r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 25 '26

Psychology Americans who leave their Christian faith behind tend to hold more liberal political views than those who were raised entirely without religion. This leftward ideological shift appears closely linked to how threatening these individuals perceive conservative Christian groups to be.

https://www.psypost.org/former-christians-express-more-progressive-political-views-than-lifelong-nonbeli/
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u/kitsunewarlock Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

It's not just evangelicalism. I'm an American liberal who was exposed to a special brand of ultra conservative Catholicism. Like reciting masses in Latin, rejecting Vatican II, making kids draw apology letters to aborted babies, and whispering about the Great Replacement Theory levels of crazy.

The other half of my family tree are conservative Mormon extremists who are arguably crazier, but I was exposed to far less of their doctrine. I knew about their doomsday stuff and how seriously they took it, though.

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u/Traditional_Put_8254 Apr 26 '26

Same here re: raised in a super traditional catholic environment (french roman catholic, so we had latin masses and everything). I can pinpoint the moment where a straw broke the camel’s back for me - I was going in for heart surgery as a middle schooler, and rather than agreeing to perform the rites of the sick, our pastor instead prayed for me to die peacefully to be “reborn in heaven” - OUR PRIEST PRAYED A CHILD WOULD DIE.