Religion is losing its influence in the American way of life, according to 80 percent of students in a random sampling of 200 Biola students.

This view coincides with research done on a national scale reporting that since the 2012 election, 72 percent of Americans believe the church has decreased in attendance, according to Pew Research data. The research also showed that an increasing amount of people believe churches should express views in politics but not support candidates during elections.

MOVE TO PRIVATIZATION

In recent years the evangelical church has focused on missions and social issues rather than politics, a fact that surprised Darren Guerra, associate professor of political science.

“I could see Christians on the left saying the church needs to talk more about poverty issues and these kinds of things, and Christians on the right maybe abortion, moral issues like gay marriage and that the church isn’t taking a firm stance,” Guerra said.

Religion moves away from its role in being a public sphere of influence to more of a private influence, according to Sarah Seman, Biola alumna and web editor for Townhall, a publication source regarding political analysis and commentary.

“It’s just something that influences their decisions and there is kind of an acknowledgement that if you remain quiet about what your religion is you may have more an influence in society,” Seman said.

Furthermore, individuals in the public sphere have more influence by not speaking about their religion, Seman said. Individuals should not hide or fear speaking about their religion, but rather by doing so they have the ability to appeal their views across different platforms in the political realm.

“I think in order to have a stronger influence it’s better to be able to voice your opinion strongly and not have to rely on being Catholic or Christian or Jew to say what you believe has anything behind it,” Seman said.

REFINING THE CHURCH’S ROLE

The church should stay out of political matters because that deviates from the original role of the church, said Ashley Evaro, junior political science major. Instead, Evaro suggests that churches encourage congregations to intertwine their views with political candidates who they feel reflect their beliefs most accurately, but not support a single candidate.

“The church is a different sort of community. I think it’s very important for religious people to be active in politics and for people to be able to combine their values with their political ideas, but I don’t think the church should be supporting political candidates,” Evaro said.

Students said that Christianity has become a part of a generation of acceptance. Instead of the church joining the trend acknowledging acceptance, the church should allow the good news of the gospel to speak for itself, said Zane Henderson, junior political science major.

“I think that we’re moving towards accepting everyone and that because of that the church will lose the views that are really inside of the Bible,” Henderson said. “So I said that the church should express it’s views. I think that it’ll have trouble doing that in the next 20 years whenever it’s seen as oppressive for doing so.”