The Gender Gap Closed. Check the Fine Print.
The first Easter sermon was delivered by women, and the men who heard it decided it was nonsense.
Luke doesn't soften this. He tells us the women came back from the tomb with the news that would become the center of everything Christians believe today, and "the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn't believe it" (Luke 24:11). The word Luke uses is the one a doctor would use for the ravings of a fever patient.
Two thousand years later, women are again telling the church something about itself, and the response has a familiar shape.
You may have heard talk lately of a rise in young men's involvement in church. This observation comes after the gender gap between men and women and their religious involvement looks to be shrinking. For context, Frank Newport, a senior scientist at Gallup, explains why this would be notable: "Historically, there has been a gender gap in religiosity in this country as long as we’ve had survey research."
The gap he's referring to is that women have historically displayed far higher levels of religious engagement than men. It's been that way as long as they've been measuring it. And yet, something is changing, as a new Gallup poll highlights. In a recent TIME article, Newport went on to say:
What I think is important in our findings so far is that the gender gap among young Americans—18 to 29—has basically disappeared across several measures of religiosity. Men and women are either statistically the same or, in one measure, men are more religious, among 18 to 29 year olds.
This would obviously be big news if record numbers of young men were suddenly getting serious about their faith in a way we've never seen measured before. One cannot help but think this might indicate some kind of revival. Many young men right now are lonely, adrift, dying by suicide at rates nobody wants to talk about, and starved of anything resembling a healthy rite of passage. If they are actually walking back into churches, that should be good news. I want it to be good news.
Father Matthew Hood, a chaplain for Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry and Director of Priestly Vocations for the Archdiocese of Detroit, added his own practical observations to the data.
Just anecdotally, it’s something that I’ve witnessed in my role in working with young adults—that there is really a renewal that’s happening in hearts of young people, and, in particular, it seems to be something that I’ve noticed even more so for young men. I’ve noticed the growth is definitely young men really seeking their faith in a new way.
There's been plenty of celebration over this. Fox News ran a piece in October 2025 on the "faith resurgence," quoting Dr. Cory Marsh, a professor of New Testament at Southern California Seminary: "Gen Z males are becoming fed up with a virtual world run by algorithms and dating apps… and are seeking something real." In the article, the description under a photo of a worship service reads: "Gen Z men are returning to church in growing numbers, defying years of decline in attendance."
But if something about all of this excitement feels a bit off to you, there's reason for that.
David Campbell, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, isn't convinced these young men are actually showing up anywhere. He told TIME that "when you look at the more demanding aspects of religion, you don't necessarily see this increase among young men." Gallup asked young men how important religion is to them, and they said: very. What that number measures, Campbell suggests, might be "just an expression of an identity or of an attitude on a survey."
Which raises the obvious question. An expression of what identity? Campbell points to a "surge in Republican identity" in recent years, and suggests young men may be drawn to religion because they see it as an expression of their conservative beliefs.
The annual PRRI Census of American Religion also released recent survey results, and they don't reach the same conclusion as the Gallup poll. The CEO of PRRI, Melissa Deckman, had this to say:
Looking at young adults, there is a shift happening, but it’s not among Gen Z men, as some suggest. Instead, young women’s declining religiosity has brought them on par with their male counterparts.
Deckman agrees with the observation that the gender gap is shrinking. But rather than attribute it to a growing number of men, she attributes it to a declining number of women. The study goes on to say:
Young women (18-29) have shed religious labels steadily since 2013, when 29% identified as religiously unaffiliated. By 2024, that figure grew to 40%, and in 2025, it increased to 43%.
That conclusion gives us far less to celebrate. Indeed, it would be reason for concern. While Jesus had twelve male disciples, we don't get the beauty of the Gospel without women.
A teenage girl physically brought Jesus into the world and delivered the first theology in Luke's gospel: "He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble" (Luke 1:52). It was women who bankrolled Jesus' ministry (Luke 8:1-3). It was the women who stayed with Jesus as He died (Mark 15:40-41; Matthew 27:55-56; John 19:25). And it was women who were entrusted with the first news of the resurrection.
Even though it is often dismissed, women have always played a crucial role in the way of Jesus. So why would young women suddenly withdraw from their religious engagement? If men are finding a home for their conservative ideals in the church, why would that be a problem for women?
The Fox article I mentioned previously cites a survey that 61% of women identify as feminists and are suspicious of institutions upholding traditional norms. The article then quotes Corey Miller, president and CEO of Ratio Christi, who locates the problem on college campuses. "As go the universities, so goes the culture."
When women leave in record numbers, the diagnosis is that the universities must have got to them.
Deckman offers a different suggestion. She sees the rise of the manosphere (a misogynistic and hostile version of manhood) as a likely factor. To better understand how the manosphere may shape the church today, we can look to Christian leaders like Doug Wilson. While many would label Wilson as extreme or an outlier, he tends to say out loud what others merely imply. If Wilson's name sounds familiar to you, it may be from his CNN interview, where he said, "Women are the kind of people that people come out of."
In light of that view, it should come as little surprise that Wilson advocates for repealing women's right to vote. Seriously. When asked why he wants the 19th Amendment repealed, he said, "Because it's a good idea." When NPR asked Wilson what his Christian nation would actually look like, he said it would look like fluffy clouds and unicorns, and everybody would be happy, and then he laughed.
Everybody. Including, presumably, the women who wouldn't be allowed to vote in it.
As the pastor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Wilson also recognizes that his way of thinking has a seat at the table like never before.
I think it'd be fairer to say that my vision, our vision of what the intersection of theology and politics should be is closer to getting a hearing... In the last five years, we have gotten a much more significant hearing than we ever have before.
In February, at the invitation of the Secretary of Defense, Wilson preached inside the Pentagon, carried on internal Pentagon television, as part of a monthly Christian worship service Hegseth started in the building. That's a pulpit in the Pentagon. Standing at that podium, Wilson wondered aloud whether the Pentagon prayer services might be the beginning of a "black swan revival, a black swan reformation," and put them in a line running from Whitefield to Knox to the Day of Pentecost in the book of Acts.
Melissa Deckman offers her own succinct conclusion on the reaction we are seeing from women in response to all of this:
I think you’re running into this head-on collision, where a lot of younger women are just shedding religious labels because they don’t endorse the views of a lot of conservative and outspoken churches.
Which leads us back to the narrowing gender gap. Is this cause for celebration, or alarm? I suppose that depends on which version of Christianity you are interested in.
When the popular version of Christianity appeals more to one gender over the other, we would do well to take note and pause. Is this a healthy celebration of masculinity that these women are leaving, or is this something that we all should be avoiding?
I'm reminded of the words of Father Richard Rohr:
The joyful acceptance of a limited world, of which I am only a small moment and limited part—this is probably the clearest indication of a man in his fullness.
Whatever these young men are being handed, it is not a limited world. It is a bigger one, with more of it belonging to them. Forty-three percent of young women have already decided what that is worth.
One thing I hear more than anything else from people in this community: "I thought I was the only one." You're not. The online community is a private space for people rebuilding their faith outside the walls of institutional Christianity — guided book studies, live monthly calls, weekly behind-the-scenes content, and actual conversation with people who get it. $10/month. Find out more.
Photo by Serenity Mitchell on Unsplash
(Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon at no cost to you. Your reading can help support my writing. Thanks!)
Sign up with your email and never miss a post!
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
