
You may recall headlines over the years exploring "the rise of the nones", the phenomenon of America’s fastest growing religion being… well, no religion at all.
For a decade, polls have shown that the percentage of faithful in the United States was on a sharp decline, as younger generations eschewed the worlds of organized religion for agnosticism, atheism, or forms of secular spiritualism.
Faith leaders have long fretted about how to win these young people back into the pews, with some even fearing that Christianity could turn into a minority religion in the United States in the coming decades.
Perhaps they may not need to fret any longer. A new poll from the Pew Research Center indicates that the "nones" are done growing.
Could a new age of religious revival be upon us?
Drifting Away From Church
To set the scene: As recently as the early 1990s, 90% of Americans identified as Christian. But around the turn of the century that number began dropping, while the percentage of Americans who identify as having no faith at all rose dramatically. In 2024, just 63% of Americans identified themselves as Christian, and a whopping 28% said they were religiously unaffiliated.
The trend line was clear: from Baby Boomer to Gen-X to Millennials, each generation identified as significantly less Christian than the one before. But according to Pew’s new Religious Landscape Survey, it may have plateaued. You can see that in the data:

"Nones" Pull Back
Young adults still remain, by far, less religious than elder generations. But those born between 2000 and 2006, the youngest adults surveyed, are not significantly less religious than the generation before.
Study authors found that the rate of those who identified as nonreligious grew about seven or eight percent with each successive decade. For example, 29% of those born in the 1970s identify as not religiously affiliated. For those born in the 1980s that figure was 37%. For the 1990s, it was 44%.
But the trend stops with those born after 2000. For this next generation, 43% identify as not religiously affiliated – just one percentage point greater than the generation before.
“If you look to the long term, it’s a story of decline in American religion,” explained Gregory Smith, a senior associate director of research at Pew. “But it’s a completely different story if you look at the short term, which is a story of stability over the last four or five years.”
Could this be a sign of religious revival?
A New Era
“We’re entering a new era of the American religious landscape,” said Dr. Ryan Burge, political scientist at Eastern Illinois University. “Now that growth has either slowed or stopped completely.”
But why? Many have speculated that it dovetails with larger trends shaping Gen-Z.
Across nearly every culture and age group, women are more likely to be religious than men. However, the study found that the gender gap is much smaller in Gen-Z. Experts say it's evidence that young men are doing much of the heavy lifting when it comes to reigniting the spark of faith.
For many young people, it can be as simple as aligning their personal faith with an overall cultural shift.
As Dr. David Campbell, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame, puts it, “if you’re a young white male these days and you think of yourself as conservative, then being religious is a part of that.”
Others point to another key factor: churches have gotten better at reaching young people. Individual congregations are leveraging social media platforms like TikTok to catch the attention of younger audiences with content that ties religious messaging to popular culture. One recent viral video leans on Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" to spread the word about Lent:
What Next?
So is "the rise of the nones" over? Has America’s loss of faith plateaued? Will it reverse?
“It’s striking to have observed this recent period of stability in American religion after that long period of decline,” said study co-author Gregory Smith. “One thing we can’t know for sure is whether these short-term signs of stabilization will prove to be a lasting change in the country’s religious trajectory.”
In other words: It's too soon to tell. But buckle in, the future of faith in the United States is going to be interesting.
What is your reaction? Do you have any theories for why religion is mounting a comeback?
45 comments
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They used to get that information off the census every ten years. I'd want to see what methods they are using and where they are using it, what the details are of how they got these numbers. Everything I've been hearing is that "none" or "other" has been growing in leaps and bounds.
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Is there anything else that may be cancelled in this climate, in this society.
