Caryn Blomquist often felt uncomfortable at the Lutheran church she attended during college. She liked the campus ministry and the Bible studies, but frequent discussions of controversial political issues like gay marriage had her looking for an escape route.
"I'm glad my current church doesn't push a political agenda. It creates a safe space," said Blomquist, 25, who lives in Naperville, Illinois.
Her pastor addresses issues like immigration and poverty from the pulpit but only in broad terms. Even the local politicians who attend refrain from mentioning their campaigns.
"There is a sense of civic responsibility at my church," but people aren't going to tell you who to vote for, she said.
Blomquist fits the profile of millennials between the ages of 18 and 34 in 2015 who are increasingly pessimistic about the role churches and religious organizations play in society, according to a recent survey from Pew Research Center. In 2010, 73 percent of young people said faith groups had a positive effect on "the way things are going in this country." By 2015, that number had dropped to 55 percent.
Many faith leaders estimate this shift has been caused, at least in part, by millennial discomfort toward the way churches engage election cycles, like Blomquist described experiencing at her college church. Unless religious institutions improve their approach, church leaders say, they risk losing young adult congregants and diminishing the influence faith groups could have on social issues in the future.
The 2016 presidential election is a chance for churches to regroup and earn back the trust of young Americans, said David Gushee, a distinguished university professor of Christian ethics and director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University.
"Election years in our country are a huge opportunity for everybody who wants to have an impact on the future of their own institutions as well as the country to stand up and be counted," he said. "It's an opportunity (for faith communities) to broaden the agenda, soften the tone and show concern for the well-being of everybody."
Courting controversy
In recent years, American politics has been marked by a lack of compromise between conservatives and liberals. Tensions have risen between the two groups, and faith communities aren't immune from the repercussions, Gushee said, noting his experiences speaking in local churches.
"It takes a considerable effort to speak in such a way that you don't immediately convince half the people that you're on their side or on the other side," he said.
The growing divide between Republicans and Democrats leads to polarization on even those issues that all faith groups should agree on and respond to, such as religious freedom, said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
"It's troubling that we no longer have the bipartisan consensus we once had on these issues," he said. "We're seeing a lack of commitment to religious freedom on the left when religious freedom rubs up against sexual revolution issues. And we see troubling moves in some places on the right when it comes to the rights of Muslims, for instance."
The at-times hostile political environment has sewn discord among Christians who agree on a problem but disagree on solutions, keeping the community from focusing on shared goals, Moore noted.
"For instance, you may have a Christian who supports caring for the poor and, as a result, supports a higher minimum wage. But someone else might think that the higher minimum wage would lead to more unemployment," he said. "The debate isn't over caring for the poor. It's a debate about what will most effectively accomplish a common goal."
In the midst of political tensions, many Christians have self-segregated, finding faith communities where there's a consensus on issues, rather than a meaningful dialogue about challenges and solutions. This situation can lead to a surprising disconnect in the way believers approach election season, Gushee said.
"One of the evidences of polarization is that if you ask a progressive Christian to name the major faith-related issues of our time, they would probably say poverty, income inequality, climate change and immigration. If you asked a conservative, they would probably say abortion, homosexuality and religious liberty," he said.
What's at stake
As Pew's data on millennial views about religious institutions illustrates, young people aren't impressed with the way faith groups have responded to contemporary political and social issues.
Their negative assessment is troubling for religious leaders who not only want more young people in their church's pews, but also believe millennial disenchantment is hurting efforts to bring Christian values to bear on the political system, Moore said.
"My primary mission is to reach younger evangelicals who are often put off by the overt politicization of the last generation. I'm afraid many of them overreact to that by disengaging from the political process," he noted.
Christopher Hale, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and co-founder of Millennial, an online journal about faith and public life written for and by young Catholics, said that if faith groups fail to authentically engage with the 2016 presidential election, they could fall even further in the eyes of young Americans.
"I think young people can smell hypocrisy from a mile away," he said.
As Blomquist described, young people aren't opposed to all faith-based political engagement. They become uncomfortable when faith leaders are overly prescriptive or when discussions become too politicized.
Nearly half of U.S. adults (49 percent) believe churches and other houses of worship should express their views on social and political issues, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center survey. That was 6 percentage points higher from 2010, when 43 percent of Americans said religious groups should take a more active role in election season.
Support varies along demographic and denominational lines, with predominately black churches, for example, often more supportive of political discussions than many of their white counterparts. Fifty-eight percent of black Protestants said churches should express views on social and political questions in 2014, compared with 49 percent of white mainline Protestants, 49 percent of white Catholics and 66 percent of white evangelical Protestants, Pew reported.
Moore said faith communities shouldn't shy away from addressing how the Bible speaks to political issues, noting that ignoring election season can be as problematic as being too aggressive with a political agenda.
"There are some issues that are transcendent justice issues, on which the scripture speaks clearly," he said, offering slavery and abortion as examples. "A church that doesn't shape and form consciences is … simply accommodating itself to the status quo."
A better approach
Growing up, Hale witnessed two types of extreme behavior from his fellow Catholics. Members of the church would either reject political involvement as too dirty for a kind and polite religion, or they would allow their religious beliefs to be co-opted by political concerns.
"I rarely saw a religious attitude that was prophetic to politics," by allowing gospel teachings to speak to current issues, said Hale, 26.
To be prophetic, faith groups need to focus on what their religion teaches, rather than trying to toe a party line, he noted.
"A true religion causes discomfort to both political parties," Hale said.
Similarly, Gushee said the best way for faith communities to approach the 2016 presidential election is to stop seeing issues as black and white, as conservative or liberal. He hopes religious leaders and people of faith will recognize nuances and overcome single-mindedness.
"I hope people will explore other issues that have a faith dimension to them," rather than focusing only on highly politicized debates about the rights of the LGBT community, for example, he said, noting that, from a Christian perspective, even political decisions about tax policies and counterterrorism can be approached through a religious lens.
"Faith groups (and leaders) need to be aware of how easy it is to get manipulated and to fall into narrow-thinking," Gushee added. "We should try to do better this election season."
Email: kdallas@deseretnews.com Twitter: @kelsey_dallas