The Re-Churching of Men

Church life in America has been majority-­female for some time. According to Pew Research, women make up 57 percent of those who attend religious services weekly. Faithful women have long been the beating heart of many congregations. But this sex imbalance seems set to reverse. Today, women are disaffiliating from churches at a higher rate than men. In Generation Z, more women than men now identify as religiously unaffiliated, and Gen-Z men are more likely to attend church than Gen-Z women—developments recorded by the New York Times, among other publications. But there may be more to this story. Many Gen-Z men appear to be gravitating specifically to churches that are traditional in liturgy and conservative in doctrine, and that exert a “masculine” appeal. They are taking a pass on mainline and progressive evangelical churches that echo the broader culture’s suspicion of masculinity.