Young men are leading a religious resurgence

Christianity is starting to make a comeback in the U.S. 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 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 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.Stunning stat: 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, Burge’s analysis shows.Between the lines: Young men are leading American’s 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, Derek Rishmawy, who leads a ministry at UC Irvine, told The New York Times.Plus, for some young men, Christianity is seen as "one institution that isn't initially and formally skeptical of them as a class," Rishmawy told the Times.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,” New York Times columnist David Brooks writes.The share of British people between 18 to 24 who attend church at least monthly jumped from 4% in 2018 to 16% today, including 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, Burge says."People like to marry people like them, and women are increasingly liberal and increasingly non-religious, while men are the opposite of them," says Burge. "Partnering is going to be a problem."

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