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On the afternoon of Monday March 3, hundreds of students congregated in White Plaza to listen to Cliffe Knechtle and his son Stuart Knechtle debate Christianity as a part of their “Give Me An Answer” ministry, a program that strives to answer tough questions about faith. Cliffe and Stuart are both pastors at Grace Community Church in New Canaan, Connecticut, and Cliffe has been debating students on Christianity since developing the Give Me An Answer ministry in 1991.
Cliffe and Stuart took turns debating students on Christianity for hours, encouraging the audience listening to read the Bible and look to Scripture for questions they have about faith in their own lives. The Knechtles’ visit to Stanford’s campus is indicative of a larger trend on college campuses across the country: Religion is making a comeback among young adults.
The Review had the opportunity to speak with Cliffe about the work he is doing with his ministry, and he said that their main objective in visiting college campuses is to “introduce people to our closest friend, Jesus Christ.” Over the span of two months, the Knechtles will have visited eleven different universities across the country—Arizona State University, Texas A&M, Stanford, UC Davis, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, University of Massachusetts, and Amherst—with the same goal in mind: introducing college students to Christianity.
Data from the CIRP Freshman Survey between 1990 and 2020 indicates that the number of college students who identify as non-religious has increased from 10% to 34%. Additionally, about 66% of college freshmen stated that they had attended religious service between 2019 and 2020, an all-time low for the duration of the survey, which is slightly higher than the percentage for 18-22 year olds in general. Data presented by the General Social Survey from 2021 indicates that approximately 63.7% of young adults in this age group never attend religious services. The data presents a striking spike in young adults abandoning their faiths, as the general percentage of adults who do not attend religious services was reported as being around 30% in 2021.
Why is it that the university environment prompts students to reject their faith, even for students who have just entered college? Despite the minimal efforts being made to spread religious beliefs and values onto campuses from external sources, the polarized state of our college campuses from the last five years widened the gap between those students who embrace their faiths and those who reject them.
In 2021, Dr. Ilana Horwitz, an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Tulane University who earned her Ph.D. from Stanford, studied the opinions of approximately 150 Stanford students on subjects such as gender, social class, ethnicity, and religion. She noted the experiences of two students in particular, one Christian and the other Jewish, who both felt as though they would be viewed negatively by their peers for expressing a commitment to their faiths.
The evangelical Christian student in Horwitz’ study explained that proclaiming her faith came with many social impacts, considering Stanford's politically liberal atmosphere. She expressed that “People tend to have pretty negative views towards religion and religiosity here, especially towards Christianity because of the history of oppression associated with Christianity and missions.” Dr. Horwitz added that the fear of being openly associated with certain social and political views, simply on the basis of religion, was something that many Christian students did not want to deal with, especially at a university like Stanford.
Similarly, the Jewish student expressed how he felt doubtful about wearing his Star of David necklace and yarmulke because such outward religious expression made him feel alienated from other students on campus. He shared, “When I have worn my yarmulke, I feel very visible – like there are people watching me as I walk by.” Outward displays of religious affiliation such as these cause some students to feel judged and isolated, which can lead to the abandonment of visible markers of faith.
In my experience, this is still somewhat the case on Stanford’s campus four years later. Some religious students are abandoning their faiths in order to “fit in,” either physically in order to blend in with those around them or ideologically so they are not pointed out as having differing views from the majority of students at Stanford. As a Catholic student, I took great notice of the number of students who would show up to regular Masses at Memorial Church on the weekends versus the number of students who attended Mass on special occasions such as Ash Wednesday. I was unaware of how many students are Catholic, since a large percentage of the students in attendance do not participate in Catholic groups on campus and are not vocal about their faiths.
Despite prior statistics, there appears to be a spark of religious revival on Stanford’s campus—or, at least, a desire to hear the arguments for religious belief. Contrary to what would be expected for attendance at a debate run by two evangelists, White Plaza was packed with students wanting to listen to debate, many of whom skipped class in order to stay for longer.
While many of the students who contributed to debate were Christian, a fair percent of individuals who asked questions were non-religious, curious students who, despite having limited exposure to religion or negative experience with religion, took the initiative to come to the debate and respectfully engage in conversation. This self-initiated interest in faith is something to consider as proof of a move towards religious resurgence.
A more recent, 2024 study on attendance at religious services based on birth year demonstrates the beginning of a rejuvenation of faith in young adults. Interestingly, men and women born between 1970 and 1985 have the lowest percentage of religious attendance, while religious attendance has seen a positive trend in men and women born after 2000, where the younger the individual is, the higher the percentage of attendance.
In a world where agnosticism and religious rejection has become more popular, even “trendy,” we are beginning to see a reversal in these previous trends. The pendulum is swinging back from the left-wing position that it has been in for the last fifty years and is beginning to make a return to conservatism. The current presidency is partly to thank for this movement, as it is allowing right-leaning students to feel more confident expressing and aligning themselves with both their political and religious beliefs.
Despite prior pushback on religion which deterred students from attending services, being open with their beliefs, and outwardly expressing their faiths, the growing openness in conservative alignment will only lead to continued revitalization in religion at Stanford and on college campuses across the country.
