DID YOU KNOW: Signs Abound That U.S. May be on the Threshold of a Spiritual and Cultural Revival

(FIVE-MINUTE READ) — At a time when bad news seems to come at all of us from every direction at an incessant pace, two emerging trends suggest relief is coming, thanks to a spiritual and cultural revival that is gathering strength across the country.

The two trends include, first, the growing interest among Gen Zers, and in particular among young males of that generation, in the Bible and attending church, and, second, the revival of marital fidelity and stability.

Here’s how I described the first trend in a recent post on PJMedia:

“But Zoomers who are flourishing are into the Bible, according to the American Bible Society’s John Plake, who is editor-in-chief of the State of the Bible Study 2025. For the first time, Gen Z’s average score for close personal relationships went up, from 6.6 in 2024 to 7.0 in 2025.

“‘And here’s something even more encouraging: When Gen Z and Millennials deeply engage with the Bible, their lives look dramatically better,”‘Plake explains in the “How’s Everybody Doing” video short on YouTube.

“‘Among 18-44 year olds who are scripturally engaged, the average Human Flourishing Score is 8.1. That compares to just 6.7 for those who don’t engage with scripture and 6.9 for the generations overall,’ he adds.

“And Bible sales are rapidly increasing, by 22 percent, while young men are conspicuously returning to church attendance, and, while marriage rates from Boomers to Millennials fell, Zoomers are showing a huge increase in marital planning and interest, the Christian Post reports.”

There is no doubt that the last five years, beginning with the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, were especially tough for Gen Zers, economically, politically and emotionally. From tough times, however, can come much-needed growth and change.

And note the link between those who are flourishing today and the growing interest among Gen Zers in the Bible and attending church. These kinds of leading-edge trends tend either to fizzle out fairly quickly or prove to be heralds of big changes. I’m not a betting man but I will not be surprised if five years from now we will be marveling at the continuing strength of this transformation.

The second, very much related emerging trend concerns marriage and divorce, as explained in a recent analysis by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS):

“The biggest shift relates to divorce. After peaking in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the divorce rate has been falling in recent decades. In fact, the divorce rate has hit a 50-year-low (emphasis added). Since the 1980s, each cohort of married couples has seen their risk of divorce decline …

“For Baby Boomer couples marrying in the wake of the counterculture, the 1970s and 1980s, it looks like at least 50 percent of those couples will end up divorced. But as marriage has become more selective, with more educated, affluent, and religious couples becoming more likely to put a ring on it than the general population, marriage has been stabilizing in one cohort after another.”

And it’s not just the marriage/divorce rate that is changing, according to the IFS. The illegitimacy rate — children born to unmarried mothers — spiraled ever higher as the divorce rate went up. But now that doleful trend is reversing:

“The trend, which had been rising on an almost year-over-year basis since the 1960s, peaked in 2009 at 41 percent (as the Great Recession took hold) before ticking down to about 40% a few years later, where it stands now. This matters for family stability because children born out of wedlock are significantly more likely to see their parents break up than children born to married parents.”

And, as the percentage of kids born out of wedlock begins heading downward, the percentage of children being raised in intact families goes up, according to IFS:

“Less divorce and a modest decline in childbearing outside of marriage equals more family stability for children and what looks like the end of the family revolution that began in the second half of the twentieth century.

“This is manifested, most clearly, in a reversal of the trend regarding children being raised in married-parent families. In 2012, according to the Current Population Survey (CPS), the share of kids raised in a married-parent family hit bottom at 64%. Since then, it has risen to 66 percent.”

Older Hill staffers who recall the Folk Rock era in popular music will recognize this title from Bob Dylan – “The Times, They Are A’Changin’.” And they still are today, 6o years later, but this time around the changes are for the better, especially for the kids, Mom and Dad, and for America.

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