The number of Christians in America is declining - and no one is recognizing the obvious reason

May 13, 2015

WRITER

Want to hear a scary number? New research shows that there's been an 8% drop in people identifying as Christian over the past seven years. Meanwhile, the percentage of people who are atheist or agnostic has been rising. What is happening to people of faith in America? Glenn looked at the issue and found some disheartening answers - but there are solutions as well.

Below is a transcript of this segment:

According to a new Pew Research Center poll, the number of Christians in America has sharply declined in the last eight years from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% today. That’s an 8% drop in seven years—remarkable, right?

The survey is of 35,000 Americans, and it showed that the driving force behind the drop was due to millennials. During that same seven-year period, those who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular, went from 16.1% to 22.8%. This is an alarming thing for a nation that was built on the concept of God. And the easy explanation is to blame the world, you know, look at the world. I mean, you’re growing up as a millennial, how are you going to possibly say that you’re religious?

It’s no surprise people are saying, “Christian, I’m not Christian.” Why would you call yourself Christian? Those numbers continue to dwindle for good reason. You define yourself as a Christian, and you’re going to be defined by society as narrow-minded, hateful, judgmental. Believing marriage between a man and woman used to be ammunition or still is used as ammunition to say you hate gays. Saying prayer in school is akin to forcing nonbelievers to conform against their will. Teaching intelligent design is literally likened to child abuse now, mocked as anti-science.

Virginity is mocked. Being pro-life is being spun as a war on women, so growing up today as a millennial, that is damn near impossible. Who would intentionally put themselves in a crowd that society has deemed anti-gay, anti-women, anti-science? I mean, sign me up. It’s a harder sell to young people in a culture that bombards them with anti-Christian messaging, but I honestly don’t think that’s the problem. I think that’s part of the problem, but I don’t think that’s the real problem.

The bigger problem is the elephant in the room that I think most Christians don’t want to acknowledge. The biggest problem with the Christian church are all of the Christians. Like it or not, people on the outside are watching, and I know, I can guarantee you that there are people in my church that have a problem because of me. They don’t like me. I know I go to my church, and I don’t like some people in my church.

It seems to me that we’re a little hypocritical. I know I go to other churches, and they don’t like me because of my religion or whatever. We’re, I don’t know—let me put it this way, we’re all waiting for an excuse to not go to church. I mean, I don’t know about you, but on Sunday, anything, anything, please, oh, can we have a snowstorm where the roads are all blocked so we don’t have to go to church? And everything is an excuse not to go.

So, we have far too many excuses, and some of them are real. Our churches are rife with hypocrites, know-it-alls, holier-than-thous, and the judgmental. You can put me in that box far too many times. The reason for this is, as every believer knows, we’re all human beings. We’re all flawed. We’re all liars and cheats and thieves to some extent. We’re at church, at least I am, because it’s a hospital. It’s a spiritual hospital, and we don’t recognize it as that.

We right now look at church and say well church, those are all the good people. No, they’re not. They’re all the people saying help, I need help. But we all put on these Facebook airs that we’re all perfect, it and we don’t recognize that we need someone to rescue us from our condition, that we need grace. The problem is we’re all fallen, and we’ve all fallen short of extending that grace to others.

We bicker amongst denominations, which drives me out of my mind. I’m not trying to change you and your religion, whatever, whatever. Don’t you see the times? The times that we’re living in right now are requiring us for all good men to stand together. We’re so quick to condemn one another, and we are so slow to listen. There are so many good things that happen in so many good churches. All around the country, people are doing amazing things.

I talk to pastors and priests and rabbis all over the country, and I have so much admiration for some of the stuff they’re doing. And then I talk to others, and I’m like what are you doing? Well, we’re all meeting together on Sunday or we’re all coming together on Saturday. For what? What’s the purpose?

This last Sunday, I taught in my gospel doctrine class that I teach, and we were talking about John, I think it’s chapter 9. It’s where he heals the blind man. The apostles come, and they see this blind man. The apostles say to Jesus, “So, who made him blind? Is it his sin or did his parents sin?” Jesus says, you know, no, it’s not that at all. Basically, if I may take it in today’s language, he’s like what? What are you talking about? Of course it’s not that.

