It’s in our gestures of gratitude and triumph—the ballplayer touching the Star of David around his neck and pointing a finger to the heavens as he rounds the bases after a home run.
It’s on our coins and currency—“In God We Trust.”
It’s even in our jokes—“a priest, a minister and a rabbi walk into a bar…”
The influence of religion in American life is unmistakable. And now, according to a new Pew Research Center survey, a growing minority—37 percent of US adults—say religion is gaining influence in American life, the highest share recorded in a quarter-century.
Furthermore, over half of us say religion plays a positive role in society.
“We’re sensing, based on the data, a change in the religious environment in this country.”
Since 2020, a growing body of evidence suggests that what many once saw as the permanent decline of religion in America has leveled off, ushering in an unexpected period of stability.
After decades of decline beginning in the mid-twentieth century, the share of Americans who identify as Christian or members of other faiths has remained remarkably stable over the past five years. About 44 to 46 percent of us pray daily, most of us believe there is a soul or spirit beyond the physical body and nearly four in five of us say there is something spiritual beyond the natural world.
But periods of stability can’t last forever—eventually, the tide rises or falls. In America, the spiritual tide is rising. One key indicator is a sudden spike in the number of young men attending houses of worship. Another is record enrollments in religious colleges and universities. Yet another is the surge of people identifying with a variety of religions—Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and others—which has made America, for the first time, the most religiously diverse among the world’s largest nations.
In short, “We’re sensing, based on the data, a change in the religious environment in this country,” according to Gallup senior scientist Frank Newport.
In his celebrated essay, “Religious Influence in Society,” Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard observed: “For the last hundred years or so religion has been beset with a relentless attack. You have been told it’s the ‘opiate of the masses,’ that it’s unscientific, that it is primitive; in short, that it is a delusion.
“But beneath all these attacks on organized religion there was a more fundamental target: the spirituality of man, your own basic spiritual nature, self-respect and peace of mind.”
He continued: “Convince a man that he is an animal, that his own dignity and self-respect are delusions, that there is no ‘beyond’ to aspire to, no higher potential self to achieve, and you have a slave. Let a man know he is himself, a spiritual being, that he is capable of the power of choice and has the right to aspire to greater wisdom and you have started him up a higher road.”
In America today, more people are choosing that higher road.
