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There’s been a disconnect between stories I’ve been hearing from priests and pastors about religion today and what survey data show.
Leaders of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and nondenominational churches report record numbers of converts, full pews and thriving religious education programs.
But researchers tell a more measured story — overall religious trends in the U.S. show little major change. Sure, the stories behind the headlines are real, but they’re largely exceptions to broader trends.
A recent report from the Pew Research Center addresses this disconnect head-on: the data doesn’t back up the story of a national revival.
“Some media reports have suggested there may be a religious revival taking place among young adults, especially young men, in the U.S. But our recent polls, along with other high-quality surveys we have analyzed, show no clear evidence that this kind of nationwide religious resurgence is underway,” reads the latest Pew Research Center report, which includes data from its National Public Opinion Reference Surveys (NPORS) and the latest Religious Landscape Study.
The religiousness of Americans has remained steady since 2020, according to Pew, with about 70% of people identifying with a particular religion.
The share of people who say religion is important in their lives, who attend church regularly and who identify as religious has remained consistent. This stability, or a plateau, is significant, given the long-term rise of the nonreligious “nones” over the past several decades and the fact that each younger generation has historically been less religious than the one before it.
Young adults are still trailing behind older Americans in religiousness, and they’re less religious than young adults a decade ago. For example, 59% of the oldest Americans pray every day, and only 40% of the youngest do.
Pew surveys do show that the youngest adults sometimes appear more religiously active than slightly older adults at a given point in time. However, this early engagement is often temporary. Many young adults follow their parents’ religious practices while living at home, but religious engagement usually declines once they move out and become independent.
There are some changes that have happened in the last five years, although they’re not as dramatic as headlines often make them seem.
- Gender gap: The gender gap in religiousness is narrowing, largely because young women are becoming less religious, Pew found, not because men are suddenly converting in large numbers. Among women who are between 18 and 24, 57% identify with a religion. Among men it’s 58%.
- Christianity: Christianity continues to see more people leaving than joining. Among today’s youngest adults, 12% have left Catholicism, while only 1% have converted into it. Although some switch to another faith, most become religiously unaffiliated.
- On church attendance: Comparing two General Social Surveys, measures of religious identity, daily prayer and overall religiousness were largely unchanged between 2022 and 2024. Church attendance shows a slight uptick, from 32% to 37%, but the American Time Use Survey indicates no similar increase in attendance among young adults.
As believers look for signs of hope, one way to look at the current faith landscape is not as a single sweeping “religious revival,” but as many small, local revivals. The reasons behind these smaller renewals vary by geography, demographics, the age of the community and their socio-economic status. And whether the local stories of growing congregations will eventually show up in national data remains unclear.
Believers, however, can look for, and learn from, the mini religious renewals sprouting in various pockets across the country.
Fresh off the Press:
- Gen Z grew up with pornography. Now they’re leading the charge against it.
- Women are leaving the workforce in droves. Is the push to ‘have it all’ dead?
Hispanic churches in America
Among the pockets of religious vibrancy in the U.S. are the Hispanic churches. An average new Hispanic church in America starts with 31 people in attendance in the first year, according to Lifeway Research.
“The immediate evangelistic impact of new Hispanic congregations is remarkable,” said Jason Stewart, executive director of mobilization at Exponential. “As the congregation grows, the number of new commitments to Jesus Christ per attendee begins to decline, but the overall evangelistic effectiveness is consistently strong.”
Here are a few other interesting findings about Hispanic congregations:
- New Hispanic congregations are young and largely consist of first-generation immigrants. They also attract those who were previously not church-going. The congregations skew young and they prioritize evangelism, which tends to result in new converts.
- The rigid deportations and immigration policies have put financial strain on Hispanic church communities, the report found. But they’ve also become havens of hope for vulnerable immigrants. Half of pastors have had “to address pain and fear in the congregation from changes in government practices.”
- Many pastors leading Hispanic congregations work full-time outside jobs. About 29% of pastors did not get paid for their work with the church in the first five years, according to the report, while 65% did receive it. Most who did get paid, however, said it wasn’t enough to meet their families’ basic needs.
What I’m reading:
- This Christmas season, some public Nativity displays are being turned into political stances. My colleague Jennifer Graham looks at how the Nativity has been politicized in several churches across the country. — ‘Powerful art’ or blasphemy? A short history of the political Nativity scene, Deseret News.
- A commission under Pope Leo XIV has made a decision not to allow women to become deacons. More study was needed to reassess the verdict, according to the committee. The deacons are “permitted to preach and administer weddings, funerals and baptisms, but not to celebrate Mass.” — After Years of Debate, Vatican Says No to Women Deacons, at Least for Now, The New York Times
- On a recent podcast, Pastor Stuart Knechtle reported a late-night conversation with Barron Trump about Christian faith. Barron Trump Is ‘Very Close to Putting His Faith in Christ’ After 12:30 A.M. Call About Religion, Pastor Claims, People
End notes
A viral song called “We are Charlie Kirk” is an inspiration for the latest onslaught of TikTok and Instagram memes that have exploded in November. Except the heart-wrenching melody, lyrics and dramatic vocals behind the song are manufactured by an AI entity named Spalexma.
The song has topped Spotify’s viral song chart in both the U.S. and globally, according to Forbes, and surpassed 1 million Spotify streams. It also set off a TikTok trend with more than 70,000 videos.
AI-generated videos from Vivotunes show Erika Kirk and JD Vance performing the song. Others are more straightforwardly satires.
Although it’s not totally clear who is behind Spalexma, the project has released other faith-based albums this year.
Some videos mocked the song, while others have used it as a tribute to Kirk, who was assassinated in September in Utah. But what’s striking is that the line between the satire and genuine emotion is blurry and, at least to me, it’s not always clear if the video is mocking a tragic event or if it’s a heartfelt tribute to Kirk.