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The last major spiritual revival in the U.S. took place back in the 1960s and 70s when the country was going through a tumultuous time similar to now.
The year 1968 was particularly filled with tragedy, with the assassinations of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and the ongoing war in Vietnam.
The raw emotions of that time are certainly something many Americans can relate to in our time, in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk last week and the near assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump last year.
Kirk, like King, sought positive, nonviolent political and cultural change working from outside the government.
The sudden, violent deaths of both men in their 30s left gaping holes in the national political stage.
Yet, in the midst of all the pain in the late 1960s, a spiritual awakening was in its nascent stage, and there is one underway now, too.
During the Jesus People movement of the 60s and 1970s, as many as three million came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and turned away from illicit drugs and the so-called “sexual revolution.”
Many Christian youth ministries really took off during this timeframe, like Bill Bright’s Campus Crusade for Christ and Loren Cunningham’s Youth with a Mission, according to Christianity.com.
And though it may not be possible to draw a straight line from the Jesus People Movement in the late 1960s and into the 1970s and the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, Christians — and undoubtedly many converts from the spiritual awakening that had just occurred — played a pivotal role.
Reagan ran with a campaign slogan of “Let’s Make America Great Again,” and there was a renewal of the American spirit and economy in the 1980s. It was “morning in America, again,” Reagan would say in 1984.
Fast forward to last year’s election, when Trump’s platform was “Make America Great Again,” and Charlie Kirk, through his organization “Turning Point USA,” played a decisive role in turning out the youth vote.
“I dominated with young people, and it’s never happened before, and I give him so much credit,” Trump said, while honoring Kirk last week.
A Tufts survey published last November found 56 percent of men ages 18 to 29 voted for Trump, a flip from 56 percent who cast their ballot for Joe Biden in 2020.
Overall, Trump gained 10 percent among younger voters, moving from 36 percent support in 2020 to 46 percent last year, and that helped decide the race.
Kirk was very forthright about his Christian faith and made it a centerpiece in his work with Turning Point. He and others have had an impact among younger Americans, especially.
A Barna poll published in April showed that Gen Z and Millennials are fueling a faith renewal in America, and the turn is most pronounced among men.
In 2019, 52 percent of Gen Z men said they had made a personal commitment to follow Jesus, but by 2025, 67 percent had. Among women, the number moved from 54 percent in 2019 to 61 percent in 2025.
And with Millennial men, the move was 52 percent to 71 percent by 2025, and among women, 58 percent to 64 percent.
Fox News reported last month that Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, the nation’s largest Christian university, will have record-breaking enrollment this school year, hitting 133,000 including online and in-person students.
The Washington Times reported in July, “Luminate, the data firm behind Billboard’s charts, has found that Christian and gospel music are among the fastest-growing genres in the U.S., trailing only rock, Latin and country in streaming popularity.
“Most new music has seen a decline in streams this year, but Christian artists have bucked the trend with an 8.9% gain through late May — more than double the industry average growth rate of 4%, Luminate said in its mid-year report,” the outlet added.
Currently #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart is “Ordinary” by Alex Warren, with lyrics filled with Christian imagery.
Also charting presently are Christian artists Forrest Frank’s “Your Way’s Better.” Billboard reported in May that Brandon Lake’s “Hard Fought Hallelujah” spent several weeks on the Top 100 chart.
Vigils for Charlie Kirk have featured the singing of Christian songs like “Amazing Grace” and “I Have Decided To Follow Jesus.”
Massive crowd chillingly sing “I have decided to follow Jesus” at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC
America is returning to Christ. ✝️ pic.twitter.com/DIXnXrwmWa
— Anna Lulis (@annamlulis) September 14, 2025
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who lost his father to an assassin’s bullet at 14, provided a perfect bridge between that difficult time in American history and the current one.
“Yesterday, my 17-year-old niece left for Europe to go to college,” RFK Jr. began his remarks at a Charlie Kirk vigil at the Kennedy Center on Sunday. “And while she was packing Amaryllis [Fox Kennedy], my daughter-in-law, noticed that she had put a Bible in her suitcase.”
Charlie Kirk gave his life so that the rest of us would not have to suffer fates worse than death.
Now it’s our job, since he’s no longer there to lead us, to rush in and fill the breach, and win this battle for Country, for God and for our families. pic.twitter.com/J6WDuialHP
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) September 15, 2025
“And Amaryllis was curious about it,” Kennedy continued. “She asked her. And Zoe said to her, ‘I want to live like Charlie Kirk,’ and that’s a great thing for our country.”
“The overarching mission of Charlie Kirk was Jesus and also free speech, and he saw them as intertwined,” RFK Jr. added.
He concluded, “Now it’s our job, he’s no longer there to lead us, to rush in and fill the breach, and win this battle for our country, for God, and for our families.”
Amazing Grace is sung by participants at the candlelight vigil for Charlie Kirk in downtown Seattle tonight pic.twitter.com/Vf891UHSKa
— Ari Hoffman 🎗 (@thehoffather) September 11, 2025
It was a Christian revival among the nation’s youth that saved the United States in the late 1960s and 70s, and it appears that it will be the salvation of America again now.
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