(RNS) — If 2025 felt like a particularly chaotic year for religion news, just wait until 2026. Some of the coming cacophony will be an extension of trends that emerged this year: the first full year of Leo’s papacy, the continued religious pushback to President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda, the fallout from Charlie Kirk’s assassination. But there are also some unusual dynamics that could make 2026 an especially difficult year to predict religious trends: the midterm elections, the tenuous ceasefire in Gaza, the inauguration of New York City’s first Muslim mayor.
Those are just a few of the news stories on their radar as RNS reporters look ahead to the coming year. They also expect to cover religion on a more intimate level: from the much touted (but debated) Generation Z revival, to evolving faith practices within immigrant diasporas, to religion on TikTok. Plus, the country’s 250th anniversary.
Adelle M. Banks
After writing about the 250th anniversary of the U.S military chaplaincy this year, I hope to explore the 250th anniversary of the country from a religious lens. As the country looks back, the occasion also could be a way to gauge the survival, resilience and challenges of congregations in 2026.
2026 also is the 100th anniversary of Black History Month — it started as “Negro History Week” in 1926. I hope to add to past coverage of Black history, interviewing authors and experts on the role of the Black church today and in the country’s history, as several of its leaders will have new books and projects in 2026.
Another milestone in 2026 is the 25th anniversary of faith-related offices in the White House, which began with President George W. Bush in 2001. In the coming year, it will be worth considering how initiatives have changed or remained the same over a quarter century.
Bob Smietana
In the months to come, I’m hoping to follow up on a couple of recent reports from Pew Research — one which showed that the decline of religious affiliation in the U.S. has stalled, at least for now, and a second which explored why people keep the faith they grew up with.
I’d like to do more reporting on why religious faith and the belief in organized religion persist at a time when trust in institutions is failing. I’m also hoping to report on religious communities that have been revitalized after years of decline, as well as on the ways megachurches continue to dominate the religious landscape, in some cases becoming their own mini-denominations.
One other big idea to look at is the ties between fossil fuels and religion in the U.S. In the past, money from oil and gas fueled the ministries of such leaders as Billy Graham, funded colleges and congregations, and even sparked a theological civil war with the publication of the Fundamentals, a group of pamphlets that argued for six-day creationism and other literal readings of the Bible. Now, with the danger of global warming, faith groups want to cut their ties with fossil fuels. But doing so may not be so easy.
Yonat Shimron
This past year I spent a lot of time covering the crisis facing American Jews as a result of the war in Gaza. Although a ceasefire has been declared, it’s been continuously violated and there is no immediate prospect of the second phase of the peace plan. That means I will continue to focus on the ways in which Israel’s actions in Gaza — and to a large extent the West Bank — will remain a thorn in American Jewish life. I also expect to write stories about how Christian communities are responding to Israel. While mainline Protestants and Catholics have been fairly consistent in their criticism, there is an emerging chasm within evangelicalism as it relates to Israel. Younger evangelicals are far less supportive of U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons going to Israel, for example. Far-right antisemitism from podcast influencers and others in the Republican Party is a real and growing concern.
I also expect to write more about how religious institutions are evolving on LGBTQ equality, a subject I’ve covered for years now. I am keeping my eyes peeled for ways religious groups are innovating as a consequence of decline. Some are building affordable housing on their properties or reimagining themselves as cultural institutions. I’m curious how these institutions are evolving to meet changing needs.
Jack Jenkins
Religious pushback to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda earned a lot of my attention and several news cycles in 2025. I anticipate that will only continue into 2026 with the Department of Homeland Security — which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement — expecting to make use of a massive influx of funds apportioned by Congress. ICE activity is slated to balloon even further and, I expect, so too will the religious activism against it.
Meanwhile, major Trump administration figures such as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have centered faith — in Hegseth’s case, specifically conservative Christianity — at their respective agencies. I will continue to report on religion’s expanding public role in the administration in 2026. On the other side of the political aisle, I’ll be paying attention to the upcoming midterm elections and the unusually high number of white clergy running as Democrats.
A few other things I’m watching as we enter the new year: The right flank of the Republican Party is locked in something of a civil war of words after the killing of activist Charlie Kirk, with leaders struggling to figure out how to keep the coalition that elected Trump together. And while the president’s mass deportation efforts appear to be costing him support among Hispanic and Latino voters, questions remain as to how Hispanic evangelicals — an emerging swing vote that has been historically courted more heavily by Republicans than Democrats — will vote come November.
Claire Giangravè
Pope Leo XIV will open the new year by convening all the world’s cardinals in Rome for a two-day consistory Jan. 7-8, an early signal that questions of governance are moving to the forefront of his pontificate.
On the table will be reform of the Roman curia, the future of synodality and ongoing tensions over liturgy — issues largely inherited from Pope Francis, whose roadmap Leo has so far followed. But as the pope begins making key appointments and promotions in the Vatican and beyond, his own instincts, priorities and limits will come into focus.
In the year ahead, I will report on how Leo governs: not only who he is as a pastor and global moral voice, but how he exercises authority, manages power and reshapes the church’s leadership culture.
Leo has already pointed to some of the questions that he holds dear, especially unity, peace and the dangers of artificial intelligence. In the next year, I plan to report on how the pope attempts to overcome polarization in the church and his advocacy for a ceasefire in Ukraine and other parts of the world. I will continue to meet with the movers and shakers of AI, who are knocking on the door of the Vatican to hear what the pope has to say about the intersection of faith and technology.