Here’s an idea, why don’t you stop looking at the man as a puzzle or a riddle and start looking at him as a man who might need your help? Because the day is only going to last so long, and while the sun is up, what do you say we do some work here? That’s the problem. We are looking at everything, and so many churches will look at—let’s just say gays, and they’ll look at gays—well, is that a sin? Is that this? Is that this? What difference does it make? That’s between them. What do you say we just look at them as people and we just try to help, we just try to love? Can we do that?

That’s where millennials are. They’re not into my church versus your church. I’m not into my church versus your church. I love my church. I love my church. Okay, you go to another church. I have good friends—I tell Pastor Hagee all the time—I shouldn’t say this. No, I definitely don’t tell Pastor Hagee all the time. I’m like Pastor Hagee, come on, come into the waters of baptism, and we joke. You’re a Mormon, come on. He’s like no, I’m not. No, I’m not. We agree on so much. There’s some big doctrine that is out there that we don’t agree on. He’s not a Mormon. I am. I’m not going to join his church. He’s not going to join mine. We’re joking with each other because we look at the fruit of his tree.

Is John Hagee doing good stuff? Yes, he is. Are we doing good stuff? Yes, we are. What do you say we both get together and just do good stuff, we help each other, we hold each other’s arms up? What do you say we do that and look at the fruit of the tree for everybody instead of the name of the church? Who cares what team they’re on? You do your thing, they’ll do their thing, and let’s do good together.

Let’s look at the fruit of the tree. Are we going to help out the Westboro Baptist Church? No, the fruit is bad. The fruit is bad. That’s how you know them. We have to focus on what’s important. No one’s testimony ever begins with, “You know what, I became a Christian because I lost an argument.” It always begins with an act of mercy and kindness. Somebody offered me undeserved forgiveness. Somebody sacrificed personal gain for me or I helped someone or they helped me, and I changed.

It comes from humility. It comes from admitting when you’re wrong. What do you say we just stop with I’m right, I’m right, I’m right, I’m right, and just be doers, not the hearers? Let’s just do.

I have somebody right now my office, she’s working on a Christmas story with me. She’s amazing. She’s amazing. We’re writing this book called The Immortal. I don’t know what is going to be called when it comes out, this book, but right now the working title is The Immortal. It’s all about Christ and Christmas and Santa and St. Nick.

We’re talking, and she’s like I am going to run out of time for this because I’ve got to go back to Africa. She’s adopted two African children, one who has to have surgery every single week. Oh my gosh, she’s got, I think, five kids. One of them has to have surgery every week, and she’s going back to volunteer at an orphanage in Africa where they’re going all the time. That’s who we want to be. That’s who millennials want to be, not somebody who just puts on a tie and sits in a church and listens to somebody lecture them.

They also are not coming to the churches just because it’s a good band. They want to do something, and don’t you? Because I do. If we want people to actually not go to church, change their lives, it begins with us. When our testimony is how we live and church is who we are, we win. We change the world. But we have to recognize our own imperfections, bury our pride, die ourselves, begin to walk in gratitude. Get your head on a swivel and constantly be on the lookout for somebody you can help, even if it’s small. Build relationships instead of walls. Build them for the kingdom, not for ourselves. Remember, it’s not about us, it’s about Him. It’s about them.

Always question your own motives because we’re all prone to forget why we’re here, and we’re here to glorify the Creator, not the creation. The way we do it is not by winning arguments. That’s all that we do now is try to win arguments. How about being hands and feet, doing the work He’s called us to do? You won’t have time to argue. Just do it.

I’m working on some things right now, and I want your help. It comes from me doing the lesson, because when a teacher prepares a lesson, I think the teacher always gets more out of it than the students do. I was preparing this lesson, and every Sunday I do it, I think to myself I should be talking about this on the air. I’m afraid. I’m afraid because I know there’s a lot of people in our audience that don’t like all of that stuff and everything else.

I can’t do that anymore. I can’t do that anymore. Look, everybody told me not to talk about the progressive era. That was when I was trying to figure out what the problem was. Now, I know what the problem is. You know what the problem is. Now we’re trying to find the way to fix it, and I know probably 50% of this audience says God’s not the answer. It is the answer. Fifty percent of the audience says love and courage and hope is not the answer. It is the answer. That being peaceful is not the answer; it is the answer.

To my dying day, it is the answer, and the problem is none of us, we don’t even know. We don’t know these stories. I don’t care if you look at the Bible as something that comes directly from the mouth of God and it’s all verbatim or it’s just a great storybook. Man, it is the best storybook. It used to be what was taught in our classrooms. That was our textbook. Up until about 150 years ago, maybe 100 years ago, that was the main textbook. No wonder we changed when we went to another textbook.

