One Nation, Under God

As religion in America declined, experts administered last rites.

Churches were approaching “their twilight hour” as attendance fell, The Brookings Institution wrote in 2011. In his 2023 book, “Losing Our Religion,” the evangelical preacher Russell Moore asked: “Can American Christianity survive?”

The answer appears to be yes. People have stopped leaving churches en masse, according to a new study released this morning by Pew Research. America’s secularization is on pause for now, likely because of the pandemic and the country’s sustained spirituality. Most Americans — 92 percent of adults — say they hold one or more spiritual beliefs that Pew asked about:

“Spirituality is not declining. And in fact, it’s high; it’s stable,” said Penny Edgell, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota.

The United States is an outlier compared with most other Western countries, which are far less religious. America’s persistent religious and spiritual curiosity is visible in its centers of power. In Washington, President Trump and JD Vance talk a lot about God in their quest to remake America. In Silicon Valley, tech billionaires — long obsessed with religion-adjacent projects like artificial intelligence, transhumanism and immortality — are warming to Christianity. In Hollywood, films and shows about faith, such as “Conclave,” the latest season of “The White Lotus” and “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” have dominated streaming charts.

Below, I’ll explain why religion still has such a strong hold in America.

What is happening?

Over the last 25 years, tens of millions of people left American religion. It was a major shift that affected how people voted, when they married and where they lived. Christianity took the hardest hit: Around 15 percent of American adults who once went to church stopped going. While some people switched to new faiths, many left religion altogether.

Experts called this phenomenon the “rise of the nones,” a group that includes atheists, agnostics and people who said in surveys that they identified with “nothing in particular.” The nones grew to include about 30 percent of the country.

But the rise of the nones has stopped, Pew found. People are no longer leaving churches en masse, and other major religions are growing, largely because of immigration.

The report’s authors are careful to say that the nones could resume growing, especially as younger people, who are less religious than older people, age. (Read more about the report from my colleague Ruth Graham.)

Why is this happening?

Experts point to a few possible explanations.

First is the pandemic. Pew found that people turned to faith for support during those years, as the number of people going to religious services — either in person or virtually — remained consistent at about 40 percent. About a quarter of Americans even told Pew that the pandemic had strengthened their faith. “Religion was in their psychological tool kit for dealing with the hard times,” said Alan Cooperman, an author of the report.

The second explanation is that secularization has a limit in the United States.

Americans pray more often, are more likely to attend weekly religious services and value faith in their lives more than adults in other wealthy democracies like Canada, Australia and most European countries, Pew found in a separate study. Americans — both religious and not — also report high levels of spirituality: Eighty-three percent say they believe in God or a universal spirit, Pew found.

Ryan Burge, a political scientist, argues that most people who disagree with their religion on political or social issues — on Trumpism, abortion or gay marriage, for instance — have already left or switched faiths. “What’s left is like the bedrock of American religion, which is exceptionally large,” he said. The report reveals how many people remain committed to their religious traditions even after those defections.

What does this mean?

We’re in a moment of resurgent religious conservatism. The Supreme Court has anointed prayer in public schools. Elon Musk said he believes in the teachings of Jesus. Religious tradwives reign supreme on Instagram. The right says it all amounts to a “vibe shift.”

Still, those examples are anecdotal. And as the swing from George Floyd protests to sudden D.E.I. takedowns shows, vibes in America can shift quickly.

This data doesn’t rely on vibes. Instead, it offers measurable insights on the trends shaping American politics and culture. The ranks of the godless have stopped growing for now. But, when it comes to spiritual longing for the possible, the transcendent — Americans are surprisingly in agreement.

Related: We want to hear more about people’s experiences with religion or spirituality. Have you discovered, deepened, questioned or lost faith? I’m working on a project about the moments that shape our beliefs. Tell me your story here.

THE LATEST NEWS

War in Ukraine

• Ukraine agreed to give the U.S. revenue from some of its mineral resources. It is not yet clear what, if anything, Ukraine will get in return. Read what we know so far about the deal.

• Ukraine has deposits of nearly half of the 50 minerals the U.S. Geological Survey lists as critical for America’s economic development, including titanium and lithium.

