Gen Z isn’t simply “returning to church” the way older generations might imagine. Many are searching for faith, meaning, identity, community, and something with backbone — but they’re not always finding it in the same places, or in the same ways, as their parents and grandparents.
🚨 PAID MEMBERS: There’s a 20-minute BONUS segment for you at the bottom of this post.
Young people are showing renewed interest in religion, but the story is more complicated than a simple “Gen Z is coming back to church” headline. Some are returning to Catholicism. Some are drifting into Protestant communities. Some are exploring alternative spiritualities, Eastern religions, neopaganism, or a personalized version of faith that they assemble for themselves.
In this episode, I look at what younger people seem to be searching for: community, authenticity, structure, beauty, identity, and a religion that can stand in contrast to the emptiness of secular life. From there, I get into why some young Catholics are drawn toward traditionalism and the Traditional Latin Mass — not to praise or condemn it as a whole, but to ask what they are finding there that many ordinary Catholic parishes may be failing to signal clearly.
This is a balanced look at a complicated religious moment. The question is not just whether young people are returning to church. The better question is: what are they looking for when they start searching again?
BONUS SEGMENT
Paid members of The Forge
"Angry at God" - Bonus Segment - Ep. 53
Audience interaction went to a whole new level—from fun to heavy. We laugh about the danger of “I’ll keep this short,” wrestle with the search for authenticity in Catholic life, talk about “anger at God”, spiritual dryness, the temptation to chase religious feelings, the danger of Catholic personality cults, and why the dark road of faith is still wort…