Kathryn Post
In the second half of 2025, claims of revival made headlines as churches and student groups reported surges in baptisms, religious devotion and church attendance, particularly among Gen Z. At the same time, many young people are finding spiritual fulfillment outside of traditional religion. In 2026, I’ll be paying attention to what the data shows about religious shifts within Gen Z and tracking where young people across the religious and political spectrum are turning for hope, purpose and meaning, both online and in person.
I’m curious about innovative, hybrid spiritual spaces built by those skeptical of traditional religion, and about how conservative organizations such as Turning Point USA are using religion to appeal to young voters who were previously politically disengaged. Along with my colleague Jack Jenkins, I’ll be keeping an eye on how TPUSA evolves in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
While I’ll continue investigating abuse and misconduct in religious spaces, I’m also hoping to cover more lighthearted religion stories. I’ll be looking at how the contemporary Christian music space evolves to attract younger audiences, how mainstream artists such as Nick Jonas are tapping into religion in their music, and my favorite topic — religion and musicals.
Richa Karmarkar
2025 was a year that brought nuanced conversations about the diverse Hindu American community to the forefront: discussions of privilege within legal immigration, disagreements on how to present Hinduism to the American audience and even public declarations from the vice president on his wife’s Hindu identity. Hindu Americans have not only solidified their prominence in mainstream political and religious spaces, but I’ve tracked how Hindu traditions themselves have adapted into 2025 America — like Grammy-winning Hindu devotional music, ancient holidays fashioned into gender-inclusive celebrations, and forms of temple dance that align with modern Western feminist ethics. Importantly, we’ve also seen how the politics of India, the ancestral homeland of Hinduism, have made their way into the lives of Hindu Americans, including through vandalism on Hindu temples.
Next year, in the 250th anniversary year of America, I plan to look at how Hindu Americans have positioned themselves alongside Sikh, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Jain members of the South Asian diaspora when it comes to internationally relevant issues — from transnational repression to caste discrimination to Hindu nationalism to violence in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. These distinctions will be crucial in what I anticipate to be more discussions surrounding foreign immigration, ethno-religious diaspora politics and what it means to be an American today. I hope to cover exactly how differences in ideology manifest in immigrant and nonimmigrant Hindu populations, but also how these communities have forged solidarity with one another.
As we continue talking about the religious “nones,” especially in younger generations of Americans, I will be looking to cover how a cohort of young Hindus has flocked to dharmic spiritual wellness practices, such as yoga and meditation, in place of ritual worship at legacy Hindu temples. In 2026, I will expand coverage of Hinduism’s presence in the spaces less spoken about, like the prison and military systems. And as a whole, I hope to continue to increase education surrounding Hinduism’s innumerably diverse practices and practitioners.
Aleja Hertzler-McCain
Although the faith community’s response to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign was a major component of my reporting in 2025, I expect it could become an even bigger focus in 2026 with a massive budget increase for immigration enforcement.
As the rate of detentions and possibly deportations scales up, more congregations will have to reckon with the impact on their families and, for some, their finances. Congregations already burdened by weekly detentions may slide further into crisis. I plan to report on these developments with intimate windows into what congregations are experiencing and big-picture surveys of the national immigration conversation.
Beyond immigration, I plan to cover the impact of Pope Leo XIV on the U.S. Catholic Church. I will be watching to see how his U.S. roots shape not only U.S. church leadership, such as bishop appointments and national initiatives, but also people in the pews. Will his leadership influence a significant number of Catholics to come back to Mass or to more vocations to the priesthood and religious life? As the cautious pope is more settled into the Vatican, we may get a better sense of his impact.
Lastly, I hope to continue to pursue reporting that holds Catholic and other religious institutions accountable when they fail to uphold their public promises and values.
Fiona André
In 2025, my colleagues and I covered how religious New Yorkers responded to the election of Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor. As the local race quickly became a subject of national and international interest, faith took center stage in discussions. In 2026, I look forward to documenting the relationships the Mamdani administration cultivates with the city’s religious communities — from Muslim New Yorkers, many of whom cheered his victory as a win for the community, to parts of the city’s Jewish community that are critical of Mamdani’s stances on Israel.
This year, I also became increasingly interested in reporting on religion and race. From examining what it means to be a racial minority within a religious community to reporting on religious institutions’ racial reconciliation efforts, I hope to delve more into this topic in 2026.
Finally, as communities across the U.S. prepare to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary, I look forward to writing stories that highlight how religious minorities have contributed to the country’s religious fabric and enriched the American religious experience, from advocating for religious rights to introducing new spiritual traditions.
Fiona Murphy
This year, I kept following people trying to live out faith in public, more often than not in moments of strain and frustration. I reported on Catholic sisters praying outside immigrant detention centers, local Catholics fighting to keep their churches open and activists invoking Scripture to challenge corporate overlords.
At the center of these stories, it was fascinating to attempt to describe belief as less of an abstraction and more as a pressing call to action. With ongoing national debates over immigration and climate change and with a declining number of Catholics, I anticipate continuing to follow this into next year.
I also spent time with younger believers, especially those invoking religion in online spaces. From Gen Z Presbyterians, Instagram-famous Catholic priests, AI-generated New Age music and a group of Catholic men who are part of the incel movement known as Groypers, I witnessed how old traditions and religious impulses are being reimagined in the digital age.
I love scouring Reddit and 4Chan and getting lost watching people trying to communicate the meaning of life in the depths of TikTok, and I plan to keep doing that into 2026. The forms may change, but questions about authority and belonging remain constant.
