Study Finds That Queer Christians Quit the Church Twice as Much as Others

A study in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion strongly associated queer identity with a decision to attend church less frequently or stop going altogether.

Taylor Valci was 7 the first time she spoke in tongues. The daughter of a Pentecostal pastor in California’s Bay Area, she grew up watching “Veggie Tales” and attending Missionettes, the Assemblies of God version of Girl Scouts.

“For me, personally, God was absolutely the most important thing in the world,” Valci told Religion News Service.

But by the time she was attending Gordon College in Massachusetts in the fall of 2016, Valci, now 22, no longer considered herself a Christian, at least in part because she was starting to realize she was queer.

Her experience is not uncommon in the Christian church. Earlier this year, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion published a report that said same-sex attraction, behavior and queer identity is strongly associated with a decision to step away from organized religion, attend church less frequently or stop going altogether. Read More i