Make America Faithful Again: young men and Gen Z embrace Christianity
Despite years of decline, today’s youngest generation is searching for a spiritual anchor amid decades of culture-driven chaos and confusion
Opinion-editorial by Summer Lane | July 28, 2025
“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.”
These words, spoken by Governor John Winthrop in the 1600s, are echoed often by Americans today who point to the religious underpinnings of this nation’s founding. It is routinely claimed among conservatives that America is a “Christian” nation – or was, at the very least, founded with Christian values, and this is mostly true.
America was certainly not founded as an explicitly religious country. The American colonies were offshoots of British culture, threaded with the values and beliefs of Puritans, Quakers, and Protestants who fled the horrific persecution of Europe.
Indeed, America was not founded as a Christian country, but its roots and moral compass were steeped in a biblical worldview – a worldview that mightily shaped the thoughts and actions of the Founding Fathers, who were not necessarily Christian, but nevertheless were influenced by the teachings of Scripture.
President Thomas Jefferson, for example, revered the Bible for its wisdom and guidance, yet bifurcated from the text by using a razor to cut out small verses that he did not like.
General and President George Washington seemed to hold the text in higher esteem, and constantly referenced the Scriptures and its guiding principles in his comments over the years.
From the Mount Vernon Library:
“Like many republicans of the founding era, Washington thought religion was indispensable to cultivating the civic virtues essential to maintain social and political order in a regime of republican self-government. He expressed a commonplace notion of the era when he famously stated in the Farewell Address (1796): ‘Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports.’”
Some Founders were more devout than others, but one underlying truth remains, etched clearly into the history books: Christianity had a profound influence on the founding of the United States of America.
A Christian decline finally stabilizes
Over the past few decades, a dizzying and innovative capitalist market created the most successful and luxurious culture in the world: American culture. Yet with wealth, comfort, peace, and stability often comes a sense of complacency.
How quickly people forget the sting of persecution or the savage, lingering wounds of war. For almost two decades, the number of Americans identifying as Christians has been declining. According to the Pew Research Center, around 60 to 64 percent of Americans identified as Christian between 2019 and 2024.
This year, their data showed that just above six in ten Americans identify as Christians, illustrating a somewhat stable population number, as opposed to the steady decline that has been otherwise prevalent.
Perhaps, as politics and cultural trends have veered so far to the radical left – embracing godlessness and progressive policies that stand in antithetical defiance of American values – the country is ready to return to a balanced center.
A brewing religious revival?
Something is changing in America.
During an interview with Fox News, Crossroads Summer Camp Co-Founder Clayton King talked about the revival spirit he witnessed this year in his ministry.
He shared, “I’ve been in ministry for 38 years, and I have never seen the number of students putting their faith in Christ like I’m seeing right now. Simply put, I believe the Holy Spirit is drawing people to Christ now – specifically Gen Z, Gen Alpha.”
Could it be that the last few years under the Biden administration left America’s youth with a sense of longing? A yearning for hope? A hunger for objective truth separate from subjective propaganda and radical agendas?
“Gen Z and Gen Alpha are coming to Christ in massive numbers,” said Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk. “They don’t want fluff. They don’t want a watered down Gospel. They want the tough, honest Truth. They want the unfiltered Gospel of Christ crucified and the power of the resurrection.”
He’s right. Even The New York Times has reported that young American men are “more likely” to attend church than women, and that young Christian men are also choosing to stay in church.
Impressively, more than half of Gen Z teenagers feel “motivated to learn more about Jesus,” demonstrating a remarkable level of spiritual curiosity, according to data from Barna.
It could be that the winds of revival are on the horizon. As the globe and the U.S. economy begin to stabilize under a new freedom-minded administration, Americans are reaching for purpose and clarity in a world that has been otherwise steeped in total chaos for the last few years.
Photo: Adobe Stock