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Well, Sir Walter, liberalism for one 🤭
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Here is what's happening with the nones. It is really simple: They don't remember how to read. And just like in most of America, reading the proper way has fallen by the wayside, and people have started to read the way they want to according to their preferences. It's not their fault it is the way we were brought up. Soon after we have grown up we should at least have the basics down. All you ever need to accomplish is; who wrote it, to whom was it written, what and where, and why. once you can do that and believe in the scriptures then you will understand. In the scriptures, you will not find anywhere that says there is a religion based on Jesus or any of the Apostles. Don't forget that up until Jesus died, Jews were under the law and the Gentiles did not know of Jesus or God. Now we are under Grace, the whole world is, but a lot of people don't understand or believe. You need to understand what dispensation and or Covenant you are in, that way can start to read properly. Just because the Bible is for all to read and have the word read aloud, and to study for faith to salvation. To learn of the history and the way things were structured doesn't mean you can live their way. Please learn to do this.
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Golly thunder, you just can't bear to look at it can you?
The 20th century, which I'm from gave us about 200 million dead from conflicts for dirt. Nothing but dirt. I know you can read, I know you know what dirt is. That's just last century, this century's war for dirt is shaping up pretty well. Do you think man just now started waring for dirt? Only now? No young one, man always has and always will murder, rape and pillage for dirt.
Whenever the Catholic church was killing for whatever reason, elsewhere in the world people were killing for dirt. Killing for the rain god, killing for what ever reason they felt like. Never did it pause but for an estimated 250 in Man's documented history were there no wars anywhere on the planet. A crappy 250 years bro.
My Lord The Christ just showed up, the untold death toll prior Christianity must be staggering.
One last fun fact. The evolutionists put us back 7 million years or some such. Of all the murderous rampages man went on for the last 7 million years, excluding 0.0286% of that time were carried out by non-abrahamic god following men.
Do you think you guys did what the rival male chimpanzee does, that is grab a freshly born chimp baby right from the mother's chute and eat it on the spot while the mother watches? Now we're civilized with our infanticide, we wear lab coats when we kill'em. You don't usually eat them anymore though some do. Very sophisticated, no? That type of non Christian murder is a whole other can of worms but y'all kill'em about 1 per second globally. Pretty good. No Abrahamic God needed there either. I trust you see the pattern.
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Wow, with all that deluded nonsense coursing through the heads of the adherents of the Cheeto-in-chief (blindly ignoring, of course, all of his litany of commandment breaking indiscretions), no wonder the US is rapidly becoming such an existential hell hole.
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Gee Colin, I didn't say a word about politics. Definitely not any presidents.
Could you be so kind as to show me where I said anything about USA politics or any presidential comments at all? I'd love to see where. You must have a very interesting thought process.
What's odd Colin is I merely present facts about wars waged last century and death tolls they caused.
You think facts are delusional nonsense? Hmmm, does that mean you think delusional nonsense is fact? Odd indeed!
Since you brought up our President, what did he do that you say I ignored?
I'm very excited to read your response Colin.
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Attacking evolution and abortion?
You're a tRumper.
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And "conflicts for dirt"? As opposed to hundreds of millions of dead in the name of an imaginary sky fairy who talks to you in your head? Oookay...
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A sense through the universe that God may be making some changes soon!
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The Trump administration will be the downfall of this country. His MAGA maggots will find a place in hell. There is not one good thing that could be said about this subhuman piece of garbage. Everyone that bends a knee to anyone within his orbit should feel the flames. This is not a godly man. He has turned suffering into a game. Trump and everyone of his little crew will feel the pain he has inflicted.
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I'm glad to see young people coming back to religion. Although, I was somewhat amused at the title of the article. Having grown up Catholic, and being a history buff, I'm familiar with Nones as a canonical hour, being the time for midafternoon prayer in cloistered environments. But moving back to the original topic, you have to wonder where they are getting their religious role models from. When I was much younger, it was Pope John XXIII, Billy Graham and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Every kid of my generation knew who they were, and they offered a message of hope to everyone. Today's religious role models appear to be more out for themselves than for others. That's why folks like Bishop Mariann Budde, Pope Francis, Rowan Williams, and the Dalai Lama serve as examples for today's youth.
