‘Church offers a sense of community’: Independent readers have their say on Gen Z’s turn to Christianity

A surprising rise in Christianity among Gen Z has sparked a lively and nuanced debate among Independent readers, with opinions ranging from celebration to caution and scepticism.

Many welcomed the shift, seeing it as a positive sign that young people are seeking stability, purpose, and community in an increasingly uncertain and divided world.

For some, Christianity offers timeless values like forgiveness, compassion, and belonging – things they feel are missing in modern life.

Others were more cautious, raising concerns about the influence of politicised or evangelical forms of Christianity, particularly those in the US, which are often linked with intolerance or right-wing agendas.

Some feared that these expressions of faith could promote division and control, rather than encouraging personal reflection and kindness.

Many readers also questioned whether some young people are drawn not to belief itself, but to the structure and certainty that religion offers, especially in contrast to the confusion and instability around them.

While views differed, most agreed that Gen Z’s renewed interest in Christianity says something important about society – and that, for better or worse, faith still plays a powerful role in how people navigate the modern world.

Here’s what you had to say:

Christianity’s message is as true now as it ever was

People see first-hand the changes around them and are looking for answers that are not forthcoming from our morally bankrupt leaders. The thousands-of-years-old message of salvation and forgiveness Christianity offers is as true now as it ever was. Within each human, there is a calling for the spiritual, a God-placed hole. And if that is not filled with a loving Christianity, it will be filled with something much worse for society.

As a Christian, I celebrate the miracle of God becoming incarnate and suffering our sins on the cross so that we might be forgiven and have communion with God. Many hundreds of thousands are coming to this realisation. To blame topics like the “manosphere” and “red pill” is frankly simplistic and misses the point that in a constantly changing society, Christianity offers assurances that cannot be replicated with “secular” trappings.

So to all Christians reading, I wish you a happy Easter. Have joy in your salvation, be blessed knowing Christ is risen and has conquered death. Hallelujah.

JamesHarking

Community

My elder sister, brought up C of E, is now a Methodist. From what she tells me, they have lots of activities, and many centred around feeding their faces. They appear to be a community, and she has lots of friends.

Well, whatever rocks your boat and boosts your self-esteem has got to be good. Each to their own, I say.

49niner

Belonging

I think this may be a good thing, provided it is fully inclusive and gives everybody the chance to be welcomed. There is a lot of loneliness out there.

We are not talking about the abomination that some of the hate-fuelled MAGA churches have become, and whose disciples hang around outside British clinics. If young people get a sense of belonging to what should be good, then why not?

DeactivatedWhy

Who could blame anyone for looking for a better meaning to life?

Explaining belief to others? Showing evidence of facts behind beliefs? Tell me, why do people (I refer mainly to the poorer masses) vote in the belief that those in power care about them, given centuries of evidence that that belief is untrue? It’s no wonder people turn to religion in the face of the facts that, for the majority of people in this world, they cannot rely on other humans, especially those who have power over them, to care about them. In the face of seeing so much corruption, which has been exposed more to the younger digital generation than any generation before, who blames them for losing their faith in people, and for looking for a philosophy that teaches to be kind and that at least God loves you, even if the world seems against you?

And with all due respect, this world of human beings we live in is cruel (please show me the evidence that it is not!). Who could blame anyone for looking for a better meaning to life than making money, no matter its cost to any other living being or the planet, which is what the world is really like?

Look at the death, destruction, abuse, of humans, animals, nature, all around us, and tell me, how can you believe in this without losing your mind? Honestly, at 50 years old, I’m so happy I’ve got less time to live in this world than I’ve lived, because I am sick of seeing the cruelty. It literally makes me feel physically sick to see what humans do. But if you’re young, with your whole life ahead of you, I can see you’d need some belief to steer you away from the terrible truths around you.

