Has the Next Great Awakening Begun?

[Frodo]

The mainstream media is taking notice of a religious revival among younger Americans who flocked to a small Kentucky town for their own (Christian) version of Woodstock:

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1629638658503393287

[Skill and Chance]

Possibly, but considerably more information is needed to confirm.  In particular, these activities would need to continue and spread to multiple cities for multiple years for it to be comparable to the Great Awakening.

[DaleCooper]

No, this is just some social media attention-whoring crap.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I haven't seen nearly enough to say yes, but I suppose it's possible.

[afleitch]

'Is this small thing big?' NYT Story #29780

All I know is that it's taken place in a place known for similar events. And it's already being quashed/called out because various authorities can't control the narrative; from what I read there seemed to be a lot of LGBT people there and the old school 'they must be delivert' and 'Yas Kween Celibacy' cultural appropriators are having a bit of a bun fight between themselves and those showing affirmation.

[LabourJersey]

It remains to be seen whether the people as Asbury are always religious but gaining a new zeal, or if these include a lot of non-religious or barely religious coming into the cloth (which is how I would describe an "awakening")

I've seen no evidence of the latter but I suppose it's possible.

[jojoju1998]

Just a note :

My Local Catholic Church has had a lot more young people recently. ( They're like super devout, veils and all ).

[Continential]

Has anyone who was previously an atheist or not religious become religious over this?

[Skill and Chance]

Has anyone who was previously an atheist or not religious become religious over this?

They claim many, which could of course be exaggerated, but likely yes there's at least a couple of sincere conversions. 

If this does take off, the cultural impacts could be very abrupt and unpredictable.  The 2nd Great Awakening is widely understood as leading to the abolition of slavery (at a time the institution appeared to be gaining ground) and the 3rd Great Awakening is widely understood as leading to Prohibition (starting from a time when Americans drank at least 3X what we do today).

[Torie]

Has anyone who was previously an atheist or not religious become religious over this?

They claim many, which could of course be exaggerated, but likely yes there's at least a couple of sincere conversions.  

If this does take off, the cultural impacts could be very abrupt and unpredictable.  The 2nd Great Awakening is widely understood as leading to the abolition of slavery (at a time the institution appeared to be gaining ground) and the 3rd Great Awakening is widely understood as leading to Prohibition (starting from a time when Americans drank at least 3X what we do today).

That's interesting. Starting with Cromwell, these things seem to happen every 100 years or so, in which event it's time. If it's happening, what will be wiped out this time?

I was not really familiar with the 1st great awakening, and exploring the wipe out theme attending these revivals, I looked it up. One can read for oneself, what was deemed to have been left in its wake, and what was exorcised.

https://www.ushistory.org/declaration/lessonplan/firstgreatawakening.html

[Skill and Chance]

Has anyone who was previously an atheist or not religious become religious over this?

They claim many, which could of course be exaggerated, but likely yes there's at least a couple of sincere conversions. 

If this does take off, the cultural impacts could be very abrupt and unpredictable.  The 2nd Great Awakening is widely understood as leading to the abolition of slavery (at a time the institution appeared to be gaining ground) and the 3rd Great Awakening is widely understood as leading to Prohibition (starting from a time when Americans drank at least 3X what we do today).

That's interesting. Starting with Cromwell, these things seem to happen every 100 years or so, in which event it's time. If it's happening, what will be wiped out this time?

I was not really familiar with the 1st great awakening, and exploring the wipe out theme attending these revivals, I looked it up. One can read for oneself, what was deemed to have been left in its wake, and what was exorcised.

https://www.ushistory.org/declaration/lessonplan/firstgreatawakening.html

Hmmm... the Awakenings are basically the surviving strain of mysticism in Protestant Christianity.  If it takes off, it won't be based on scientific arguments or A->B->C style formal logic, which is what makes it so difficult to predict.  I would expect a general backlash against utilitarian/scientific policymaking, and probably some iconoclasm (the historical Awakenings all had a "worship in a tent like your ancestors" strain), but wouldn't dare to predict which specific issues they will be advocating for.  If it really takes off, I would expect at least one famous tech CEO to convert, and enough actors/actresses for it to influence mass media.

[Ferguson97]

The mainstream media is taking notice of a religious revival among younger Americans

I mean this is literally just one event, and there's a ton of data to show that Gen Z is the least religious generation ever.

[Skill and Chance]

The mainstream media is taking notice of a religious revival among younger Americans

I mean this is literally just one event, and there's a ton of data to show that Gen Z is the least religious generation ever.

It needs more evidence, but the whole idea is that these things happen suddenly in an era when religious observance has been declining.

[Blue3]

No, that tweet is just attention-grabbing and a fad.

If anything, we're still in the late rippling effects of the one that started around the presidencies of Carter/Reagan and peaked around 2004-2008. On the falling decline after that peak, but it's still there.

[Skill and Chance]

No, that tweet is just attention-grabbing and a fad.

If anything, we're still in the late rippling effects of the one that started around the presidencies of Carter/Reagan and peaked around 2004-2008. On the falling decline after that peak, but it's still there.

The late 20th century was continuously secularizing.   Hard to call that an Awakening.

[DaleCooper]

I don't think people realize how tiny and irrelevant 50,000 people actually is today. They're comparing this to Woodstock, but 400,000 people attended that almost 55 years ago, and that was in a field, not a cozy air-conditioned chapel at a university. (I wouldn't even be surprised if a higher percentage of the filthy hippies at Woodstock were gainfully employed than the people at this fake revival, but that's a separate point.) Even compared to other Christian events, it's not impressive. The March for Life, which is a de facto nondenominational Christian pilgrimage to DC, is way more impressive than this Asbury crap.

If we were seeing 50,000 Christians organizing to make sandwiches for orphans, then maybe I'd be a little more impressed, but this strikes me as more of the same boring Evangelical crap amplified by social media. It'd be like saying the success of God's Not Dead is evidence of a Great Awakening.