Snapshot Of State Of Christianity

AXIOS is a US news website that writes snappy articles about a range of subjects, targeted at social media.

Here’s its snapshot about the current state of the Christian faith:

Christianity is starting to make a comeback in the US and other western countries, led by young people.

WHY IT MATTERS

A decades-long decline has stalled, shaping the future of Gen Z, the drivers of the religion revival.

“We’ve seen the plateau of non-religion in America,” says Associate Professor Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University.

“Gen Z is not that much less religious than their parents, and that’s a big deal.”

BY THE NUMBERS

Data from Pew Research shows that, for decades, each age group has been less Christian than the one before it.

Americans born in the 1970s are 63% Christian. 1980s babies are 53% Christian and 1990s babies are 46% Christian.

But there was no decline from the 1990s to the 2000s. Americans born in the 2000s are also 46% Christian.

SURPRISING STATISTIC

Gen Z-ers — especially Gen Z men — are actually more likely to attend weekly religious services than Millennials and even some younger Gen X-ers.

Professor Burge’s analysis shows this in more detail.

BETWEEN THE LINES

Young men are leading Americans’ religion resurgence.

Within older generations, there’s a consistent gender gap among Christians, with women more likely to be religious than men.

Within Gen Z, the gap has closed, as young men join the church and young women leave it.

If the current trajectory sticks, the gender gap will flip.

ZOOM IN:

Many young people have turned to religion to find community and connection after the isolating years of the pandemic, which hit Gen Z harder than most.

In some ways, this trend mirrors men’s shift to the political right.

“Religion is coded right, and coded more traditionalist” for young people according to Derek Rishmawy, who leads a ministry at the University of California’s Irvine campus.

He told The New York Times that for some young men, Christianity is seen as “one institution that isn’t initially and formally sceptical of them as a class.”

ZOOM OUT:

The resurgence is global.

“In France, the Catholic Church has baptized more than 17,000 people, the highest yearly number of entrants in over 20 years,” Times columnist David Brooks wrote.

The share of British people between 18-to-24 who attend church at least monthly jumped from 4% in 2018 to 16% today, including a 21% gain among young men, according to research from the Bible Society.

WHAT TO WATCH

The deepening gender divide within America’s religion revival could have broader consequences for young people, says Professor Burge.

“People like to marry people like them, and women are increasingly liberal and increasingly non-religious, while men are the opposite of them,” he observes.

“Partnering is going to be a problem.”