Pen2030

A new generation of thinkers

“A recent piece of research commissioned by the Christian student movement Fusion, meanwhile, found that even non-religious students were open to exploring Christian ideas. Survey data from 2,030 undergraduates, of which 39 percent identified as Christian and 36 per cent identified as “no religion,” revealed that half of all respondents said they were interested in reading the Bible in their spare time. Some 37 percent of students with “no religion” stated that they already owned a copy of the Bible; 13 percent of the same group claimed they prayed weekly.”

Splendid news! Today’s students are turning away from the tired old atheism still propounded by some of the older generation. References to “Life of Brian” or Dawkins now come across as the faded slogans of a bygone era. The new generation is sharper, more intellectually curious, more philosophically literate and more willing to take religion seriously.

Musil

Churches are places of tolerance

Andypandy

New minds and approaches

If Christianity helps a troubled generation find stability and peace, then good for them and I wish them well. This world has not been kind to them, and they have not been kind to themselves.

Personally, I associate formal religion with spite, hypocrisy, dreadful scandals – often involving the young and helpless, blinkered thinking, and amoral greed. But perhaps it has moved on, with new minds and new approaches.

Pandemonium

Alt-right influence

There’s an indisputable link between the alt-right and Christianity, particularly that of an evangelical variety.

From the Crusaders through the Iraq war to Donald Trump, if you have “God on your side,” all manner of savagery can be excused, and all manner of oppression justified.

We don’t need a deity to be moral. We don’t need a deity to be able to discern the difference between right and wrong, and we don’t need a deity to be spiritual and to celebrate the wonder of evolution. This development looks like another step on the slippery slope to intolerance to me.

PinkoRadical

Faith and comfort

I’m generalising, but perhaps those who see only a difficult future choose comfort in blind faith. The ever-increasing concentration of wealth among oligarchs with little social conscience leaves many feeling excluded and hopeless. A church offers acceptance and a sense of community, which has possibly gone from our society, for now.

JohnnyBanana

A way of life

Christianity is not a religion despite the ongoing attempts by some churches to make it so. It is a way of life which offers supernatural blessings of all kinds to those who will repent and ask the Father for baptism of the Holy Spirit. Requirements are few: Be baptised in water, love the Father and people, and do the simple remembrance act with bread and wine, that’s it.

The number one evidence that you got it right, Jesus said, is “Truly, truly, he that believes in me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do because I go to the Father.” You will hardly ever hear this preached because most so-called pastors and leaders have failed to get there.

Eccles

Gen Z and dogma

Gen Z love any dogma. They just like being told what to think instead of figuring it out for themselves. That’s why authoritarian governments, Andrew Tate, and organised religion are gaining strength. I’d rather have people at an inclusive church than a riot against refugees, but the trend is the same. It’s a return to being tribal about beliefs, using visible identity markers and being indifferent to nuance and debate. Pick your dogma and see it through. A trend away from the careful reflection that can open the door to cynicism or rational thought.

Leithersayswhat

Traditional Christianity

I’m an agnostic, but I suppose it’s ok for people to give church a try, so long as it is the more traditional, low-key type of Christianity. What worries me is the influence of these right-wing, mainly evangelical Christian groups. Many of the members are dripping in self-righteousness, arrogance, and hypocrisy. You only need to look at the USA to see the negative effect such groups have. Many of them want outright bans on abortion, gay marriage, and rights for gay people.

Whatever happened to the Christian idea of live and let live, eh? They do their best to interfere with the school curriculum, with their demands to censor many aspects of personal and social education. They demand the removal of certain books from school libraries that offend them and expect creationism to be taught as an equal argument to scientific fact!

tommy2tops

We need a new religion

Church? Nah, far better to go back to Sumeria and Inanna, Goddess of Love, War, and Fertility! Springtime and rebirth?

What we really need is a new religion – one that honours and learns from nature again. And nature’s child, science. One that could put paid to the existing and divisive cultural nightmares that flourish mainly for geopolitical reasons. One that brings all of humanity together, if they can’t do without the metaphysical at all. Or as artists call it, abstraction.

covergo

Broadly good

I think this is broadly a good thing. There will always be a place for religion in this world, and churches in the community will always be important, regardless of one’s faith or otherwise.

Poulter

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.

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