Gen Z and Politics: More Conversation
Springtide Research Institute is hosting a series of conversations connected to our 2024 research on young people’s political engagement and attitudes, including when and why religious and political beliefs intersect. Below, members of our Springtide Ambassadors Program (SAP)—Gabriella, 18, Peyton, 15, and Brandon, 24, discuss some of their motivations, passions, and questions about politics. Hear the entire conversation, facilitated by SAP Leadership Fellow Christian Camacho, 25, on our YouTube channel.
Do you consider yourself a political person?
For me personally, I’m not like avoiding a political conversation but I’m not going to go out searching for them or trying to start drama with them. If a conversation would get like too heated or argumentative I’m not going to just like throw myself into the mix and then interject my opinion, but I love having good discussions and sharing my opinion on different subjects if it’s going to be in a respectful and conversational type of way.
Political is such a loaded term. Like would I consider myself a caring person or a person who desires to be engaged? Yes. And would I consider myself a person that cares about government, about ethical laws, and about informed voting? Yes. But I wouldn’t consider myself socially active in a political party or desiring to be a politician. I heard a good quote from a woman named Nancy Pearcey: “Political office is not just a platform for sharing the gospel…and that God created the state for a purpose and we need to ask what that purpose is. How do Christians work to advance justice in the public good?”… we can make legislative victories, [and] we can make ethical laws, but if culture isn’t with us it’s not going to matter ultimately.” So I care a lot more about living out good ethical laws in daily life rather than trying to win a political battle.
Is there any social or political issue that you especially care about? Why that issue?
I don’t even know if this is considered political, but one of the issues that’s been really on my heart has been around young people and gun violence …and crime as well as not having good support systems for nonnuclear families in cities. I don’t know what the actual political term for that is, but the conversations I’ve been in have been around how can we as community members kind of partner with the school systems in providing support for at-risk youth. So that’s something that really matters to me right now.
I think for me a political issue that I care about would be more like human rights. It’s not like just one particular area, but just areas like poverty, women’s rights, and drought or famine in different countries. I really just feel like that’s something that we should be doing more about—I mean we are doing a lot about it—but I just feel that we can always do more. I think I feel this way just because I’m very empathetic. In the household that I was raised in we care a lot about that, and it’s just a natural part of me to want to reach out and try to help people in whatever way.
Do you think it’s important for people in our society to be politically engaged?
I think that we should be engaged, but we should also be informed. As voters, we’re taking responsibility to understand our communities, to be involved in our communities, and to understand the laws and the plans that we’re supporting when we vote. So I don’t think it’s a good idea to be engaged and [to] be voting if we don’t actually understand our communities and haven’t seen things firsthand and how they work. So that’s why I think education is really important—to teach kids about their government, about their constitution, and about their history so that they can better understand how what they’re saying today is going to affect politics and their future lives.
Do you think your religion or spirituality shapes or impacts your politics? How so?
I would say it informs my politics through this belief in communal flourishing and my believing that God longs to see shalom across the earth. God longs to see reconciliation on the earth as well between us and the earth. God is a God who is for those who are oppressed and marginalized. So all of those things kind of inform how I live and even how I engage politically. It feels harder now honestly thinking nationally…who to vote for and who not to vote for and what bills to [support]. …It doesn’t feel as black and white.
Hear these SAP members’ entire conversation on You Tube.
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