Show notes
Send us Fan Mail
Churches are emptying. Religious affiliation has fallen for decades. A growing share of younger Americans has no religious identity at all.
So why are we suddenly hearing about a Christian revival?
In The Empty Pews, Part Two of Fortean Winds' Fear Trilogy, RamX and Bones investigate the widening gap between religious demographics and the political narratives being built around them.
We begin in London's Soho district, where a group calling itself the King's Army marched through the city's historic LGBTQ neighborhood chanting the name of Jesus. Its leadership insists the movement isn't political. But its activities tell a more complicated story.
From there, we turn to the numbers.
According to Pew Research, the share of American adults identifying as Christian fell from 78% in 2007 to 62% in 2023–24. The long decline may have stabilized, but stabilization is not the same thing as revival.
And the youngest generations remain the least religious.
So where are the revival headlines coming from?
RamX and Bones examine the Barna Group's church-attendance research, the now-withdrawn British Quiet Revival study, and the difference between measuring how frequently existing churchgoers attend and measuring whether more people are becoming religious.
Then the investigation moves from the pews into politics.
We examine the rise of cultural Christianity as a political identity, Steve Bannon's documented attempts to build international nationalist alliances, and the relationships connecting American religious conservatives with political movements in Europe.
But there's another question beneath all of this:
What happens when a religious movement loses members but the people who remain become more committed?
Drawing on the sociology of religious organizations, we explore how a shrinking movement can become more internally cohesive, politically focused and institutionally influential—even while its demographic base contracts.
That brings us back to investigations Fortean Winds has been building for years: the Seven Mountains Mandate, Dominionism, dispensationalism, Christian Zionism, political financing, and the ideological networks surrounding Project 2025.
Our central argument is a working hypothesis, not an established causal finding: declining demographics may be helping drive a political urgency that looks, from the outside, like a religious resurgence.
This episode isn't an attack on Christianity, religious belief, or the people who practice it. It's an investigation into what happens when faith becomes entangled with political identity, institutional survival and the pursuit of power.
Because a movement doesn't necessarily become less influential when its numbers fall.
Sometimes it gets louder.
The Empty Pews continues our three-part investigation into fear.
Part One: The Vanishing Crime Wave
Part Two: The Empty Pews
Part Three: Fear itself—who decides what we're afraid of, and why?
Who taught us what to fear?
Companion Article with sources: https://rememberingwinds.substack.com/p/the-empty-pews-gen-z-isnt-coming?r=61g2dl
Research update: The Bible Society's Quiet Revival report was withdrawn in March 2026 after YouGov identified fraudulent survey responses affecting its findings.
Also, Pew's published figure is 62%, rather than the spoken 63%, and the chart on the thumbnail is a conceptual visual, not a literal statistical plot
How about some source links:
Religious demographics and the revival debate
Religion, identity and political organization
Sociology and political financing
Support the show
Read more and follow our sources to research paths of your own at Fortean Winds
Our UFO Research Summary.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
