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On how COVID polarized churches:

www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
In many churches, COVID-19 brought those simmering tensions to a boil, forcing many pastors to weigh in for the first time on a highly divisive political issue. Suddenly, taking pandemic precautions-masking, digital-only worship, or social distancing-was tantamount to Christian persecution. Small exoduses occurred in pews across the country as congregants left for churches that reaffirmed their views of COVID, thereby speeding up the polarization of American churches that was already well underway. "We are seeing a migration-maybe not toward homogeneity-but a fairly well-defined orthodoxy that is primarily conservative and by implication conservative politically," Haney told me. "I call it the 'tithing of members. When there is a church that is clearly dialed in on an issue that resonates with a moment in the culture, the churches that are not quite as adept at the cultural, attractive issue of the day tithe members to that other church."
January 5, 2026 at 6:49 PM