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There's always a cycle. Generations rebel against their parents' beliefs. Definitions change. Social trends change. People who've been raised on a social diet of text-only relationships discover the endorphin rush from actually socializing in person. Humans are just so variable that it could be a cocktail of different influences, and it could last as long as the downward trend has, longer, or be just a blip that ends quickly and goes even farther down. It will really all depend on what happens to whom and when. If churches step up when Americans start starving and losing homes by the millions, they will undoubtedly become much more popular.
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Angry white young American men will not bring the Jesus faith back. They want an Americanized version of Christianity which is heretical.
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Does the Christian community know that Jesus was a Jew. He followed the Jewish faith. He kept the Sabbath (Saturday, not Sunday) and all of their Holy Days. Is this why Christians give themselves permission to hate any person different from them and not love. Permission to do God's job of judgment. Why do so many follow Trump, he's been judged and found guilty. Unless Christians are trying to force God to come to save their lives. I personally, would rather have God come back to say "Well DONE you learned to love, understand and work together to make heaven here". You can't force God's hand. Love, Jesus said to LOVE.
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I see a major problem with the way the survey was constructed and presented, especially with the disclaimer that it did not include those that chose not to answer. Therefore, only those compelled to answer the question (obviously an optional question or one that did not include a "choose not to answer" option). Either of these should put those that do not answer into a "none" category. Did the statement mean did not answer this question but answered other questions on the same survey, or did not turn the survey in once they received it? How big was the sample? How many questions on the survey? How were the survey subjects selected? As one who has completed a doctorate, surveys are almost always biased unless an entire population is included in the survey and there is 100 percent parcipitation. Sorry, but this "research" does not pass the muster on a valid scientific study.
Although I am seeing a rise in Christianity, which flavor are they talking about? That said, and if I look at what is presented here, I agree that reaching the newer generations requires social media presence, but watching a two-minute clip on Tic-Toc once a week does not make you a Christian. It can be a start, and I will agree that social media will be the key to improving the numbers of people in the pews, as "church" as a learning and spiritual experience is intended to be done in community, but where Christianity is really practiced is once you leave sanctuary and practice it on the streets by loving your neighbor and taking care of one another. The jury is still out on how effective a "virtual community" will be in the long run, especially in the religious realm. Televangelism, I suppose, taken to the next level.
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Hmmm, you've got a really good point Patricia. Digital fellowship couldn't hold a candle against personal fellowship. Seems transitory when you put it that way.
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That is a beef I also have with digital or AI therapy, as it takes away the human element and relationship. What also concerns me, since the article also said that there are more new male than female (which is contrary to the historical numbers), that the "flavor" of Christianity that is drawing the younger ones in is the ultra-conservative message that puts women in a submissive role.
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A view from the other side of the Atlantic ocean
Maybe this is just another sign of a once proud enlightened nation decend into bigotry, superstision and facism,
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Well said, Morten.
I too am a world away from that madness and gladly so. The rise of the puritanical lying bigots is a frightening sight no one wants to see, especially when many of the citizens exposed to it are complicit in the madness but too stupid to see the horrible ending it will wrought.
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I've read a news article out of England where a man was jailed because he was thinking. It occured Oct 16 2024.
I visited the beautiful land back in 2002-2003. I was surprised at how few freedoms the people had back then and they were completely oblivious to what they never had. That was then, today the people are a husk that's been emptied of all fruit, lifeless shells of men on busses and in elevators, drinking in pubs with nothing to look forward to but more and more restrictions against the natural man living in someone else's country.
It's a very sad thing that's far different as described by my father from his time there during WW2. They were a proud and resilient folk back then. Defiant against tyranny. No longer so.
You know, when an animal is caged long enough, it learns to love its cage and even regards it as home. Freedom terrifies such an animal.
Here in the states one might say the best of europe and of the world still live and think freely.
Lol, jail for thinking wrong think, lol. Long live the queen, or whatever.....
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Wow. You really have swallowed (and regurgitated) the de rigueur talking points of the crazy right, haven't you? Your so-called "freedom" is as delusional as your Cheeto-in-chief's quackery about stolen elections, economic development, and foreign policy. The rest of the world is laughing at your country and its so-called "freedoms" - because the rest of the world is much more free than your delusions can possiblylet you imagine...
