The USA Today opinion piece, published on April 20, 2025, highlights a surprising shift in religious trends in the United States, particularly among Generation Z (born 1997–2012), challenging the decades-long narrative of Christianity's decline. Authored by an observer of Christian trends with experience leading a Christian research organization, the article draws on recent data to argue that a "Quiet Revival" may be stirring, driven by increased church attendance among Gen Z men, growing spiritual curiosity among youth, and a leveling off of the "nones" (those with no religious affiliation). This account summarizes the key points, contextualizes them with broader trends, and addresses their implications, while critically examining the narrative in light of the "church of climate wokeness" critique and the Australian Labor Party's (ALP) cultural disconnect discussed in other blog articles today.
For three decades, Christianity in the U.S. has declined by about 1% annually, with the rise of the "nones" dominating religious discourse. Secularism has been likened to gravity, pulling religious commitment toward a cultural crash. Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study (2024) confirms this, noting a drop from 77% Christian identification in 2009 to 65% in 2020.
A striking reversal has emerged: Gen Z men are now more likely to attend church than Gen Z women, flipping historical gender trends. The New York Times reports that among young Christians, men are staying in church while many women are leaving. A 2023 Survey Center on American Life study quantifies this, showing 54% of Gen Z women disaffiliating from faith, compared to 47% of Millennials and 45% of Gen X.
Barna Research Group finds that most Gen Z teens are interested in learning about Jesus, with younger cohorts driving new commitments to Christianity. The Wall Street Journal notes a spike in Bible sales, largely among first-time buyers, and the 2025 State of the Bible report from the American Bible Society documents increased Bible engagement.
Sociologist Ryan Burge observes that the share of non-religious Americans has stopped growing significantly, halting a 30-year trend. Pew's 2024 data supports this, showing the "nones" at 26%, stable since 2020, suggesting secularism's pull may be weakening.
Faith-based entertainment, such as The Chosen and The King of Kings, is gaining mainstream traction, reflecting a broader cultural openness to Christian narratives.
The article cites a Bible Society report, conducted with YouGov, surveying 13,000 adults in England and Wales. It describes a "Quiet Revival" in the UK, with church attendance up 56% from 2018 to 2024, driven by young adults, especially men (21% of 18–24-year-olds attend monthly). This mirrors U.S. trends, as the UK and Australia often presage American religious shifts.
The "cultural meteor" of 2020—Covid-19, social unrest, and political turmoil—shifted conversations around faith. The author suggests this chaos has prompted a return to existential questions about origin, purpose, and hope, driving spiritual curiosity.
Despite the optimism, challenges persist, particularly the high disaffiliation rate among Gen Z women. The author cautions that it's premature to call this a revival but urges Christians to seize the moment to engage a spiritually curious generation.
The article's findings align with posts on social media which highlight Gen Z men's increased churchgoing, with 24% attending weekly in 2024, per Ryan Burge's analysis. This trend, also evident in the UK (The Independent, April 19, 2025), suggests a global shift among young men, potentially driven by a reaction to secularism's perceived emptiness, as the author notes. Christianity Today (April 15, 2025) adds nuance, pointing to mental health crises—suicide rates up 167% for young girls, anxiety diagnoses up 92%—as a backdrop, with church attendance correlating with better well-being.
However, the article's optimistic framing must be scrutinised in light of the "church of climate wokeness" critique. The Watts Up With That and Daily Sceptic pieces argue that progressive institutions, like The Guardian, have co-opted science into moralistic crusades, alienating traditional audiences. Similarly, the ALP's embrace of climate justice and identity politics, as discussed in other articles, has estranged its White working-class base, pushing them toward populist alternatives. This raises questions about whether Christianity's "Quiet Revival" is a genuine spiritual awakening or a cultural backlash against "woke" ideologies, including those infiltrating religious spaces.