And you read that book, and it has everything in it. So, in the coming months, I’m going to do the absolute insane, and I don’t know if we do it for two months or two weeks or however long, I don’t know, but I’m going to start teaching, because I’ve been taking Torah lessons, and I’m going to teach a little from the Torah and then we’ll teach a little from the New Testament from Acts on.

So, what are you supposed to do? Because man, I read that, and I think every lesson we need is right there. The answers are right there. But it’s going to be tough, and I think it’s going to be fun. I want to have an audience in here. I want to teach it with an audience because I want a conversation. But I want people from all different denominations and people who are open-minded and are looking for what does this mean today? What does it mean today? What are we supposed to get out of it today? Because there are lessons to learn.

On top of that, we’re going to start looking for the people who are actually doers and highlight them, people who are changing their life. Tonight, that’s what this is about. I want to tell you about first Sister Diana, real quick update. She’s that amazing nun in Iraq who was fighting to save Christians. She was denied a visa to the US. I tell you, she was on with me, what was it, last week or the week before. I could barely concentrate on what she was saying because I felt so guilty that she was sitting in a shipping container working to save lives, and all I was doing was sitting here on the set talking about it. Listen.

VIDEO

Glenn: We know that God won’t hold us blameless, but we feel ill-equipped. Every day, I come into this show, and I do this show. I mean, honestly, I’m watching you in a monitor, and I see the camera take the angle from our jib operator where I’m sitting in this nice chair in this air-conditioned studio, and I’m talking to you. I’m thinking to myself—honestly, part of your comments, I wasn’t even listening to you because I’m thinking to myself, “What the hell are you doing? You should be out helping,” but I don’t know how to help, and I think that most of our audience feels the same way. We know what’s going on, Sister. We just don’t know what to do.

I don’t know if you feel that way, but I’m tired of feeling that way. So, what did you do about it? I’m thrilled to tell you because you saw this, you heard about this, you got on the phone, and you are a big reason why Sister Diana’s visa was just approved. She’s going to be speaking on the Hill tomorrow to share what’s happening with the war on the religious minorities in Iraq. We will give you more about that on tomorrow’s [program]. Much of this is because of you calling Congress, taking action, pressuring them to allow her in.

This summer, I’m starting a tour, and we want to go to churches. I don’t know where and I don’t know how many yet, but I want you to do a couple of things. First, if you’re coming to Dallas anytime in the next six months, we tape mainly on Thursdays with a live audience, but that may change. We may open it up for a few days a week, but if you want tickets to the show, I want you to write to tickets@TheBlaze.com.

If you have any thoughts, I mean, we were talking today about doing a kind of Root special where we get the best minds and we actually make like a documentary series of maybe ten episodes of Revelation for today—Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Revelation. What are the things we should be paying attention to today? What’s there that we should know today?

That’s what this summer is about for us, connecting with one another and trying to put some things together so we can come out of the gate roaring in September. But most importantly, we want to encourage you and inspire action, and we’re going to be announcing some things the summer that we’re going to do this summer that I’m really excited about, because we have to start exercising our faith for good and exercising it together, because faith without works is dead. Let’s work together.

Breaking point: Will America stand up to the mob?

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty

Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images

The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.

This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.

The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.

The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.

Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?

One‑sided freedom

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.

Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.

Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?

If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.

Censored belief

I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.

I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.

I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.

And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.

Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.

Faith on trial

In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.

That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The real test

No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.

Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?

If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.

The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins Megyn Kelly LIVE — One night ONLY in Fort Worth!

Get ready for sparks to fly. For the first time in years, Glenn will come face-to-face with Megyn Kelly — and this time, he’s the one in the hot seat. On October 25, 2025, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Glenn joins Megyn on her “Megyn Kelly Live Tour” for a no-holds-barred conversation that promises laughs, surprises, and maybe even a few uncomfortable questions.

What will happen when two of America’s sharpest voices collide under the spotlight? Will Glenn finally reveal the major announcement he’s been teasing on the radio for weeks? You’ll have to be there to find out.

This promises to be more than just an interview — it’s a live showdown packed with wit, honesty, and the kind of energy you can only feel if you are in the room. Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss your chance to see Glenn like you’ve never seen him before.

