In a First Among Christians, Young Men Are More Religious Than Young Women

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-09-23 20:41:41 | Updated at 2024-09-30 15:25:34 6 days ago

In a First Among Christians, Young Men Are More Religious Than Young Women
The New York Times ^ | Sept. 23, 2024 Updated 12:45 p.m. ET | Ruth Graham

Posted on 09/23/2024 1:18:11 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

On a beautiful Sunday morning in early September, dozens of young men in Waco, Texas, started their day at Grace Church.

Men greeted visitors at the door, manned the information table and handed out bulletins. Four of the five musicians onstage were men. So was the pastor who delivered the sermon and most of the college students packing the first few rows.

“I’m so grateful for this church,” Ryan Amodei, 28, told the congregation before a second pastor, Buck Rogers, baptized him in a tank of water in the sanctuary.

Grace Church, a Southern Baptist congregation, has not made a conscious effort to attract young men. It is an unremarkable size, and is in many ways an ordinary evangelical church. Yet its leaders have noticed for several years now that young men outnumber young women in their pews. When the church opened a small outpost in the nearby town of Robinson last year, 12 of the 16 young people regularly attending were men.

“We’ve been talking about it from the beginning,” said Phil Barnes, a pastor at that congregation, Hope Church. “What’s the Lord doing? Why is he sending us all of these young men?”

The dynamics at Grace are a dramatic example of an emerging truth: For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers. They attend services more often and are more likely to identify as religious.

“We’ve never seen it before,” Ryan Burge, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said of the flip.

Among Generation Z Christians, this dynamic is playing out in a stark way: The men are staying in church, while the women are leaving at a remarkable clip.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...

TOPICS: Humor; Religion; Weird Stuff
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

And in related news, young women are more radically liberal than they have been at any time in US history.

2 posted on 09/23/2024 1:26:45 PM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

We are still in between #1 & #2, regardless of this recent trend. Wheat from the chaff.

To: E. Pluribus Unum

I’m not sure what the nyt angle is on this story but when an obviously secular media outlet starts referring to “religion” you better beware.

4 posted on 09/23/2024 1:28:56 PM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)

To: Opinionated Blowhard

The past Great Awakenings tended to be male led. We may be in the early stages of the next one.

5 posted on 09/23/2024 1:30:10 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)

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