Hallelujahs in the headwinds!
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After decades of soaring secularism and the metastasizing of Godless leftist agendas, several Christian countertrends are becoming visible across America.
For one thing, multiple sources are reporting booming Bible sales this year, driven largely by first-time buyers.
In fact, sales of the Holy Book are up by almost a quarter (22%) through the end of October, compared to the same period last year (2023), according to BookScan, a data provider for the book publishing industry. Contrast this with the fact that total sales of US print books were up by less than 1% during the same period.
Reporting on the phenomenon, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) cites the case of a 28-year-old TikTok influencer and participant on the Love Island TV series who recently bought her first Bible:
"I've had Bibles that my mom gave me, but I felt I needed my own to start my own journey, that it symbolized I was starting a walk with God," she said. "I felt something was missing. It's a combination of where we are in the world, general anxiety and the sense that meaning and comfort can be found in the Bible." – Cely Vazquez
The manager of the Faith & Life Bookstore in Newton, Kansas says she is selling a lot of Bibles – especially to first-time buyers. "They're looking for hope with the world the way it is, and the Bible is what they're reaching for," she said.
The publisher of the Bible division at Illinois-based Tyndale House Publishers also speaks to a surge of interest in Holy Scripture, particularly among Generation Z and college students. "You have a generation that wants to find things that feel more solid," the WSJ quotes her as saying.
TRUMP THE SINNER AND THE HOLY BIBLE
In late March, Trump gave Bible sales – and Christianity – a big boost when he endorsed Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA Bible." (The "God Bless the USA Bible" isn't included in BookScan's latest figures.)
The President-Elect announced his support for the popular country singer's 2021 Bible compilation – which features a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Pledge of Allegiance – in a YouTube video.
"Our Founding Fathers did a tremendous thing when they built America on Judeo-Christian values," he said in the video. "We have to bring Christianity back into our lives and back into what will be again a great nation."
"Christians are under siege. … we must defend God and the public square and not allow the media or the leftwing groups to silence, censor or discriminate against us. We have to bring Christianity back into our lives." – Donald Trump
"In the end we do not answer to bureaucrats and Washington, we answer to God in Heaven," Trump continued, underscoring the primacy of the Word of God.
"It's my favorite book," he added.
The usual detractors criticized Trump's endorsement as "hawking" and a conflation of religion with politics.
An indignant Rev. Al Sharpton said, "I think that people ought to realize how offensive this is to those of us that really believe in the Bible. ... Tomorrow is Good Friday, Sunday is Easter. Of all of the times you want to hustle using the Bible, why would you do it during Holy Week, which is really a spit in the face of people that really believe in the Bible from a Christian point of view?"
Sharpton, a Baptist minister, whose nonprofit reportedly received $500,000 in October from Kamala Harris' campaign in exchange for a "friendly" interview with the Democrat presidential candidate, repeated, "[Trump's endorsement] is nothing but … a hustle."
But most social media users applauded Trump's promotion of Greenwood's "God Bless the USA Bible":
"Just bought one! Our 18-year-old ASKED for one! I was pretty happy when he did! Got right on it."
"Let Kamala and Biden have their Drag Story time with pedophiles, I'll stick on the Word of God."
"Bringing God back into this evil world is what we need. I support it and I am gonna buy a few for Christmas presents. God Bless America and God Bless President Trump [and] Lee Greenwood."
"I quite like it. Biden will most probably endorse 'The Abortion Guide for Dummies.'"
On the campaign trail, Trump often invoked God when speaking of America's revitalization. "With your help and God's grace, the great revival of America begins on November 5th," he famously predicted to voters at the annual gathering of National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville, Tennessee in February.
Of course, Trump's public promotion of Christ, and religion in general, has sparked consternation among his critics. "Hypocrite" ... "not of decent character" ... "womanizer" ... "unrepentant criminal" ... etc. are just a few of the epithets leveled at him.
But stronger than any truth in the name-calling is that God calls on sinful people (who among us isn't?) to do His work. Throughout the Old and the New Testaments God uses flawed men – Samson, Jacob, David, Jonah, Peter, Paul, etc. – for the sake of His mission to bring the good news of salvation to the world.
As one writer puts it, "We have great leaders in all walks of life who have flaws yet we can easily look past these flaws to see their leadership qualities."