Just as the ALP's focus on climate and diversity has alienated workers, some U.S. churches' alignment with progressive causes (e.g., social justice, gender inclusivity) may drive Gen Z women's disaffiliation. The 54% disaffiliation rate among young women, per the Survey Center, suggests discomfort with either liberalised theology or institutional failures, as Christianity Today notes in its coverage of the #ChurchToo movement exposing abuse.
Gen Z men's return to church may reflect a rejection of secular progressivism, akin to Australian workers' turn to One Nation. Social media posts, suggest young men seek meaning in traditional structures amid cultural chaos, a sentiment echoed in The Independent's report on UK churches attracting diverse, young congregations.
The critique of The Guardian's climate justice narrative applies to U.S. churches adopting similar rhetoric. Some denominations, like the United Church of Christ, frame climate change as a moral imperative, mirroring Friederike Otto's "crisis of justice." This risks alienating congregants who prioritise economic stability or traditional theology, as seen in Australia's housing crisis fuelled by green policies.
However, the article's data suggests a countertrend: churches emphasising orthodox beliefs (e.g., resurrection, Biblical authority) are gaining traction, per Barna's findings. This aligns with Metro News (April 20, 2025), which profiles young Christians like Nathan Lawson, drawn to faith for personal peace, not political activism.
The article's reference to 2020's upheavals ties to Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation, which links Gen Z's mental health crisis to smartphone use. Church attendance, correlating with lower stress (The Independent), offers community and meaning, potentially explaining the male-led revival. Yet, the gender disparity—men staying, women leaving—suggests churches must address women's specific grievances, such as safety and inclusion, to sustain growth.
The "Quiet Revival" could reshape U.S. cultural and political landscapes, especially in the context of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (AOC) potential 2028 presidential run. AOC's progressive platform, rooted in economic redistribution and climate justice, aligns with the "wokeness" critiqued today at this blog. If Gen Z men are returning to conservative or orthodox churches, they may resist her agenda, favouring populist or centrist candidates, as seen in Australia's populist surge. Conversely, her appeal to young, diverse voters could counter this, though her cultural progressivism risks alienating the working-class base, much like the ALP's missteps.
The article's claim of a leveling "nones" trend challenges predictions of secular dominance. If sustained, this could bolster Christian influence in public policy, from education to religious liberty, as seen in Trump's 2025 Easter message promising to defend faith (The White House, April 13, 2025). However, the gender gap demands attention. Churches failing to address women's disaffiliation risk losing half their potential revival, mirroring the ALP's loss of its base to ideological overreach.
The article's optimism may overstate the revival's scope. One study, even a robust one like YouGov's, isn't conclusive, as the author admits. The UK's 56% attendance increase is impressive, but U.S. data (e.g., Pew's 26% "nones" stability) suggests a pause, not a reversal. Economic pressures, like Australia's housing crisis, could also drive spiritual seeking, not genuine faith, a possibility the article underplays. Moreover, the "church of climate wokeness" critique warns against conflating spiritual revival with cultural trends. Some Gen Z men may attend church to reject progressive orthodoxy, not embrace Christianity, a nuance absent from the piece.
The USA Today article documents a compelling shift in U.S. religious trends, with Gen Z men leading a surge in church attendance, Bible engagement, and spiritual curiosity, alongside a plateauing of the "nones." Mirroring a UK "Quiet Revival," this suggests Christianity's decline may not be inevitable, driven by post-2020 existential questions. However, the gender disparity—women leaving at higher rates—and parallels with the ALP's cultural disconnect highlight risks. Like the "climate wokeness" critiqued today,churches adopting progressive narratives may alienate traditionalists, while orthodox congregations could capitalise on this moment. For AOC's 2028 prospects, this revival could complicate her progressive appeal, especially among working-class voters wary of elite moralism. Christians must navigate this opportunity with care, addressing women's concerns and grounding their faith in resurrection hope, not cultural fads, to avoid the ALP's fate of betraying its base.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2025/04/20/easter-church-christian-gen-z-men/83138618007/
"Religious data rarely makes headlines, but a new wave of findings is creating a stir.
