WATCH: How America lost its way

A Christian pastor who raised his child in his faith was preparing to have him confirmed. Then his son told him he was questioning God's existence.

Beau Stringer, 37, lives near Kansas City and is firm in his faith, working as a pastor at Resurrection, A United Methodist Church. He is also the father to a 14-year-old boy, Luke, who had been due to be confirmed in recent weeks—but then the teenager made a difficult admission to his pastor father: he was struggling with his faith .

Stringer told Newsweek that he and his wife, Abbie, "experienced a moment of grief," but ultimately, they were pleased he was able to be "honest about it."

The pastor told his story in a Threads post to his account @beaustringer on June 10, where he said his son told him that he didn't want to be confirmed, as "I don't know if I believe in God. I don't want to stand up there and lie."

Stringer admitted that many church parents "are terrified of that sentence," and he acknowledged a "flicker of grief" that he allowed himself to feel. He then realized his 14-year-old son "takes faith so seriously he refused to pretend."

"He could have gone through with it. Memorized the answers, shaken the hand, made his parents cry happy tears, collected the cards and the cake," he wrote.

"It would have been easy. Everyone would have praised him. Instead, he chose the harder, truer thing," he said.

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Stringer said that, having worked as a pastor for 15 years, he has seen kids "mumble a faith statement they clearly didn't mean while their parents beamed," and sat with adults who were still grappling with having been raised in a faith they didn't believe in.

And so, when his son told him he had doubts about God, he heard: "I trust you enough to tell you the truth."

"I told him I was proud of him. I meant it more than I’ve meant almost anything," Stringer said. "My love for him has no theology requirement. There’s no version of his spiritual life that costs him his dad."

What would have been his son's confirmation day came and went, and his son didn't attend.

Stringer told Newsweek : "Luke and I have spoken more, and he still just isn’t sure about the whole God thing. A lot of his wrestling comes from the fact that most of his friends aren’t religious .

"He also expressed interest in exploring and studying other faiths before making a decision on the Christian faith—which makes me super proud. I think all of us should be given that opportunity," Stringer said.

His son has "valid" questions about the Bible, which Stringer says "deserve answers." He had the same questions growing up evangelical, but was told to "just have faith."

Now, though, Stringer says, he is part of a faith tradition "that encourages questions" and "invites reason and personal experience into the equation as well."

A 2023 survey from the American Values Atlas found that 27.5 percent of Americans were unaffiliated with any religion, while Christian denominations made up a large percentage of the remaining affiliations, including Protestant, evangelical, Catholic and Mormon.

In 1945, just 2 percent of respondents labeled themselves as having no religion, rising to 22 percent by 2023, according to data from Gallup via Statista.