America’s Very Weird Religious Future
1/22/20261 hr 1 min
Something surprising is happening to religious belief in America: It’s no longer trending downward. Are Americans becoming more religious? On this episode of “Interesting Times,” Ross sits down with the demographer and former pastor Ryan Burge to discuss the myths and realities of religious revival and debate whether the future belongs to ortho bros or Pagans.
- 01:32 - A new era of American religion
- 08:19 - The shifting gender balance in religion
- 13:38 - Class, education and social trust
- 18:48 - Tarot, astrology, and UFOs: Post-Christian spirituality
- 22:40 - The decline of the Seven Sisters
- 28:27 - Politics in the pews
- 40:29 - The religious and political America of 2050
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRoss Douthat· Host0:00
[upbeat music] From New York Times Opinion, I'm Ross Douthat, and this is Interesting Times. [upbeat music] In the early two thousand and twenties, something unexpected happened: America stopped becoming less religious. The share of Americans with no religious affiliation had been rising for decades. Suddenly, that increase stopped, and all over the media, there was talk about religious revival, about trad wives and ortho bros, about Gen Z potentially being more religious than their parents. My guest today is the perfect person to talk about what's really happening in American religion. Ryan Burge is an ordained minister who witnessed American Christianity's decline close up. In two thousand and twenty-four, he had to close the doors of the church that he'd been pastoring. He's also, in my own opinion, the best data analyst tracking trends in American religion right now with a new book, The Vanishing Church: How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us. [upbeat music] Ryan Burge,