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Adam Smith-Connor was not arrested for thinking. He was arrested for failing to comply with a public space protection order that any activity in favor or against abortion services, including protests, harassment and vigils after he was repeatedly asked to leave. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9kp7r00vo
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It’s like a patient with a terminal disease. Periods of remission but the end result is a foregone conclusion. Humans have come a long way in the past 4000 years. And the great majority of progress has been rather recent. Religion is lije polio and we’re living in the mid-20th century. Soon…..
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How true Z. Things looked pretty bad with 20+ million illegals, men breaking faces in girls sports and a crippling cost of living. We've got 4 years of remission until the psychos with tri-polar disorder start growling at us citizens again.
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Well, isn't this a coincidence. This is just what the Bible Study I posted this morning was all about.... "Spiritual Blindness".
https://forums.somd.com/threads/its-on-you.408980/
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I doubt it's over. I expect it will flux back and forth for some time to come. We are in a time of unrest and it seems that's when people dive deeper into religion so I'd expect a little uptake in a variety of religions for a little while at least.
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I only know that my small church has added to our congregation by 11 members in the last 3 months. All but one are in their 20s. If that is any indication of a rise in faith then I thank God for it.
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When Christian nuns, become nones, as the former nun, who authored “The History of God” did, there will be nuns, who are nones.
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You got to believe in something, what something varies according to who you talk to. For some it may be the orange sticky fingered guy. Others may worship the traditional or more ancient gods. Any belief thrives thrives on hope and promise.
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I am Archbishop Yanel Jay Laroche Jr. that knows about millions of people that love Christianity and they are holy Christians. I don't think that Christianity will ever be a minority.
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I am Supreme Pope Thunder the consummate Big Cheese and Infallible Grand Poobah who's here to hopes and prayers galore that those millions of people wake up from that literary lobotomy sooner than later. 🤪 Hail Eris!
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As the old bromide goes, put 7 atheists in a lifeboat adrift, you'll pull out 6 believers.
Or, there are no atheists in foxholes.
Hardship turns people to faith, even if God's not real. Our nation has suffered real hardship under the hair sniffing president and his disciple of Timothy Leary. The two really botched things up enough for people to look to a higher power for help when governments's answer is more taxes, more illegals, less freedom and more IRS agents.
The left is fighting like hell to keep 20 million illegals here, government spending astronomical, tax rates unlivable and hopes as low as possible. The even want a war in Europe. Good God people!
It's one thing to shoot yourself in the foot gang, it's a whole other story when you take aim.
Have mercy Left, please have mercy on the common man.
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What you just posted I saw and heard first hand. In combat in the Navy I sat beside a man that proudly called himself an atheist, but once the torpedoes started exploding (and only another submarine sailor in that type combat can understand what it's like) the atheist beside me started calling on God to help us. I learned that day any person that says they don't believe a Higher deity exists is a lier to themselves. Even scientist are starting to re-except that there is a "Creator" Darwin called it "The watch maker theory". Darwin was a devout "Angelical Church of England" Christian. It was Huxley that started that Macro-Evolution bull. Darwin stated that "we are created by God with the ability to evolve to our environment." People really need to actually read what people wrote before criticism of them.
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Actually Darwin later in life described himself as agnostic, although some of his thoughts could border on Deism (which the only difference between Deism and Agnosticism is that deists strongly believe in a Creator while agnostics say there may be or has been a Creator, we just don’t know).
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The fact that people resort to imaginary friends as a coping mechanism in times of stress and uncertainty doesn't validate any of the theology concerned. Stress and uncertainty are cause for mental illness enough without encouraging further mass delusion on top of that.
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Certainly true EYMT. I know of a guy that had a mental breakdown and resorted to setting in his bathtub clucking like a chicken till his wife had the paramedics take him to the hospital.
