Campus religious groups report greater interest from students trying to find meaning in 'crumbling' culture

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Theologian Bishop Robert Barron joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss the importance of religion and how religion is not antithetical to science.

Religious sentiment among Gen Z Americans and college students has captured the nation and the media over the past few years and experts believe the trend is indicative of the younger generation's desire for meaning in a culture that hasn't prioritized religion. 

Christian campus groups at universities across the U.S. have seen a growing interest from college students in recent years as Gen Z faces unique challenges like the COIVD-19 pandemic, the rise of social media and the political polarization of society.

Author and religious commentator Billy Hallowell told Fox News Digital that Hollywood, the media and universities typically all come from the same, secular perspective, which has permeated society and given America's younger generation, Gen Z and Millennials, in particular, the false understanding that everything is about "you." He described this as the "'my truth, your truth' generation" which tells America's youth that they can "decide what you think is right and wrong." 

"I think what we're watching happen right now is… people have been living this out," he said. "Gen Z was brought up with it and they're hitting this wall and they're realizing, 'Oh my goodness, this wasn't true.' This lie that you're the ‘God of the self,’ and you get to decide everything, not only is it not true, it's not fulfilling, it leads us to dangerous places, there's no meaning."

Jay Richards, the director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that the trend is interesting because until recently, Gen Zers were reporting very low rates of belief in God and religious practice compared to other generations, but at the same time there has also been a fast pivot the other way in recent years. 

Christian campus groups at universities across the U.S. have reportedly seen a growing interest from college students in recent years.  (Getty/iStock)

"If you look from 30,000 ft, there has been a clear decline from generation to generation in the U.S. in terms of basic religiosity," he said. "Boomers, for instance, and Gen Xers generally score higher in terms of religiosity than Millennials and Gen Zers. But, it looks like there's less movement in the last few years among Gen Zers whom even a couple of years ago had really, really low participation rates in religion, much lower than average rates, in terms of belief in God." 

"But there seems to be a pivot and I think the pivot is the result of the fact that if you're a Gen Zer, you have grown up in a context with a complete loss of meaning, you grew up in a time in which very often your greatest social connections end up being digital," he added. "I just ultimately think that doesn't fulfill the longings of the human heart."

Richards also said Gen Zers struggle more than previous generations with their personal identity, which in turn leads to higher rates of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. 

"I think we see it in the massive explosion of younger people identifying as trans or non-binary and this idea that our bodily sex doesn't really have anything to do with our identity, it's really just this internal sense of gender that I think would only initially occur to someone who spends most of their life in a digital environment in which they have avatars and they can imagine themselves, disconnected from their bodies," he said. 

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Over 30% of Millennials have no religious affiliation, which is up from 22% a decade ago, while 33% of the portion of Generation Z that has reached adulthood have no religious preference, according to a Gallup survey in 2021. In 2020, U.S. church membership fell below 50% for the first time since Gallup started tracking the data 80 years ago. Only 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, which sat at 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.

"The suicide rate [and] the opioid addiction rate, all these things that are happening, and of course, COVID was thrown into that to make people question even more what is going on and what is true," Hallowell said. "Because of that, I think we're watching young people hit that wall and say, ‘What is there?’ ‘Where is meaning?’ 'You've been telling me that I am my own God well, where is true meaning?'"

"That naturally leads people to that age-old question of: ‘Is there a God? And if there is, who is it?’ I think that, from a general sense, is why we're actually watching this massive sort of shift unfold, even as things feel like they're still kind of crumbling in some ways," he added. 

Jay Richards described the events of the past years as the "perfect storm" for a religious reinvigoration in the U.S.  (iStock)

Richards described the events of the past years as the "perfect storm" for a religious reinvigoration among America's youth given recent economic decline, the isolation of the COVID lockdowns, social contagion and the proliferation of what he called "destructive ideas." 

"But if it's in fact true that people are ultimately not fulfilled unless they have communion and a relationship with God, at some point people figure that out and so, I honestly think that's what we're seeing," he said. "Whereas maybe in previous generations, things took place over a much larger timeline, I think Gen Zers, because things have changed so quickly, we're seeing that compressed. So that as a result, if you were to have polled college students in 2019 on their belief in God or their interest in religion, it was much lower than it is in 2024 and we're talking about the same cohort of people, so I think that's a dramatic shift."

