The death of conservative Christian commentator Charlie Kirk shocked the United States and the entire world, sparking claims of both a spiritual revival and political fervor.
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New research from the Barna Group further reveals the true impact of Kirk’s assassination on September 10th, and the data is generating a huge response among the public.
Barna Group CEO David Kinnaman told CBN News that his research firm investigated the impact of Kirk’s death on different generations and examined the dynamics two months after his assassination.
“First of all, younger generations were much more likely to know about Mr. Kirk, and millennials and Gen Z were much more likely to know about Mr. Kirk,” he said. “In fact, more than 8 out of 10 Americans knew about Charlie Kirk, but very few followed him closely.”
Kinnaman said the “most surprising” finding was that one in four Americans reported “taking a spiritual action in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death.” Although researchers have not looked into the specifics of what it was like, it underscores pastors’ reports of people flocking to the pews after his death.
Although 71% of Americans reported taking no action after Kirk’s murder, a significant proportion self-reported a significant reaction.
“Twenty-nine percent of Americans in general reported taking some action in the wake of his death, with psychological reactions outweighing political ones,” Kinnaman said. “About 24% took a spiritual action in the wake of his death. This is more common among young people, Gen Z and Millennials, and about 11% took some political action in the wake of his death.”
Devoted Christians were even more likely to say they had taken time to reflect and took political or spiritual action in the wake of Kirk’s death. Kinnaman said these statistics are relatively shocking because few events have such a profound impact on Americans.
However, the researchers noted that the data is consistent with other developments unfolding within the culture.
“It continues some of the big changes we see in our research where people are having moments of mental reflection,” Kinnaman said. “Especially among the younger generation, there is more openness to Jesus, more openness to attending church, and more reading of the Bible.”
He continued, “It seemed as if this was happening at a time that was already open to spiritual rebirth, but I think this is certainly an amazing discovery just to see how far-reaching his influence was.”
For the past two years, CBN News has been reporting on spiritual revival movements across the country, some of which have sprung up in the wake of Kirk’s death. New York City-based pastor Mike Signorelli told CBN News earlier this year that he witnessed 533 people accept Jesus the first Sunday after Kirk’s murder. There are similar stories in other churches.
“I almost cried just hearing that number again,” Signorelli said. “It still blows me away just thinking about it. … 533 decisions for Christ were represented from all eras, (many) generations, and all races.”
Kinnaman said these data and events show that “something is brewing in our society that people are interested in Jesus.”
“We see that reflected in increased Bible reading,” he says. “We’re seeing an increase in church attendance. Overall, we’re seeing it among young people.”
While there is still debate about what exactly is happening, as not all indicators are positive amidst growth, Kinnaman acknowledged that something certainly “seems different” at the moment.
“There are some other areas in the Burna data that are showing a plateau, so we want to be able to pinpoint that,” Kinnaman said. “What’s happening now is that young Americans, Gen Z and young men, seem to be going back almost 15, 25 years and coming back to the level that they would have been in previous generations, maybe even higher.”
As we see religious beliefs among young men skyrocketing, with men outpacing women overall, we see some unique things happening in the field of faith.
“These are the days we have been praying for,” Kinnaman continued. “We pray that the next generation of our children and grandchildren will find Christ and find vitality in their faith and Christianity. We can continue to pray that openness is emerging throughout society and that God will make the most of it.”
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