Sixty years ago, the youth movement on college campuses set out to upend our culture’s status quo — the rebellion created a seismic cultural and political shift away from post World War II traditionalism.
And for the next 60 years, we inched towards leftist ideologies that began with noble purposes such as the Civil Rights Act and equal pay for women. Then we went from center-left to leftist to far left. The ideology infiltrated all of the dominant cultural centers: government, institutions, technology, academia, corporations, Hollywood, and legacy media.
And church attendance across all faiths, particularly among our young people, plummeted.
Pretty soon, what was once the counterculture was now the status quo — it had the power and influence on society. It wasn’t until COVID and the unbearable totalitarianism of its impact on our society that people began to see that our dominant cultural power base needed a dose of its own medicine.
Every counterculture movement is a rebellion against the dominant culture. Now, our young people are leading the way by rejecting the conformity demanded by our culture and its elite gatekeepers who crush dissent from anyone who questions their authority.
What has been missing for many young people is a relationship with God. I first noticed this soft awakening in 2023 when walking across the Roberto Clemente Bridge here in Pittsburgh and saw hundreds of young people literally jumping in the water while religious music was playing on the shore line.
It was a spontaneous baptism that included hundreds of young people who decided this was the day they would accept Jesus into their lives. The moment was powerful and moving — just as powerful and moving as two Sundays ago when days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, young people showed up at The Sanctuary Church in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. They came by the droves to express their faith.
“And what we are witnessing across this country is an awakening with our young people, a true revival.”
These moments are not anecdotal. Two recent reports have shown a dramatic shift among young people and their relationship with their faith. First, the Pew Research Center released a report showing that the decades-long decline in Americans identifying as Christian leveled off, followed by a survey done by the Barna Group that showed that downward trend is now in full reverse.
And who is driving the return to church? These reports show the rise in faith is being driven by those in their 20s and 30s.
“Since the pandemic Millennials and Gen Z have shown significant increases in commitment to Jesus,” the Barna Group study reads, “while Boomers and Gen X, especially women, have remained flat in their commitment levels to Jesus.”
Last Thursday, a remarkable moment happened on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh when 600 college students showed up for a first-ever “Pitt for Jesus” event. There, it was clear we are in the midst of a revival.
The event featured nearly 100 baptisms, live worship music, prayer, testimonies by athletes and a spiritual awakening among young people that was profound to experience.
Sunday’s memorial service for Charlie Kirk was an example of a large revival. These young people have behaved boldly since the horrid murder, but not in the way our current cultural curators find acceptable, as Erika Kirk said on Sunday.
“These past 10 days after Charlie’s assassination, we didn’t see violence. We didn’t see rioting. We didn’t see revolution. Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw...
So I guess my response to Salena Zito is a counterpoint to what she's arguing. I'll be the contrarian to what she's trying to argue here.
She's essentially saying that church attendance is up and more American are finding God again because:
"Since the pandemic Millennials and Gen Z have shown significant increases in commitment to Jesus,” the Barna Group study reads, “while Boomers and Gen X, especially women, have remained flat in their commitment levels to Jesus...
But according to the United Religious Initiative:
"Jesus Christ's core religious philosophy, deeply rooted in his Jewish heritage, centered on the love of God and neighbor, emphasized a God of love and mercy, and taught a form of virtue ethics focused on compassion and selfless living, as best summarized by his command to love God and love your neighbor as yourself and his use of parables to convey moral lessons. His teachings also included radical ethical principles, such as the importance of seeking the Kingdom of God, giving to the needy, and pursuing peace and nonviolence, all presented within an apocalyptic framework of God's impending intervention in history...
From the United Religious Initiative
Now, based on what I showed you from URI, does that sound like MAGA today?
Does their Dear Leader Donald John Trump sound like a man who believes:
"love of God and neighbor, emphasized a God of love and mercy, and taught a form of virtue ethics focused on compassion and selfless living, as best summarized by his command to love God and love your neighbor as yourself and his use of parables to convey moral lessons..."?
Is what you hear from FOX News, or Newsmax every night (assuming you even watch FOX News or Newsmax) sound like people who believe:
"love of God and neighbor, emphasized a God of love and mercy, and taught a form of virtue ethics focused on compassion and selfless living, as best summarized by his command to love God and love your neighbor as yourself and his use of parables to convey moral lessons..."?
Do you think any of these MAGA podcasters, their reality TV stars, their religious zealots who bash people to their face, for being gay, or simply using their First Amendment of free speech, to speak out against the President of the United States... do those people sound like people who believe:
"love of God and neighbor, emphasized a God of love and mercy, and taught a form of virtue ethics focused on compassion and selfless living..."?
Now maybe Salena Zito managed to find the last of the true believers (when it comes to Jesus Christ) on the far-right in America. But these folks aren't religious, as far as how they practice their own lives and what they believe. If they have a "God" at all, that person is Donald John Trump. Or, that's the person that they view as God.
I don't agree with political satirist John Fugelsang on everything. He's way to the left of me and the rest of this blog, ideologically. But he's a helluva lot more Christian than Donald John Trump and his hardcore followers, could ever dream of being... even in their longest and best marijuana, or meth highs, and during their best drunk fantasies. And I'm going to give you a few of his quotes about people who claim to love the Bible, even though they've never even read the damn book, or understand it:
John Fugelsang: The only way you can follow both Trump and Jesus is if you've never read either of their books.
I've come to view Jesus much the way I view Elvis. I love the guy but the fan clubs really freak me out.
People get God and religion confused. I think God is a bit too hip to join any of his unauthorized fan clubs.
You can find the rest of his quotes on AZ Quotes
American fall into religious cults because they're lost and they find someone 1 day, or perhaps the actual cult leader, who sounds so pure and intelligent, that it's like hearing from Jesus Christ himself. But what they don't know, is the cult leader is not actually following the text of Jesus, or the Bible itself. He's at best taking samples of what Jesus said, or what's in the Bible and blowing them up to fit his own agenda.
I don't enjoy calling people cultists, even for comedic reasons, but that's what Donald John Trump's base is. They seem him as the Son God (that they don't even believe in, or at least don't understand) and have decided to take every word and action that this man makes, regardless of what he says and does, and treat it like it's from the Son of God. Which is why he's always had hardcore base of 35% (give or take) and another 10-15% of the country with him on presidential election days, simply because they can't bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, for any reason whatsoever.
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