The number of Americans not associated with any church has stagnated thanks to Zoomers.
Religion has always been a part of American life, back to the country’s founding days. But as much as it’s been used to unite people as “one nation under God,” it’s also becoming a dividing force on a political level, leading to people straying away from identifying with one church.
But now, one demographic group is shifting this trend: Generation Z, which Pew Research defines as being born between 1997 and 2012. Members of the generation — also known as Zoomers — have been increasingly drawn toward religion, particularly Christianity, with data showing the number of Americans who don’t identify with one particular church is stabilizing thanks to them.
“Americans are very religious as a nation, and we’re in this period of people trying to redefine what that is,” said Liz Bucar, a religion professor at Northeastern University. “I think that’s what’s happening with Zoomers in general.”
@northeasternglobalnews The number of Americans that don’t identify with a particular church is stabilizing, thanks to Gen Z. Religion professor Liz Bucar explains why this trend may be. #Religion #Christianity #GenZ #Church ♬ original sound – NGN
The number of Americans that don’t identify with a particular church is stabilizing, thanks to Gen Z. Religion professor Liz Bucar explains why this trend may be. #Religion #Christianity #GenZ #Church
In the early 1990s, up to 90 percent of American adults identified as Christian, according to Pew Research. By 2022, that number had dropped down to about 60 percent. Instead, more Americans identified as having no religious affiliation, having left the religion in which they were raised.
The number of Americans who said they had no religious affiliation number increased over the last several decades, but recently began to stabilize at about 30 percent. Experts say Generation Z may be why these numbers are stagnating as they come of age and maintain their religious affiliation.
But why is this age group shifting the trend from previous generations? To understand this, one must look at why people strayed away from organized religion.
The United States has historically been a nation of diverse religious affiliations with a large Protestant population, Bucar said. But during the ’90s, many people became skeptical of churches, whether it was through their own experience or some of the associations.
“I’ve spoken to people who left their parents’ church because of moral issues that didn’t align with their core values whether that be LGBT issues or issues between genders,” she said. “It’s not true that every single religious community is conservative in that way, but … it’s just a more general feeling that the religion of our parents and our grandparents doesn’t maybe quite work for a lot of us. There’s distrust of religious institutions.”
An increase in religious mobility, individualism and shifting cultural dynamics dating to the 1960s also contributed to this, said Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, an associate professor of religion and anthropology at Northeastern. Many social and moral issues became politicized and this extended to religion, especially Christianity.
“This weaponization of Christianity created anxieties for many young Christians who did not align with the moral frameworks advanced by popular figures in right-wing spheres,” she said. “Overall, these shaping factors coalesced around a loss of faith in institutional religious structures. Along with that loss of faith, we also saw an overt move to no religious affiliation, plus an increasing interest in spirituality that is still strong today.”
These ideas around the beliefs of certain religions still linger, especially around Christianity, Bucar said.
“Christianity has a really bad PR problem,” she said. “There’s a range of ways to be Christian. There are queer-friendly Christian congregations. But that’s not what people associate with Christianity. They associate the loudest voices (with it). The loudest voices don’t speak for the majority … but the loud voices do come down on one side of a lot of social issues or moral issues, and they don’t speak on behalf of the huge diversity of Christianity in the U.S.”
In addition to focusing on more spiritual practices like yoga and meditation, many millennials curated their own spiritual practices. By picking and choosing their own beliefs, they embraced a “spiritual salad bar” approach, as Bucar put it, rather than align themselves with a particular religion.
“What we’re seeing now is a recognition among the Zoomers that that doesn’t work so great,” said Bucar. “It’s pretty hard to curate and combine (practices and beliefs) without an understanding of what it does and what it means, and to have it feel substantial and affect your life in the way that you want it to.”
Organized religion can offer community and security that is critical for Zoomers, many of whom grew up in the shadow of political and social unrest and isolation from the COVID pandemic.
There are certain demographics seeking this out in particular. Young men are leaning into conservative Christian churches as a place to find security in an uncertain world, marking a shift from women generally being more religious. Riccardi-Swartz said what she’s found in her research on converts to the Russian Orthodox Church is that men are seeking out the church as a way to find order.
“We are living through multiple international crises and young men feel disaffected because of politics at home and abroad,” she said. “Finding a structured type of religious world appeals to them during so much social uncertainty. It’s the same reason why public figures such as Jordan Peterson resonate with young men. Structure, stability and someone telling them what to do and how to do it effectively is a positive for these men.”
Students across Northeastern’s many spiritual life organizations said they’ve seen an uptick in involvement as students turn to these groups to find friends and connection on campus.
Munin Mundt, a recent electrical engineering graduate, found this when joining the Lutheran Episcopal Church campus ministries through a chance visit to a meeting freshman year. From there, Mundt became increasingly more involved and saw the organization grow over the last two years as students found it was a way to form meaningful connections with their peers.
“I got involved by chance,” Mundt said. “I wasn’t really looking for religion to be part of my college experience. … (But) I felt a really big sense of home when I went, I felt very comforted and it felt very familiar while also being different in needed ways.”
Northeastern’s Hindu Undergraduate Student Organization has seen a similar boom in enrollment, going from meeting in small classrooms to the Raytheon Amphitheater over the last few years. Current leaders in the organization said more students are seeking out the group’s events as a way to connect to their culture. As the group grows, its events are becoming bigger and better, which is drawing even more of a crowd of people who want to connect with their peers outside the classroom.
“One of the major reasons I just want to be involved was the cultural events,” said Inesh Parikh, a rising third-year behavioral neuroscience major who is HUSO’s incoming co-president. “Growing up, events such as Diwali were super fun. I saw the opportunity to join and participate in those types of activities. That’s the major thing. And as I’ve been involved with this organization, I’ve seen so many people join us for those events.”