It’s only January and the road we’ll travel this year appears not only twisty and snow-laden but also plenty bumpy.

For those wanting to think a few miles ahead, I’m sharing a few of the religious trends that are on my mind for this year.

The second Trump administration and a new religious milieu

The day before Donald Trump’s inauguration, a Christian group called Let Us Worship set up a tent not far from the White House. Known for its emotionally-charged public worship, the group had staged a series of 2020 protests against COVID-19 restrictions as well as worship events at state capitals across the nation. Gathering in DC to welcome a new administration, they represent a new face of a decades-long alliance between Christianity and Republican politics. The modern alliance looks, in part, like that pre-inaugural tent service and its guitar-playing Millennial leader, Sean Feucht. It can be discerned in the Martin Luther King-inflected benediction offered by the Reverend Lorenzo Sewell at Trump’s swearing-in ceremony.

Matthew D. Taylor’s 2024 book The Violent Take it By Force is helpful reading on a movement of which Let Us Worship is just one part: the New Apostolic Reformation. Taylor narrates how a movement took shape among non-denominational churches and prayer networks that embrace prophesy and ecstatic worship as core expressions of Christianity. Added to these charismatic practices is a distinct belief that God calls faithful Christians (as defined in their terms) to govern all the spheres of society. Many see Trump’s assertion of power as a manifestation of the same divine mandate.

Physical place and presence matters a great deal in this movement. Thus, there’s an enthusiasm for bringing artifacts of faith into public spaces. In 2024, Louisiana lawmakers voted to affix posters with the Ten Commandments in public schools and Oklahoma officials purchased Bibles for classrooms across the state. We may see more such efforts in 2025.

Diverging shifts among young men and young women and faith

Much was made about the gender gap in advance of the 2024 election. As we move into 2025, it will be worth watching the intersection of religion and gender. In September, Ruth Graham reported in the New York Times that GenZ women are less likely to say they are religiously affiliated than are men. Political scientist Ryan Burge suggests this gender gap varies by religious tradition, noting the gap is highest between Catholic men and women under 40.

At the moment, there is too little data to fully understand this trend. This year, it will be worth watching: What religious messages are directed at younger men? Which expressions of faith are embraced by them and why? How will congregational life - which has often been supported by the work of women - change if women’s and men’s religious affinities significantly diverge?

Solidarity and the senses

Be it a post-pandemic longing for connection or the quest to repair our social media addled-minds, I expect the attraction of sensory spirituality to continue this year. Indeed, powerful worship and in-person community may very well be a driver behind the aforementioned trends.

I am paying attention, especially, to art, music, and food as resources for bridging social difference. For an academic take, I am revisiting a 2021 book by Nicole Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, to think about what creating and relating have to do with each other. I’ll be reading newsletters like Connective Tissue and Edible Theology and maybe taking up a creative project or two of my own.

What trends do you see for the year ahead? Drop me a note and let me know or share how you’re practicing creativity and solidarity right now.

In hope,

Rachel