The Dramatic Decline In Religion In America Has Halted And It's Up To Parents To Reverse It

The recent Pew Research Poll on religion brought some cautious optimism about our societal future. We know from the data that current ills plaguing society (family breakdown, drug abuse, suicide, depression, plummeting birthrates, crime, disunity, etc.) correlate with the steep decline of religion. We finally have some positive news. According to political scientist Ryan Burge: “We’ve seen the plateau of non-religion in America, Gen Z is not that much less religious than their parents, and that’s a big deal.”

Burge also noted that Gen Z men have bucked historic trends in being more likely to attend weekly religious services than millennials and some Gen Xers. Axios reported another interesting reversal occurring with religion and gender: “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…” https://www.axios.com/2025/05/10/religious-young-people-christianity-rise

Despite the good news, parents are the key to reversing the downward trend but they are currently delinquent when it comes to religious upbringing.

First, the overall rate of decline of Christianity in America from 2007 to 2024 has been catastrophic. According to Pew “The first RLS (Religious Landscape Survey), fielded in 2007, found that 78% of U.S. adults identified as Christians of one sort or another. That number ticked steadily downward in our smaller surveys each year... The latest RLS, fielded over seven months in 2023-24, finds that 62% of U.S. adults identify as Christians. That is a decline of 9 percentage points since 2014 and a 16-point drop since 2007.”

As you track the religious decline, the correlating decline in marriage rates and rise in single parenthood rates. Pew went on to note the positive news “But for the last five years, between 2019 and 2024, the Christian share of the adult population has been relatively stable, hovering between 60% and 64%. The 62% figure in the new Religious Landscape Study is smack in the middle of that recent range.” (Pew Research)

Though the stabilization give us some hope, evidence tells us we will see further catastrophic decline of religion if nothing changes. Pew Poll numbers for the youngest age group (18 to 24) compared to 74 and up are shocking. Only 46% of the youngest age group identifies as Christian, compared with 80% of the oldest. Only 27% of the young group pray daily, compared with 58% of the oldest. Only 25% of the young age group goes to religious services at least monthly, compared with around half of the oldest group. Lastly, the youngest age group is almost four times more likely to be religiously unaffiliated as the oldest group.

The Pew poll showed that parents have the decisive influence on their child’s future religious identification. According to Pew: “More than half of people who say religion was very important in their families while they were growing up also say religion is very important to them today. By contrast, among people who say religion was not too important or not at all important to their families during childhood, just 17% say religion is very important to them today…. The survey finds a similar pattern on questions about religious attendance. 

People who grew up attending religious services regularly (at least once a month) are more than twice as likely as those who didn’t grow up attending services regularly to say they now attend religious services at least monthly.” Parents are more critical today than ever, as today’s society generally entices young adults away from their faith. According to Pew “40% of U.S. adults say they attend religious services less often today than they did as children. 

Just 5% say they attend religious services more often today than they did as kids….. People in the youngest age group are about twice as likely as those in the oldest age group to say they received no formal religious education at all (42% vs. 20%).”

The religious upbringing of children today is quite disappointing. According to Pew “Overall, 26% of people who are currently raising children say they go to religious services at least weekly, and an additional 9% say they go to religious services once or twice a month.” This is in contrast to roughly two-thirds of the parents, who say they went to services at least monthly growing up. These parents are not giving their children what they received in learning about God, in a society where children need more religious upbringing to handle the societal challenges.

Founder and former President John Adams wrote “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the governance of any other.” Other founders, justices, and political leaders have voiced the same sentiment. We need religious citizenry for our free society to work. We cannot rest on a seemingly temporary stabilization of plummeting religion in America. The young parents among us have the greatest obligation to their children and to the nation in the solid religious upbringing of their children. The data is clear about it. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” It's up to us to guide our youth to God while they, and we, still have time.

Col. Bill Connor——Bio and Archives – Col. Bill Connor is a retired U.S. Army Infantry officer, attorney, and founding partner of NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS, LLC. While in the Army, Connor logged multiple deployments to the Middle East, and he has commanded both light Infantry and Ranger training companies. From 2007 through 2008 he was deployed to Afghanistan where he became the senior U.S. military adviser in Helmand Province. Since the start of the October 2023 war in Israel, he has provided analysis to NEWSMAX.