion as part of the solution to the issues facing our country. However, that percentage is nearly flipped for Gen Z, of which 61% percent said that religion was part of the problem. A full 56% of Gen Z went even further and said that people of faith were also part of the problem. That should worry Jews, of course, but also Christians, Muslims, and anyone who cares about our tradition of religious co-existence.
It would be wrong, though, to say that Gen Z’s attitudes towards religion and religious liberty are all bad news. In fact, when asked if they support the “freedom to practice one’s religious beliefs even if they are contrary to accepted majority practices (such as not drinking alcohol, not saluting the flag, not eating pork/beef, or wearing a turban, burka, or hijab, etc.),” 63% of Gen Z said yes — the most of any generation by far. Unfortunately, Gen Z’s tolerance shrinks when asked about religious practice that is contrary to mainstream culture. Only 38% of gen Z supported the “freedom for any individual or group to believe that marriage is the union of a man and a woman without having to worry about facing discrimination, penalties, or fines from the government.” Once again, that’s the lowest of any age group.
Gen Z also has limited support for religious individuals to engage in public life without checking their faith at the door. Only 36% support the “freedom of individuals to preach the doctrine of their faith to others” and a smaller 34% support the “freedom for people to rely on their personal religious beliefs to guide their voting decisions.”
Since Oct. 7, there has been an increased desire to understand the oppressed/oppressor framework that many have hypothesized drives the views of young Americans, and we see evidence that such a mentality is present when considering religious liberty issues. The silver lining for religious minorities is that they can count on Gen Z to support their religious liberty rights far more than any other generation. Gen Z’s support for requiring businesses to provide religious accommodations to their employees, for example, is sky high. When presented with five types of religious accommodations for employees — the ability to schedule work around religious holidays, have access to time and space to pray, maintain a religious appearance, wear religious apparel, and have access to religious diets — 46% of Gen Z supported requiring all five. Only 22% of Baby Boomers said the same.
This week our nation celebrated Religious Freedom Day, the anniversary of the State of Virginia’s adoption of Thomas Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom, which paved the way for the Constitutional right of every American to practice their faith freely. Today, it serves as a reminder of how our laws shape our public perspectives on moral concepts like toleration and pluralism. It also shows us a way forward in dealing with the intolerance that pervades many of America’s elite college campuses. A return to campus policy that provides space for diverse religious views might help students internalize the importance of pluralism.
There is no denying that it is a great time to be a religious minority in America — I enjoy privileges that my great grandparents likely did not even conceive of. The Supreme Court continues, year after year, to vindicate the legal status of our first freedom. But in the ocean of public opinion, the generational currents seem to be moving against more robust religious exercise for populations not favored by the oppressed/oppressor framework. In the aftermath of Oct. 7, that is supremely apparent to American Jews like me. But it should be a wake-up call to all Americans, and it reinforces that a renewed dedication to the proper formation of young citizens is a dire need. Supporters of faith in the public sphere should reflect on our role in the effort to meet that need head on.
