One Nation, Under God – The New York Times

As religion in America declined, experts administered last rites.

Churches were approaching “their twilight hour” as attendance fell, The Brookings Institution wrote in 2011. In his 2023 book, “Losing Our Religion,” the evangelical preacher Russell Moore asked: “Can American Christianity survive?”

The answer appears to be yes. People have stopped leaving churches en masse, according to a new study released this morning by Pew Research. America’s secularization is on pause for now, likely because of the pandemic and the country’s sustained spirituality. Most Americans — 92 percent of adults — say they hold one or more spiritual beliefs that Pew asked about:

“Spirituality is not declining. And in fact, it’s high; it’s stable,” said Penny Edgell, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota.

The United States is an outlier compared with most other Western countries, which are far less religious. America’s persistent religious and spiritual curiosity is visible in its centers of power. In Washington, President Trump and JD Vance talk a lot about God in their quest to remake America. In Silicon Valley, tech billionaires — long obsessed with religion-adjacent projects like artificial intelligence, transhumanism and immortality — are warming to Christianity. In Hollywood, films and shows about faith, such as “Conclave,” the latest season of “The White Lotus” and “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” have dominated streaming charts.

Below, I’ll explain why religion still has such a strong hold in America.

What is happening?

Over the last 25 years, tens of millions of people left American religion. It was a major shift that affected how people voted, when they married and where they lived. Christianity took the hardest hit: Around 15 percent of American adults who once went to church stopped going. While some people switched to new faiths, many left religion altogether.

Experts called this phenomenon the “rise of the nones,” a group that includes atheists, agnostics and people who said in surveys that they identified with “nothing in particular.” The nones grew to include about 30 percent of the country.

But the rise of the nones has stopped, Pew found. People are no longer leaving churches en masse, and other major religions are growing, largely because of immigration.

The report’s authors are careful to say that the nones could resume growing, especially as younger people, who are less religious than older people, age. (Read more about the report from my colleague Ruth Graham.)

Why is this happening?

Experts point to a few possible explanations.

First is the pandemic. Pew found that people turned to faith for support during those years, as the number of people going to religious services — either in person or virtually — remained consistent at about 40 percent. About a quarter of Americans even told Pew that the pandemic had strengthened their faith. “Religion was in their psychological tool kit for dealing with the hard times,” said Alan Cooperman, an author of the report.

The second explanation is that secularization has a limit in the United States.

Americans pray more often, are more likely to attend weekly religious services and value faith in their lives more than adults in other wealthy democracies like Canada, Australia and most European countries, Pew found in a separate study. Americans — both religious and not — also report high levels of spirituality: Eighty-three percent say they believe in God or a universal spirit, Pew found.

Ryan Burge, a political scientist, argues that most people who disagree with their religion on political or social issues — on Trumpism, abortion or gay marriage, for instance — have already left or switched faiths. “What’s left is like the bedrock of American religion, which is exceptionally large,” he said. The report reveals how many people remain committed to their religious traditions even after those defections.

What does this mean?

We’re in a moment of resurgent religious conservatism. The Supreme Court has anointed prayer in public schools. Elon Musk said he believes in the teachings of Jesus. Religious tradwives reign supreme on Instagram. The right says it all amounts to a “vibe shift.”

Still, those examples are anecdotal. And as the swing from George Floyd protests to sudden D.E.I. takedowns shows, vibes in America can shift quickly.

This data doesn’t rely on vibes. Instead, it offers measurable insights on the trends shaping American politics and culture. The ranks of the godless have stopped growing for now. But, when it comes to spiritual longing for the possible, the transcendent — Americans are surprisingly in agreement.

Related: We want to hear more about people’s experiences with religion or spirituality. Have you discovered, deepened, questioned or lost faith? I’m working on a project about the moments that shape our beliefs. Tell me your story here.

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