It’s Sunday morning. The church bells ring loudly, and people flock to their seats. Pews of congregants eagerly listen to the sermon. They know the drill: they’re here every single week. But where is everyone else? With unfilled seats and generations of Americans skipping religious services, religious attendance is at an all-time low.
Religion in America experiences waves of popularity, highlighting the cultural and political climate across the nation. Whether religion is currently “trendy” is best demonstrated by analyzing the religious adherence of members of the two major political parties.
According to Jeffrey Jones at Gallup News, as of September 2023, about 61% of Republicans, 44% of Independents, and only 37% of Democrats identify as religious. Where the Democratic and the Republican Parties previously had similar percentages of religious-identifying individuals, the percentage of religious Democrats has drastically decreased. For Republicans, there has been virtually no change in religious adherence, and only a slight change in independent voters’ religious identification.
Jones’ Gallup statistics also show that religious attendance is low across the political spectrum, similarly affecting both parties and almost all religious faiths. Despite this, one group within the Republican party is currently experiencing a religious renewal.
The steadfast Religious Right comprises a small yet powerful far-right sect of the Republican Party. This group sees the decrease in religious attendance across the political parties and criticizes progressivism and “woke” ideology, including gender studies, LGBTQ+ inclusive language, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (DEI). In hopes of revitalizing religious values and bringing religion into the federal government, this group has pledged their support to former President Donald Trump in his race for the 2025 presidency.
According to Maura Casey at The Kettering Foundation, The Heritage Foundation, director of Project 2025, was the sponsor of the Republican National Convention and is currently made up of 140 members of Trump’s former administration. Trump denies knowledge or involvement in Project 2025, but it is clear that the group is inextricable from his Republican base.
Through their Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation plans to completely indoctrinate the United States under Christian laws and values, necessitating the dismantling and rebuilding of the federal government.
According to Project2025.org, this “presidential transition project” promises to “take down the Deep State and return the government to the people.” With strong religious undertones throughout Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership,” it is clear that the founders intend to implement policies violating many constitutional rights, under the guise of acting in accordance with religious values and bringing morality back to the nation. Per Maura Casey, Project 2025 blames single motherhood and fatherlessness for society’s woes. To fix these issues, Project 2025 argues for the eradication of diversity, equity, and inclusion values and terminology, in addition to casting women in roles where they will primarily serve as wives or mothers. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Project 2025 also plans to implement policies that obliterate abortion access by banning the mailing of abortion drugs, eliminate protections for LGBTQ+ individuals, target immigrant communities through mass deportations, revoke marriage equality, and limit the First Amendment by censoring academic discussions on topics relating to race and gender.
Project 2025 also hopes to create a new generation of strong religious adherents by supporting religion in schools. This includes greater access to government funding and decreased governmental regulation for religious organizations, in addition to the total eradication of the Department of Education. Without this, students lose protections for all forms of discrimination, targeting students identifying as LGBTQ+, members of a racial minority group, or students with a disability. By stripping students of these protections, in addition to funding private schools with taxpayer dollars, the public school system will be destroyed, and students will be pushed towards private, particularly religious education.
We are closer to this occurring than it may seem. The beginning of this religious revival is already set into motion with bills like HB71, requiring all public schools in Louisiana to have the Ten Commandments on display in every single public school classroom.
While preaching the importance of religious values like inclusivity and morality, Project 2025 seeks to indoctrinate, exclude, and discriminate. These policies, in addition to the reorganization of power within the government, set the stage for a new America, one that prioritizes mindless obedience over its citizens’ needs. While religious attendance may be decreasing across the nation and throughout the political spectrum, the extremely religious far right and their ‘Project 2025’ aims to re-unify church and state, bringing religion back into schools and sending so-called “woke” ideology out.
So many of our liberties are hanging in the balance of the 2025 election. I urge you to exercise one right you still have: the ability to vote for the candidate that will protect your values and our right to religious freedom.
Emily Gordon ‘25 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at Emily.gordon@wustl.edu.