The Free Press: When Faith Is Just an App, by Freya India:
Much has been said about a Christian revival among Gen Z. Some statistics are disputed, but there does seem to be something happening.
I am curious about Christianity myself, and have noticed changes lately, conversations with young people who were raised as atheists and almost wish they hadn’t been, who wonder what it would have been like to grow up with more guidance and guardrails. That does seem new, different from even when I was a teenager. But part of me is still skeptical. For a while, I thought my generation might be finding God. Now I worry we are just finding content about God.
There is a lot of Christian content online. Learning about the faith feels easier than ever: Follow Christian influencers, listen to Christian podcasts, scroll through Christian hashtags; the Bible is bite-size now! Of course, this has been happening for a long time, Christianity being made easier and more convenient. Neil Postman warned in the 1980s that TV was turning faith into a form of entertainment. But now it feels as if all of Christianity can be done on a screen. To stay connected with God, all we need to do is subscribe, download, press play. …
Some of this seems helpful. Being new to Christianity, I can’t pretend it’s not convenient. I’ve never read the Bible all the way through, but I have an app that summarizes it for me, that texts me a passage every day. I use #Bible and Hallow and Glorify. And I’m sure this kind of thing has attracted more young people, that it helps to meet a generation where they are. But lately I’m beginning to feel as if Christianity has become another thing to do on my phone. Now I need my faith fast and convenient. I can pray as I go. I can stay prayed up. I’ve got a streak going. …
All of this, the commodification and the gamification and the online communities, ultimately leaves us with a shallow faith. If you teach a generation Christianity through TikToks and Instagram Reels, don’t be surprised if their version of belief has nothing to do with virtue or with how they actually live their lives, and everything to do with what they post, how they label themselves online, what’s on their Story. Don’t be surprised if Christianity becomes nothing but a weapon in the culture war, a cross emoji in a bio. If companies focus on expanding their customer base instead of changing hearts and souls, that’s what we’ll get: customers. Consumers who want to pick and choose, browse and shop, personalize and pray their own way. Deep down, I’m not convinced that’s what my generation even wants—not really. If you’re young and you weren’t raised religious and you find yourself drawn to faith, surely it has to be because it’s different, because it’s a break from ads and notifications and discount codes. For the first time in our lives, let us relate to something not as a consumer, please. I connect with everything this way. Not God too.
Who knows, maybe in the future many of us will say we found Jesus through a YouTube Short, that God was recommended by our algorithm. But I doubt it. I think if Christians want to reach my generation, really reach us, they have to promise something totally separate from that, something otherworldly, something that doesn’t abide by market logic, something different, divine. Something, for once, that isn’t cheapened or commodified. And I hope some find the conviction to say that their faith is too complicated, too sacred, to turn into TikToks. If you want to know more about it, the subscribe button won’t help. You’ll have to step into church.
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