If you’ve attended church recently, you may have noticed a curious sight: twenty-somethings in the pews again.It’s been a long time, but they are back.
And why they are back may tell us about the time we are in as a nation and where we are headed next.The resurgence of faith among the young has been notable and swift.A Gallup poll this year found that 42% of young men now say religion is "very important" in their lives, the highest in a quarter century and up 14% since just 2023.According to the Barna Group, Gen-Z churchgoers are now attending more frequently than any other generation, marking a "historic reversal" and the "first time Barna has recorded such spiritual interest being led by younger generations."POLL FINDS SHARP RISE IN YOUNG MEN CALLING RELIGION 'VERY IMPORTANT'Sociologists are bewildered.
Something is happening, but they don’t know what.I have an idea, in part because my own faith journey mirrors that of these young men.I was raised in a Catholic home and attended Catholic grade schools.
But while most of my high school classmates were enrolling at Holy Cross or other Jesuit schools, I chose Williams College, a secular playground — and left my faith behind.Like so many rebellious kids in the early ‘60s, I was seduced by the idea of breaking the chains of religion to live a self-indulgent life.For a time, the questions of the age seemed more compelling than the answers I had been given.I recall the headmaster of my Catholic high school, Father Anthony McHale, telling me, "We will get you in the end." And he was right.
I returned to Catholicism by my mid-twenties — largely, I suspect, for the same reason as today’s young men.The past decade was not so different from the 1960s, marked by progressive overreach, cultural secularism, moral bankruptcy, and political turmoil.Like my generation, today’s young people came to believe that meaning could be found in self-expression and political activism alone.
But it left them rootless and ...