Christians often perceive younger generations to be increasingly secular, socially liberal and even hostile to the gospel, especially for the reason that radical “social justice” movements supporting gay and transgender people and abortion have grown and grow to be popular with the young.
However there may be growing evidence that an increasing variety of younger adults are rejecting these views and adopting more conservative values – and converting to a more traditional variety of Christian faith.
Perhaps typical of the brand new young social conservative is Isabel Brown, a US-based online influencer, whose book “The End of the Alphabet: How Gen Z Can Save America” argues that her generation can and may turn away from progressive “woke” ethics. “I feel like our generation… has just been so alienated and deeply misunderstood by those that come before us,” she said in an interview with conservative pundit Michael Knowles that is accessible on YouTube. “We’ve been written off as hopeless, as socialists, as entitled crybabies with no hope for the long run, but the reality is all of the info in polling suggests Gen Z is definitely essentially the most conservative generation America has seen since World War II.”
Actual survey data is conflicting, nonetheless. A recent US survey concluded there may be a ‘gender gap’ in Gen Z with women more liberal than men, but in line with Gallup young men’s conservativism within the US hasn’t modified lots, it’s as a substitute young women who’ve grow to be more progressive. However Professor Jen Twenge, writer of multiple books on the differences between generations, believes that there was an enormous increase in conservatism in US highschool students, and that double the number of individuals in Gen Z discover as very conservative compared to high school pupils within the late Nineteen Eighties.
In the UK, a 2022 study by Ipsos concluded that Gen Z are more liberal than previous generations, with some exceptions. However there may be enough ‘on the bottom’ evidence of a swing to conservatism to prompt the left-leaning New Statesman UK magazine to ask: “Is Gen Z essentially the most conservative generation in history?” in a 2023 article. Its evidence painted a mixed picture, and writer Pravina Rudra concluded: “unalloyed social conservatism, with its associated [traditionalist] attitudes to women, LGBTQ+ rights, and political opinions is a minority view amongst Gen Z. But it’s there.”
Perhaps we’re in the beginning of the cultural trend, which is why the info is conflicting? But even when overall trends will not be dramatic, there are lots of personal stories of young people turning towards faith and traditional morality.
“Sometimes during our 30s, when the bags of contemporary life is solely too heavy to tug around, many find themselves embracing the tradition of the faith they left behind,” says the narrator of a tradition-promoting video on YouTube channel, ‘One of nine’. “There is a recent trend, small now but growing, where young people after having surveyed the world around them, are saying no to: broken relationships, STDs, big government wisdom, the pill, the improper symbols on doors, the prospect of divorce, and limitless appeals to their happiness and luxury. They are while still young, giving their youth to God.”
Reversing the “sexual revolution”
The rapid liberalisation of sexual morals within the Nineteen Sixties is a typical goal for the brand new traditionalists. Some younger feminists are beginning to argue that sexual liberalism has harmed everyone in society, especially women, and speak in favour of Christian family values. The best known is the journalist Louise Perry who makes a secular case in her book The case against the sexual revolution.
Young men are also speaking in favour of traditional Christian morality. “The boomer ideology of the sexual revolution is that one should ‘take your desires for reality,’ and the lie of liberalism that the great life and freedom consist in being unconstrained,” said Paul Sapper, a 26-year-old communications officer for faith-based advocacy organisation ADF International. “Young people, having grown up on the planet created by that ideology, are realising it is a lie and that living that way doesn’t result in fulfilment.”
Sapper’s own personal story is indicative of this trend. “In 2017, while an undergraduate at Oxford University, I prayed with the Christian Union and had an experience of God’s love for me,” he says. “After that I began praying commonly, reading the Bible and attending evangelical churches. Up till that time I used to be nominally Christian and was living a really worldly life.”
He was then drawn to the much stricter sexual ethics within the Catholic Church on contraception, and he now attends the Traditional Latin Mass. He is just not alone – the TLM has grow to be increasingly popular with young people in Western countries.
Opposing abortion and contraception
As well as increased scepticism about liberal sexual ethics, there was considerable change within the demographic of the pro-life movement over the past 10 years. People attending the March for Life are noticeably younger, there are plenty of recent youth movements equivalent to Abortion Resistance and SPUC’s Project Truth, in addition to many recent university societies. Eden McCourt, one in all the co-founders of Abortion Resistance and 26 years old herself, said: “We have an ever-growing group of young people willing to get up and speak out against abortion despite the backlash they might receive.”
Theo Wilmot, 28 and a support employee, recently converted to the Christian faith after rejecting his experience in far-right politics, and now campaigns against abortion attributable to his own difficult personal experiences. “I do find Gen Z to be generally more open to pro-life apologetics, people of their lower twenties much more so than people around my age, which is a promising sign,” he said. “I are likely to put this down largely to the proven fact that Gen Z grew up with fast paced web culture – they’re comfortable doing their very own investigations, happening a rabbit hole if need be, and attending to the underside of things. With the net culture today, no amount of propaganda can keep savvy kids at nighttime for long, they pick apart falsehoods and fallacies with glee.”
Honor Roberts, a 23-year-old pro-life activist, also believes that the increasing numbers of young conservative men is attributable to a response against the extremes that sexual liberalism has reached in our society. “It could also be that men are generally more able to take up conservative values (by which I mean Judaeo-Christian values) than women today,” she said. “If so, I think it’s because our culture has reached such absurd levels of depravity in sexual morality (or lack of it) that men feel an inherent call to step up, to guard human dignity and set the boundaries straight again.”
While the headlines may concentrate on increasingly authoritarian liberal attitudes about gender, sexuality and other liberal causes within the young – that is simply a part of the story. It appears that the excesses of contemporary progressivism are inspiring more young adults to reject the liberal social norms of the past 50 years and switch to the normal morals and beliefs of the Christian faith.
Heather Tomlinson is a contract Christian author. Find more of her work at heathertomlinson.substack.com or via X (twitter) @heathertomli