For three decades, the percentage of Americans who identify as Christian has steadily declined, a trend confirmed by countless studies. For many believers, it has felt like an inevitable slide into cultural irrelevance. In a season of overwhelmed news cycles, these religious shifts haven't received the coverage they should, but they are significant, and they keep coming.
The dominant religious storyline in recent decades has been the rise of the "nones" − those who mark "none" for religious affiliation. Secularism pulls down religious commitment like gravity pulling down a satellite. Over time, the orbit decays until there is a crash.
Christianity in the United States has followed a similar trajectory, declining about 1% per year. It looked almost inevitable that a crash was looming. But now, something is shifting. And we can see it in the data among Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012.
Gen Z men more likely to attend church
Perhaps most surprisingly, Gen Z men are now more likely to attend church than Gen Z women. The New York Times reported that among young Christians, men are staying in church (at the same time, many women are leaving).
Overall, younger generations are more spiritually curious. Barna research group reports that most Gen Z teens are interested in learning more about Jesus, with younger cohorts leading the way in the growth of new commitments.
At the same time, the dramatic rise of the nones appears to be leveling off. Sociologist Ryan Burge recently observed that the share of non-religious Americans has stopped rising in any meaningful way − a surprising pause after 30 years of growth.
Americans' engagement with the Bible also appears to be increasing. The 2025 State of the Bible report from the American Bible Society found an increase in Bible use and engagement.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Bible sales have spiked, driven largely by first-time buyers.
Finally, Christian entertainment has seen a remarkable surge. From "The Chosen" to "The King of Kings," faith-based storytelling is gaining a wider audience.
It's too soon to announce a change to the direction of secularism, but as someone who has been an observer of Christian trends for decades, including a stint leading a Christian research organization, I've never seen anything like this. As I've been sharing data as part of The State of the Church project, I did not expect it to change this quickly.
The cultural meteor of 2020 ‒ including the COVID-19 pandemic, social upheaval and political turmoil ‒ has shifted the conversation, and it's too soon to determine where it is going. However, Christians love a good comeback story − more on that later.
Churches in the UK are growing rapidly
Next month, I will again teach "Christianity and Contemporary Culture" at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University, but I'm having to update my lecture notes. A surprising − perhaps shocking − report from the Bible Society in Great Britain describes a "Quiet Revival" in the United Kingdom.
The research was carried out by a well-known research firm, YouGov, in partnership with the Bible Society, which surveyed more than 13,000 adults in England and Wales.
The report says, encouragingly: "We found that the Church is in a period of rapid growth, driven by young adults and in particular young men. Along with this, the Church demonstrates greater ethnic diversity than ever before. Both within and outside the Church, young adults are more spiritually engaged than any other living generation, with Bible reading and belief in God on the rise."
Those of us who study trends in church adherence typically look to countries like the United Kingdom and Australia as harbingers of the trends that will unfold in the United States in the coming years. This is just one study, and we need more data, but in times of tumult and turbulence, people often turn to faith.
Mark Twain once quipped, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
The same could be true of Christian faith in the West. Yes, challenges remain, but the narrative of inevitable decline might no longer hold.
This does not mean that there is not work to be done or issues to address. Even in the data I cited, we cannot ignore that within the good news concerning increased church attendance within Gen Z is a concerning trend regarding young women.
Yes, Gen Z men are coming to church in higher numbers. But among those who disaffiliate from the faith, Gen Z women are represented in significantly higher numbers (54%) than previous generations (47% among millennials and 45% among Generation X, according to a 2023 study by the Survey Center on American Life).
So, it's not time to call this a revival. But something is stirring in the data − in the culture. Christians would do well to pay attention, live out their faith and step into the opportunity to share with others.
Secularism, for many, has been found empty and wanting. The chaos and instability of the past few years has people returning to the age-old questions about where we came from, why the world is so messed up and where can we find hope.
As Christians, we can rejoice in a newfound openness because we have this strange belief about death and life − that resurrection is real in Christ, and possible for the church."