I’m not a particularly religious person, even though everyone tells me how cool believing in God is now. Every so often, we get a new trend piece about how rad and chill Christianity has become. All the skateboarders and chads are churchmaxxing. Only atheists wear skinny jeans any more. Christopher Hitchens would totally get mogged by Pat Robertson. Personally, I don’t buy it. Influencers like Logan Paul and IShowSpeed aren’t going on Twitch to tell their viewers to tithe 10% of their earnings to the Lord. They’re encouraging them to buy cases and cases of Prime Hydration Drink and watch WrestleMania.

In my research on the topic, I found this article from the Independent this year that claims that gen Z is, like, totally down with Christ and can’t wait to chug Mountain Dew with their local pastor in a musty basement. No sooner had I clicked the link than I found an editor’s note that the poll that supported the claim was found to be fraudulent.

Now, I live in Godless Los Angeles, where most of us only go into a church if it’s temporarily acting as a polling place or a filming location. I won’t pretend to know the trajectory of organized religion in the United States, but I can say for certain that it remains a powerful tool for influence in our politics.

The current grudge match between Pope Leo XIV and Donald Trump is one more provocative tweet away from being booked on to the fight card at this weekend’s........

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