What brings theology of the Bible close to validation are the pages upon pages of archeological digs validating the mundane events of the Bible. The normal stuff all happened. There are missing links as there are with auto genesis (now abiogenesis) to be fair.
Still all of our ideas of origin require an equal amount of faith. You believe in a flawed universe with self spawning better than flawless reproducing life. I believe in flawless creation with less than flawless reproducing life.
One day we'll know or we won't.
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It shouldn't be lost on people that there's an enormous well funded and coordinated effort to promote fundamentalist Abrahamic superstition onto the general public lately, including efforts to lure children into this mass delusion using anime characters like Luce and so on. If it's not the Zionist influences, then it's deranged hysteria from the QAnon movement, or a hoard of pseudo-intellectuals and vacuous talking heads promoting their Christinanity on their podcasts. That's to say nothing of the left's turning a blind eye to Muslim extremism and pushing all things Islamic regardless of all the associated bigotry and crime that's involved.
If history has any lesson to share in this regard, the ancient parable of the scorpion and the frog comes foremost to mind. Abrahamic superstitions have caused 2,000 years of ceaseless bigotry and genocidal violence on a global scale which no amount of saccharine platitudes and apologetics can deflect from. We repeat that mistake at our own grave peril.
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What of the Aztec that butchered 20k year? No abrahamic God there bro. Stalin dinged 20 million. No abrahamic God there. Mao nailed about 50 million. No abrahamic God there. Japan bumped about 25 million, no abrahamic god there.
Most of those are from last century. We can feel safe in saying non abrahamic god people have no trouble finding a reason to murder by the millions no matter the time in history. Nope, not one ounce of help is needed.
If a button could be pushed to kill all people that believe in God, atheists and satanists would line up around the corner for their chance to kill billions.
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The genocidal behavior of Abrahamic religion isn't excused by pointing the finger at others.
As to the numbers you cite, contrast that with the European Christians who according to the eye witness account of Bartolomé de las Casas murdered tens of millions at a time in every location they arrived (including Aztecs)... If you're too lazy to read the whole account, just do a search through the text for the word "million" to see an overview of the instances of this. And this is just one eye witness to one relatively brief period of history. It's still ongoing.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20321
Any other group or associated work of literature with this sort of track record would be regarded as hate speech and a global terror network.
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I don't think I attempted to excuse anyone of murder thunder. I merely provided evidence that represents reality. That is Man has a propensity to murder and need only find a reason to commit it. God isn't a requirement by even the slightest stretch.
The atheistic bloodbath in Ukraine is one we can watch live. We can watch live killings by atheists driving drones looking for guys to kill and upload to Snapchat. Again and again we can watch men killing men where God doesn't live in their hearts. I hear the atheists on both sides want more meat to grind, not content with grinding up their own boys, they want a nice and diverse selection of human bologna to stack on the shelves. Apparently 350k dead isn't enough. I think the atheists are fighting for dirt, not sure. Something like that though, I'm too lazy to figure it out.
In general, any Christian who commits murder is Violating the doctrine they claim to follow.
In general, any atheist who commits murder is Adhering to their own doctrine.
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The vast majority of combatants in Ukraine and Russia are members of Orthodox Christinanity. Allegiance to that institution has even been weaponized as part of the conflict by creating a schism between the Russian Orthodox Church and the newly autonomous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The fact is that the vast majority of conflicts throughout the world are directly instigated by Abrahamic scriptural ideology, or by the efforts of non-Abrahamic peoples to defend themselves against Abrahamic terrorism taking root within their borders.
The fact remains that the Abrahamic scriptures have been used explicitly to justify 2,000 years of bigotry and genocide. Their track record makes Mein Kampf look like a children's book by comparison. This is a fact which you cannot deflect from simply by hand waving about humans being intrinsically violent. Nor can you deflect from it by crying "No true Scotsman". The violence has an ideological basis, and that basis is the so-called religious scriptures of the Abrahamic tradition. It is highly irresponsible to continue to promote literature and ideology which has such a long and reliably consistent outcome of genocidal violence towards outsiders.
