(The Lion) — Will Christian conservatism die out among Generation Z, which is famous for its “Nones” – Americans with no religious affiliation?

Think again, advises one analyst in a guest essay for the New York Times.

“Predictions that the Christian right would be moribund with Gen Z-ers have proved false,” writes Daniel K. Williams, associate professor of history at Ashland University.

“In the aftermath of Covid – and amid the longing for purpose, community and transcendence that many Gen Z-ers feel – a sizable minority of them have found their answer in conservative Christianity, fueling both a religious and a political revival among these young Americans. They bring a new attitude to the combination of faith and politics, and many see politics as a matter of spiritual warfare.”

Differences from previous generations of Christians

Gen Z Christians live in a world where many of their peers consider themselves nonreligious, with 38% reporting they never go to church, according to Williams.

“The Christian right of Gen Z is different from that of their parents’ or grandparents’ time. Members of those generations largely came of age in the Eisenhower era, when civil religion was so strong that the president led a prayer at his inauguration and signed legislation adding ‘under God’ to the Pledge of Allegiance. Schools in many regions started the day with classroom prayer or Bible reading.”

However, church attendance among this age range – defined as those born during the late 1990s to the early 2010s – outpaces previous generations such as millennials and Gen X.

“According to survey data from the Barna Group, a Christian research organization, Gen Z-ers who go to church are more frequent attendees than churchgoers from older generations. Twenty-four percent of Gen Z-ers go to church every week (a slightly higher rate than for millennials and Gen X-ers).”

Faith plays an important role in the political views of Gen Z Christians, Williams notes.

“Many of these young Christians have turned to conservative politics – a near-seamless mix of Christian faith and the MAGA message,” he writes. “That mix was best demonstrated in speeches that wove political and religious themes at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk.”

As previously reported by The Lion, Kirk’s service had a worldwide audience of 100 million people and featured four members of the Trump administration’s cabinet, Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump.

“Even four years ago, I would never have imagined a presidential administration in which every single Cabinet member at this memorial used their time to share the gospel explicitly and proudly,” said Kaylee McGhee White, a Fox News contributor, in a post on X. “This is a profound act of mercy on our nation. We don’t deserve it, but may we be so bold so as not to squander it.”

Allowing ‘conservative Christian values to flourish’

Williams, who describes Gen Z as “clouded by despair,” recounts how many in this generation “were attracted by Mr. Kirk’s message of confidence and joyfulness in his conservative Christian faith.”

Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated Sept. 10 at a Utah Valley University event.

Unlike their predecessors, Gen Z-ers “don’t seem to have a Reaganite confidence in the free market or a Sun Belt-influenced optimism,” according to Williams.

Additionally, they include more men and nonwhite racial groups.

“The nondenominational or charismatic church option is also appealing to some Black and Hispanic Gen Z Christians, who may shed their family’s traditional Democratic identity when they gravitate toward multiracial megachurches that are more politically conservative,” Williams argues.

“Young male churchgoers now outpace young female churchgoers in weekly attendance, and for the first time in modern American history, they are more religious than their female peers.”

Despite these demographic differences, these Christians share a common belief in the U.S. Judeo-Christian heritage allowing all individuals to practice their faith without fear of government retaliation.

“Ultimately, for many Gen Z conservative Christian political activists, as with earlier generations, politics is a means to create a society that will not only protect the rights of conservative Christians to follow their conscience,” Williams concludes, “but also allow conservative Christian values to flourish.”