The late James Q. Wilson wrote in 2002: “The right and best way for a culture to restore itself is for it to be rebuilt, not from the top down by government policies, but from the bottom up by personal decisions. On the side of that effort, we can find churches — or at least many of them — and the common experience of adults that the essence of marriage is not sex, or money, or even children: it is commitment.”
Now, nearly a quarter-century later, new evidence shows that young adults, tired of digital isolation and cultural cynicism, and desiring authentic faith and community, are flocking back to churches.
A few weeks ago, The New York Times reported on the wave of people, many of them young adults, returning to the Catholic Church, despite decades-long cultural attacks on that institution. “In our age of uncertainty, and in our age of great anxiety, is a thirst and hunger for God and stability that faith brings to people’s lives,” said Archbishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski of St. Louis.
In addition, the overall percentage of Gen Z identifying as Christians reportedly increased from about 45 percent in 2023 to 51 percent in 2025.
As Rozanski noted, these young adults are thirsty and hungry for God and the stability that faith brings in a world of increasing chaos.
This is very encouraging because, as I write in my new book, What Really Matters: Restoring a Legacy of Faith, Freedom, and Family (Fidelis, 2026), it is faith that gives people purpose, makes men strong and compassionate leaders, provides protection for women and children, and makes America steadfast and vibrant.
It is faith that brings us together as a nation, rather than the “all about me” mantra of secularization that drives us into individual tribes seeking to glorify self over others. America was built on civic groups and other associations, such as churches. And without a rock such as local religious bodies to attach to, people become morally, emotionally, and physically adrift.
It was these associations that Alexis de Tocqueville said “form a society.” Without them, society disintegrates into individualism and moral confusion — the very ills that plague America in 2026.
As Wilson noted, being committed to a church body strengthens other commitments in life, including marriage and family, which provide the cornerstone upon which a healthy society is constructed. The fruit of such commitments is restorative. Within healthy marriages and families, children can better know the love of two parents, and society no longer needs government-subsidized Band-Aids to mask problems that can only be repaired by faith and personal dedication. Most of all, strong marriage and family bonds restore hope for a solid foundation of faith, fidelity, and the life-changing results these bring.
A return to Christianity will bring about not only individual but corporate restoration for our land as people allow religious truth to inform their personal decisions. This will inevitably result in Americans better honoring their commitments to marriage and family and treating others with dignity and respect — a far better alternative to secular governmental “solutions” that offer no antidote to loneliness or hope for empty souls, while pitting people against each other instead of bringing them together.
It is our role to continue stoking the religious revival occurring among American youth to ensure it is not merely a fad but the start of a lifelong journey of faith that will benefit all members of American society. While these numbers are encouraging, they must be sustained over time. Older Christians must commit to providing new converts with the support, discipleship, and community they will need to flourish in genuine, life-long faith.
That is the “legacy of faith, freedom, and family” we need to continue to rebuild. It’s the only way we will ever make our nation once again a shining “city upon a hill,” giving hope that no government program or secular solution could ever offer.