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I think you're partially right about the atheists, there are some whackjobs in every group that has ever existed and ever will. Most of them would be around the corner lining up for the "leave us alone for the rest of eternity" button. Maybe Anton LeVey's Satanic Church, too. But none of the other Satanist churches believe in killing people, they prefer to make people think. I think the vast majority of those in the "kill all Christians" line would be agnostics who've been harassed, people of any religion who hate child molestors or know a woman who barely escaped a Christian marriage with her life after her pastor told her it was her fault she wasn't a good enough wife (usually JWs).
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THE FIRE WITHIN: A SERMON FROM REV. JTSUNRISE Celestial Nexus Church, Seattle, WA
Beloved Ones, You Are Called to Light By God:
I come to you not with condemnation, nor with fear, but with fire—the fire of truth, the fire of love, fire that cannot be put out by the shifting ideas and environmental tides of this world! Words spoken on the mountaintop over two thousand years ago are not relics of the past. They are alive, burning with urgency, calling us to live as beacons in a world that has lost its way.
Let us not whisper these truths—let us proclaim them! Let us not keep this fire dimmed—let it consume us!
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The world tells us to chase wealth, power, and self-importance. But look around! Does it satisfy? Has it ever? The Eternal does not dwell in riches, nor in arrogance, but in the heart that knows its need, that hungers for something more than this world can offer. The kingdom is not for the self-sufficient—it is for the seekers, the humble, the ones who cry out, “Divine One, fill me!”
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Who among us has not wept? Who has not lost, not suffered? And yet, we live in a time that tells us to numb the pain, to distract ourselves, to move on. But the Spirit does not numb! The Spirit transforms! The Divine meets us in our sorrow, not to erase it, but to make something holy out of it—to turn ashes into beauty, mourning into dancing.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The world glorifies force, dominance, and control. But Jesus did not conquer with a sword—Jesus conquered with love. Those who seek to rule by crushing others will fade like dust in the wind. But those who walk humbly, who serve, who lift up the brokenhearted—they shall inherit a kingdom that no empire can destroy!
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” What are you hungry for? What do you crave? More comfort? More success? Or do you burn for justice? Do you thirst for truth? The world offers bread that leaves you empty, water that does not quench. But if you hunger for what is right, for what is good, for what is holy—you will be filled. Not by the world, but by the Source of all things!
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” We cry out for justice, but do we show mercy? We demand fairness, but do we forgive? Do we see the humanity in those we disagree with? Or do we build walls and call them righteousness? The measure you use will be measured to you—so let your hands be open in grace!
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” What lives in your heart? What do you fill your mind with? Do you seek truth, or do you feed on anger? Do you choose love, or do you cling to resentment? Purity is not perfection—it is clarity. To see God, you must look through the lens of love, not fear.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” Do not be fooled—peace is not the path of the weak. The peacemaker does not turn away from conflict but steps into it with love as their weapon, with truth as their shield. It is easy to stir division, to throw stones. But to bring healing? To walk into the fire and refuse to let it consume you? That is the path of the Divine.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” If you stand for truth, expect resistance. If you shine a light, expect the darkness to push back. But do not be afraid! You do not stand alone. Every prophet, every teacher, every soul who has ever lived for love over fear, for justice over cruelty, has faced the same trials. The kingdom does not belong to the comfortable—it belongs to the faithful.
So I say to you today: Burn with the true force of holy fire! Do not dim your light to fit into a world that has lost its way. You were made for more than the distractions of the age. You were made to shine, to serve, to love with a love that cannot be shaken!
Let these words take root. Do not just hear them—live them. Walk as though the kingdom of heaven is already here, because it is. It is within you, it is around you, it is breaking through every time you choose love over fear, truth over deception, light over darkness.
The world is passing away, but the love of the Divine endures forever. And those who walk in that love—they shall never be lost.
Go now, and let your light burn bright!
In Fire and in Grace, Rev. JTSunrise Celestial Nexus Church, Seattle, WA
Bless your heart, please get well. 😇
🦁❤️