MORE SIGNS AND WONDERS
In Idaho – a state Trump won in November 67% to Harris' 33% – Gov. Brad Little did a big thing for Christians. He proclaimed Nov. 24-30, 2024 as Christian History Week in the Gem State.
"It is appropriate to recognize that Thanksgiving provides a specific time and reason for celebrating Christian history," the governor declared. "I encourage Idaho citizens to recognize this special observance."
This coincides with the Oklahoma State Department of Education purchasing over 500 Bibles to place in Advanced Placement government classes.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said the move represents "the first in the nation Bible purchase explicitly for use in schools as an academic and literary resource," and described the purchase as "the first step toward providing Bibles for every classroom in the state."
Similar trends are expected to spread to other states.
GENERATION Z'S ROLE IN RELIGION
Another noteworthy trend – running counter to the morose and nihilistic culture of the Marxist Left – is that more young people are turning toward God.
A recent study shows a rising number of young adults are expressing faith in God. About one-third of 18- to 25-year-olds said they believe in the existence of God or a higher power.
This percentage is up from about one-quarter compared to 2021, according to polling data from the Springtide Research Institute, which reports on religion and youth.
Other studies find similar increases in religious faith among young people – particularly, it is being noted, among young men.
The New York Times (NYT) foregrounded a recent study showing that among Gen Z (those born between 1997-2012), young men are staying firmly in Church even while young women are slipping away.
"Almost 40 percent of women now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, compared with 34 percent of men," the NYT reports, "according to a survey last year of more than 5,000 Americans by the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute."
"For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers," according to the Times.
Young men attend Church services more often and place a higher value on traditional family life. They are likelier than young women to say they want to become parents someday, by a margin of 12 percentage points, according to another survey cited by the Times.
An Australian news commentator, unsurprised by the findings, attributed the trend to anti-male propaganda:
"Popular culture basically teaches young men that they are effeminate, weak and immature and keeps them that way. They're discovering the Bible actually upholds the value of women and men and the Bible actually celebrates the differences between the two whilst admitting that both are equally made in the image of God."
Some commenters are also noting that while it's good news that young men are showing religious staying power, it's lamentable that young women (no doubt indoctrinated by a radical MeToo movement and bombarded with cries of "reproductive rights") are leaving the Church.
Still others view the trend positively, seeing in it the possibility of a spiritually-healthy return to patriarchal respect:
"Bible sales up 22 percent. Young men more religious than young women for the first time since pollsters started tracking. Good trend lines. The kind of trend lines that could restore a nation." – comment on X
HEARING HALLELUJAH IN THE HEADWINDS
These promising countertrends are pushing against powerfully entrenched anti-Bible, anti-Christian headwinds.
Take, for instance, the questions Barack Obama posed to religious leaders in 2006 while he was crouching his way toward the presidency.
Attempting to unpack the complicated connection between religion and politics, he asked:
"Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is okay and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?"
Many biblical scholars since have been troubled by Obama's cherry-picking of the Biblical texts and gone on to explain how these passages have been misused and misconstrued in this context (e.g., the Bible clearly and categorically denounces slavery as sin; isolating the injunction against shellfish from its Biblical context is wrong; the standard of evidence prescribed by the Mosaic Law exceeds that of and is not comparable to modern jurisprudence].
Nonetheless, Obama's legacy, though waning, has made it harder for a Christian revival.
Later in 2008, Obama, often claiming he was Christian, mocked rust-belt, working-class Americans struggling to negotiate a fast-changing and debilitating economic landscape:
"They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," he famously said.
These isolated examples are part of the larger hostile milieu in which US Christians – indeed people throughout the world – find themselves. The headwinds are real, often bitter and dangerous, and sometimes fatal.
But the good news from various quarters is that a spiritual revival is happening in the US as more people are turning to God and the Bible. The energy is shifting. Hallelujah!
Dr. Barbara Toth has a doctorate in rhetoric and composition from Bowling Green State University. She has taught high school in Poland and Oman and at universities in the US, China and Saudi Arabia. Her work in setting up a writing center at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahmen University, an all-women's university in Riyadh, has been cited in American journals. Toth has published academic and non-academic articles and poems internationally.
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