How Adults are Rediscovering Christianity Through Baptism: CBS Reports

Christianity, ,

CBS Mornings recently reported that since the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of adults — particularly Gen Z men — have been baptized into the Christian faith.

During its news segment, CBS highlighted a massive baptism service recently held on the California coast.

We have shared before about the “quiet revival” taking place in America and the U.K.

Bible sales in America skyrocketed in 2024, and this year the American Bible Society released its annual “State of the Bible” report that examines Bible use and scripture engagement. The report found, “Millennials are leading the way in this move toward greater Bible Use, and in every generation men are using the Bible more.” The report also found a little more than one in three Gen Z adults (36%) qualify as Bible Users.

While pollsters have reported for years about the decline of weekly church attendance, Gallup announced in June that a growing share of Americans actually see religion’s influence increasing.

It’s good to see more Americans coming to faith in Jesus and engaging with scripture. As President Reagan said during a speech in 1984:

The truth is, politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality’s foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they’re sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive. . . .

Without God, there is no virtue, because there’s no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we’re mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

Hopefully this “quiet revival” is one that will continue to spread.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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School Will Let Arkansas Student Share His Faith Following Calls from Gov. Sanders, Religious Freedom Advocates

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An Arkansas student who was muted and removed from a public school Zoom call while sharing his faith has been invited back to school.

Zion Ramos is a junior at Arkansas Connections Academy, an online public school. On September 23, Zion wanted to spend two minutes discussing his faith during a school “social time,” which is a daily period set aside for students to talk on Zoom about any topic they choose.

Zion chose to talk about his Christian faith. But while Zion was speaking, a public school teacher reportedly muted him without warning or explanation and removed him from the Zoom call.

After the incident, our friends at First Liberty sent a letter to school officials in Arkansas explaining that the school had violated Zion’s freedoms of speech and free exercise of religion, and Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders instructed the state Department of Education to open an investigation into the situation.

On Thursday, First Liberty announced that Arkansas Connections Academy has invited Zion back and guaranteed he will have three minutes to share his faith with classmates.

This is great news. Federal courts have ruled time and again that public school students and teachers do not lose their First Amendment freedoms at the schoolhouse doors.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1980 Stone v. Graham decision went so far as to say “the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like” in public school.

Other court cases have affirmed that as long as students do not disrupt the learning environment, they are free to pray, discuss religion, share their faith, and engage in other forms of constitutionally-protected speech at school. That means students are free to talk about their faith at school the same way they may talk about other topics. That’s also part of the reason why groups and activities like Fellowship of Christian Athletes, See You At The Pole, and Bring Your Bible to School Day are constitutionally protected at school.

Arkansas has passed some of the best laws in the country affirming students’ religious liberties at school.

State law lets students enroll in elective courses to study the Bible academically at school.

This year lawmakers passed Act 400 by Sen. Mark Johnson (R — Little Rock) and Rep. Alyssa Brown (R — Heber Springs) — a good law that affirms public school students’ and teachers’ religious liberties.

Act 400 identifies and upholds religious freedoms that are already protected by state and federal law — such as the right to pray, discuss religion, or read the Bible during free time at school — and it helps make sure that religious expression is treated equally to other types of speech at school.

We appreciate Arkansas’ lawmakers taking steps to protect religious liberty at school, and we want to thank Governor Sanders for taking Zion’s situation so seriously. We also appreciate Arkansas Connections Academy’s decision to do the right thing and invite Zion back to share his faith.

When it comes to religious liberty, public schools have been a battleground for more than 60 years. The free exercise of religion is a fundamental right. It’s important that we continue to stand up for it at school.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Family Council Joins Coalition in Urging U.S. Supreme Court to Uphold Religious Liberty

Religious Freedom,

On Monday, Family Council joined 31 other organizations in an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to let people of faith live and operate according to their religious convictions.

The case, Miller v. Civil Rights Department, centers on Catherine Miller. Ms. Miller is a Christian, and she owns a bakery in California.

The California Civil Rights Department filed a complaint against her in state court after she declined to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. Although Ms. Miller won at the trial court level, the California appellate court ruled against her. Now she is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her case.

Catherine Miller’s situation is very similar to Jack Phillips’ case in Colorado.

In 2012, Jack Phillips declined a request to bake a custom cake for a same-sex ceremony. Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission targeted Phillips’ Masterpiece Cakeshop under the state’s anti-discrimination law. It took six years of litigation and court hearings for Jack to finally win his case in 2018. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled 7-2 that Jack could not be forced to violate his deeply held religious convictions.

In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that artist Lorie Smith and her studio, 303 Creative, could not be forced to create artwork that violated her religious convictions about marriage.

Arkansas has enacted some of the best protections for religious freedom in the country, but it’s essential for our federal government to uphold and respect the free exercise of religion as well. That is why we hope the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Catherine Miller’s case and support every American’s right to live and operate according to their deeply held religious convictions.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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