The Rise of Christian Conservatism in Teenagers
PC: Unsplash
When traditional society is presented with change, it reacts with fear and uncertainty towards the unfamiliar: abolitionism, the AIDS crisis, and immigration are just a few historical examples. We see those same reactions manifest today. While younger people have historically been liberal strongholds, the past year has seen a remarkable rise in conservatism among Christian teenagers and young adults; let’s examine why.
One of the most obvious reasons is the recent prevalence of non-secular political figures, such as Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, and Pearl Davis. Podcasters like Kirk and Owens were able to reach teenagers virtually in a way that traditional politicians can’t; Kirk’s college campus visits and large online following gave him a voice with younger people. He used that voice to promote institutions like Turning Point USA, institutions that explicitly connected religion and politics. He preached to young Christians that there was one correct way to practice their faith, and it mandated subscribing to a conservative political ideology.
Elected officials, meanwhile, often struggle to capture younger generations’ attention; there is so much entertaining content available today, preventing serious politics from taking hold with teenagers. Donald Trump combats this with devoted application to one principle: no such thing as bad publicity. He rants long and often on Twitter and Truth Social, often posting outlandish AI-generated content and using ridiculous nicknames for his political opponents; he is often depicted online as an entertainer rather than a politician. Because of this, he is able to reach families and younger audiences, who develop allegiances to his persona before they are able to think critically about his policies.
Another contributor is the extreme polarization of today’s politics. Political leanings have come to define not only morals but also personal traits and characteristics. Both parties paint mocking caricatures of the other. President Trump often shares ridiculous characterizations of the “radical left”, while the left exacerbates this divide; some leaders dismiss "traditional" values, and many younger leftists totally scorn organized religion. These caricatures are easy to take up as a young person, since they provide a fictional evil scarecrow on whom to pin all of the issues facing the nation. But that coalescence of evil doesn’t actually exist as a person; it’s a rhetorical tactic to sow division.
Compounding the issue, there are misunderstandings like the hotly contested issue of Texas classrooms being required to put up the Ten Commandments; while Democrats argued in the name of freedom of religion, many young right-leaning Christians saw the opposition to the Ten Commandments as a rejection of the Christian faith itself, though the Christian faith is not inherently aligned to either party. It’s easy to believe, though, when huge media outlets like Fox News promote that divisive rhetoric. These outlets are often intentionally inflammatory, presenting cherry-picked statistics and biased claims as objective fact to amass views and spark national argument.
Essentially, the issue is this: Christian teenagers are being told through social media and news outlets that their political beliefs define their faith; that they need to be conservative in order to be a good Christian. Since faith is rightfully important to these teenagers, they choose conservatism. What many of them aren’t given the opportunity to consider is that faith can appear in a number of ways on the political spectrum; there are tens of millions of Christian Democrats, Independents, etc. What defines a practitioner isn’t party affiliation, but belief in doing the right thing.