While Gallup has limited data on church membership among Gen Zers who have reached adulthood, data indicates their church membership rates are similar to Millennials at around 36%. Hallowell said America's younger generation has turned to political issues, such as climate change, for example, as causes to "worship" in place of religion. 

"When you do remove faith from society, you attempt to sort of push it to the side, not talk about it, something is going to replace that void," he said.

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Dan Allan, Executive Director of Mission Expansion for Cru, an interdenominational Christian organization that works with students at over 2,000 colleges, confirmed that his organization, as well as others, have seen an increase in interest among middle-school, high-school and university students. 

"I think it's true to say that college students are coming into their college experience… with a lower level of biblical literacy," he said. "In other words, there are just fewer kids growing up in church, there's greater amounts of anxiety among students on our campuses, both again at the high school and collegiate level."

"In the midst of all that, I think that there's an openness to say what's working and in a culture that is increasingly individualistic, in a culture that is increasingly anxious, in a culture that is increasingly polarized, I think people are looking for: ‘Is there a better way? Is there a better answer?'"

Experts predict there's an increased openness to explore what is working in a culture that is increasingly individualistic.  (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Events like the Asbury Revival at Asbury University in Kentucky have demonstrated the religious sentiment among college students. The outpouring of people went viral last February after students refused to leave following a chapel service that evolved into a 16-day, around-the-clock praise and worship service, garnering millions of views on social media and prompting tens of thousands of participants from across the country to come see the event for themselves. 

An estimated 50,000 visitors, including students from over 200 schools came to visit, according to accounts from students and faculty, Fox News Digital reported at the time. In response, schools like Samford University in Alabama, Cedarville University in Ohio and Lee University and Belmont University in Tennessee saw similar religious demonstrations. 

"What a lot of people don't know, is that there were students from, as best we can tell, at least 287 other campuses who came to Asbury to, in a sense, peek in to see what God was doing," Allan said. "We heard reports of dozens of other campuses that had similar times of extended prayer, of extended confession, extended seeking the Lord as they are looking to God for direction in their lives."

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Abby Laub, director of communications at Asbury University, told Fox News Digital at the time that she believes Gen Z is spiritually hungry.

"If you look at the world, and you look at what is going on and what Gen Z is facing, I just think they are absolutely desperate for something other than what the world is giving them right now," Laub said.

Hallowell argued that one of the main reasons Asbury captured the attention of the media and thousands of Americans in many ways is because it was considered so "countercultural" and led to a number of other positive, "eyebrow-raising" events. 

In September, more than 200 students at Auburn University were baptized in one night after a campus worship program that was reportedly attended by hundreds. Other mass baptisms took place across the country throughout the year. 

"There were about 4,100 people out of Pirate's Cove in California who were baptized and... you had Greg Laurie, a pastor out in California, he baptized 4,500 people at that same beach, it was the largest mass baptism in American history, potentially in world history that we know of, and so there's clearly something going on here," Hallowell said. "I think it also points to that desperation that people have to find something beyond themselves, and they're finding that, especially young people, in faith."

Allan described these "extraordinary… outpourings of the spirit," as events that seem "out of the ordinary." "This feels special, like something that you just don't see every day… might we really be living in a very special moment," which he said gives him hope for America's younger generations.

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"I'm very hopeful for this generation because they're not coming with a veneer of religiosity," Allan said. "They are coming and there is a genuine searching for meaning in life, there's a searching for: ‘Why am I here? Where am I going?’ All of these kinds of existential questions and as a result, I think that they're finding answers as they explore the person of Jesus and the Christian faith."

Richards said his latest book, "Fight the Good Fight," looks at the revivals and spiritual renewal the U.S. has seen throughout its history, which he believes the country is "absolutely ripe for."

"Historically, you've never had cultures that were persistently atheistic and so I think that's an indication that we are naturally religious," he said. "It couldn't continue forever, and I think we may already be at an inflection point in which more young Americans are actually reconnecting with spiritual traditions."

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Fox News' Jon Brown, Nikolas Lanum and Kyle Morris contributed to this report.