Get your tickets NOW at www.MegynKelly.com before they’re gone!

What our response to Israel reveals about us

JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor | Getty Images

I have been honored to receive the Defender of Israel Award from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The Jerusalem Post recently named me one of the strongest Christian voices in support of Israel.

And yet, my support is not blind loyalty. It’s not a rubber stamp for any government or policy. I support Israel because I believe it is my duty — first as a Christian, but even if I weren’t a believer, I would still support her as a man of reason, morality, and common sense.

Because faith isn’t required to understand this: Israel’s existence is not just about one nation’s survival — it is about the survival of Western civilization itself.

It is a lone beacon of shared values in the Middle East. It is a bulwark standing against radical Islam — the same evil that seeks to dismantle our own nation from within.

And my support is not rooted in politics. It is rooted in something simpler and older than politics: a people’s moral and historical right to their homeland, and their right to live in peace.

Israel has that right — and the right to defend herself against those who openly, repeatedly vow her destruction.

Let’s make it personal: if someone told me again and again that they wanted to kill me and my entire family — and then acted on that threat — would I not defend myself? Wouldn’t you? If Hamas were Canada, and we were Israel, and they did to us what Hamas has done to them, there wouldn’t be a single building left standing north of our border. That’s not a question of morality.

That’s just the truth. All people — every people — have a God-given right to protect themselves. And Israel is doing exactly that.

My support for Israel’s right to finish the fight against Hamas comes after eighty years of rejected peace offers and failed two-state solutions. Hamas has never hidden its mission — the eradication of Israel. That’s not a political disagreement.

That’s not a land dispute. That is an annihilationist ideology. And while I do not believe this is America’s war to fight, I do believe — with every fiber of my being — that it is Israel’s right, and moral duty, to defend her people.

Criticism of military tactics is fair. That’s not antisemitism. But denying Israel’s right to exist, or excusing — even celebrating — the barbarity of Hamas? That’s something far darker.

We saw it on October 7th — the face of evil itself. Women and children slaughtered. Babies burned alive. Innocent people raped and dragged through the streets. And now, to see our own fellow citizens march in defense of that evil… that is nothing short of a moral collapse.

If the chants in our streets were, “Hamas, return the hostages — Israel, stop the bombing,” we could have a conversation.

But that’s not what we hear.

What we hear is open sympathy for genocidal hatred. And that is a chasm — not just from decency, but from humanity itself. And here lies the danger: that same hatred is taking root here — in Dearborn, in London, in Paris — not as horror, but as heroism. If we are not vigilant, the enemy Israel faces today will be the enemy the free world faces tomorrow.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about truth. It’s about the courage to call evil by its name and to say “Never again” — and mean it.

And you don’t have to open a Bible to understand this. But if you do — if you are a believer — then this issue cuts even deeper. Because the question becomes: what did God promise, and does He keep His word?

He told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.” He promised to make Abraham the father of many nations and to give him “the whole land of Canaan.” And though Abraham had other sons, God reaffirmed that promise through Isaac. And then again through Isaac’s son, Jacob — Israel — saying: “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I give to you and to your descendants after you.”

That’s an everlasting promise.

And from those descendants came a child — born in Bethlehem — who claimed to be the Savior of the world. Jesus never rejected His title as “son of David,” the great King of Israel.

He said plainly that He came “for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And when He returns, Scripture says He will return as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” And where do you think He will go? Back to His homeland — Israel.

Tamir Kalifa / Stringer | Getty Images

And what will He find when He gets there? His brothers — or his brothers’ enemies? Will the roads where He once walked be preserved? Or will they lie in rubble, as Gaza does today? If what He finds looks like the aftermath of October 7th, then tell me — what will be my defense as a Christian?

Some Christians argue that God’s promises to Israel have been transferred exclusively to the Church. I don’t believe that. But even if you do, then ask yourself this: if we’ve inherited the promises, do we not also inherit the land? Can we claim the birthright and then, like Esau, treat it as worthless when the world tries to steal it?

So, when terrorists come to slaughter Israelis simply for living in the land promised to Abraham, will we stand by? Or will we step forward — into the line of fire — and say,

“Take me instead”?

Because this is not just about Israel’s right to exist.

It’s about whether we still know the difference between good and evil.

It’s about whether we still have the courage to stand where God stands.

And if we cannot — if we will not — then maybe the question isn’t whether Israel will survive. Maybe the question is whether we will.

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