• A group of traditional Republican lawmakers criticized the Trump administration for siding with Russia at the U.N. on resolutions about the war in Ukraine.

Trump Administration

• The Trump administration announced that it would handpick the media outlets that get to ask the president questions at the White House.

• DOGE has deleted the five biggest items from its public ledger of spending cuts after news outlets reported that it contained mistakes.

• A group of civil servants resigned from DOGE. They refused to implement Musk’s reshaping of the federal government.

• More than 700 National Park Service employees accepted Musk’s offer to resign. The parks could be understaffed during the summer tourism season.

• Trump plans to create a “gold card” alternative to green cards for “high level people.” He said the price tag would be about $5 million.

More on Politics

• The House narrowly passed a Republican budget resolution that calls for trillions in tax cuts and federal spending cuts over a decade.

• Republican lawmakers propose cuts to Medicaid to pay for Trump’s tax plan.

• Republican state attorneys general sued the F.D.A. last year to restrict the abortion pill mifepristone. The largest pill maker in the U.S. is now asking to be a defendant.

• Jan. 6 prosecutors charged some rioters with crimes discovered during their investigation. The Justice Department increasingly argues that Trump pardoned them for those crimes, too.

New York

• Andrew Cuomo is preparing to run for mayor of New York City. He resigned as New York’s governor in disgrace three years ago.

• More than three decades after being wrongly convicted of rape, a second member of the so-called Central Park Five will run for office in New York.

Middle East

• The Israeli military struck sites in southern Syria. It announced the move hours after the new Syrian leadership had demanded that Israel pull back in the country, where it has seized territory since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

• Syria’s new president is trying to prove that he can rebuild the country. Read about his unlikely path from Al Qaeda commander to head of state.

More International News

• Pope Francis is still in critical condition. Vatican City is on edge.

• Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced an increase in military spending. He’s due to meet with Trump at the White House tomorrow.

• The former East Germany still votes virtually as a separate country, and increasingly for a party that has been linked to neo-Nazis.

Other Big Stories

• Egg prices are soaring, and the biggest U.S. egg producer has rising revenues and profits. Now some Democrats are calling for an investigation into pricing.

• The Supreme Court granted a new trial to a death row inmate in Oklahoma. The state’s attorney general had backed the request.

Opinions

“Heartbeat of the bygone”: Deborah Garrison writes a poem on Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of a young Bob Dylan.

Here are columns by Bret Stephens on how Trump indulges Russia and Thomas Friedman on Trump and Putin.

MORNING READS

Letter of Recommendation: A poetry ritual to replace early-morning scrolling.

$8.50 per shrimp: Would you pay $34 for shrimp cocktail? A lot of people do.

Four-minute mile: Can a woman finally break the barrier?

Most clicked yesterday: A fake, graphic video of Trump and Musk played in a government building.

American division: After a woman interrupted a town-hall meeting in Idaho, private security guards dragged her out. See the video.

Lives Lived: Marian Turski survived Auschwitz and returned to his home in Poland to give voice to fellow victims of the Nazis and their collaborators. He warned the world in writings and speeches about the dangers of indifference to racial and ethnic injustice. Turski died at 98.

SPORTS

W.N.B.A.: The Mercury star Diana Taurasi, 42, announced her retirement after a 20-year career.

N.F.L.: The Ravens general manager called allegations of sexual misconduct against the team’s kicker Justin Tucker “concerning” in the Ravens’ first comments since the news broke.

N.B.A.: Luka Dončić recorded a triple-double in the Lakers’ 107-99 win over the Mavericks, the team that traded him last month.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Women tend to outlive men. This is true regardless of where women live or how much they earn. But they also tend to live fewer healthy years: They are generally more frail in old age and more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s. Some scientists are trying to understand why the sexes age differently.

More on culture

• Miriam Miller was recently promoted to principal at New York City Ballet. She’ll make her debut in “Swan Lake.”

• Fyre Festival 2 is coming, almost a decade after the chaotic, failed first festival. Late night hosts joked about it.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Whip up classic lemon pancakes with cottage cheese.

Read one of these great thrillers, recommended by the best-selling mystery writer S.A. Cosby.

Visit Bolivia’s wine country.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were building, bundling, unbuilding and unbundling.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. —Lauren

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