When Washington Examiner reporter Salena Zito visited the memorial service for Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in Glendale, Arizona, she witnessed something far larger than a single moment of mourning. Tens of thousands of young people gathered not just to remember Kirk, but to demonstrate what Zito calls a religious revival that has been quietly building momentum across America for the past two years.
“There were some things that came good out of it, like the Civil Rights Act and the equal pay for women. But what it’s left, it was just left when it was adopted, it became center, it became further left as it continued to grab hold of our culture curators and corporations, institutions, academia, and legacy media until it became the status quo,” Zito explained during her Wednesday appearance on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
Zito has been documenting this emerging Christian counterculture across western Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky, watching as a new generation pushes back against decades of secular dominance. She draws a striking parallel to the 1960s counterculture movement, but with the roles reversed. Where young people once rebelled against traditional values, today’s youth are rebelling against the progressive establishment that grew from that earlier revolution.
The evidence appears in unexpected places. “I look at my landscaper, the woman who cleans my house, the woman who does my hair, all under the age of 30, and they are part of this movement,” Zito noted. These aren’t activists or politicians, but ordinary young Americans choosing faith as their form of resistance.
Hugh Hewitt connected this revival to the Jesus People movement of the 1960s, led by pastor Greg Laurie and later depicted in the 2023 film “The Jesus Revolution.” That earlier movement became significant enough to earn a Time magazine cover story, yet today’s religious awakening receives little mainstream media attention.
Zito attributes this media blindness to a cultural disconnect. “Mainly because, not because they’re bad people, but they just don’t understand it. They don’t see it when it’s right in front of them because it’s not something that has been culturally part of their life or they have rejected along the way,” she said.
The timing proves significant. Zito traces the revival’s acceleration to COVID and its aftermath, when young people experienced firsthand the failures of secular institutions. Lockdowns disrupted education, isolated communities, and exposed the limits of purely material approaches to human flourishing. Many young Americans began searching for something deeper than what progressive culture offered.
This spiritual awakening aligns with Catholic teaching on the proper relationship between faith and public life. The Church has long rejected the radical secularist model that attempts to exclude religious influence from society. Vatican II documents emphasize distinction without separation between Church and State, affirming that the Church’s mission to evangelize and guide morality cannot be suppressed by civil authorities.
Pope Benedict XVI’s writings reinforced this principle, arguing that natural law rooted in Christian teaching should inform society’s moral fabric. This doesn’t mean establishing a theocracy, but rather allowing religious wisdom to contribute to public discourse on fundamental questions about human dignity, family and the common good.
The memorial service itself illustrated this integration of faith and civic engagement. Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, demonstrated remarkable Christian witness by publicly forgiving her husband’s suspected killer. She also vowed to continue growing the Turning Point USA movement nationwide, connecting personal faith to political action.
Historical precedent supports optimism about this movement’s potential impact. Previous religious awakenings in American history contributed to major social reforms, from abolition to civil rights. The current revival’s focus on life, family and religious freedom continues this tradition of faith-motivated civic engagement.
The movement’s authenticity appears organic in nature. Unlike top-down political campaigns, this revival emerges from personal encounters with faith among ordinary young Americans. Zito’s observations mentioned earlier in this article about her young service providers reflect a broader pattern of individual conversion experiences spreading through communities and social networks.
This development offers hope that younger generations are rediscovering timeless truths about human nature and social order. The revival suggests that secular culture’s promises of fulfillment through materialism, individualism, and moral relativism left many young people spiritually hungry — a hunger many look to be satisfied in Jesus.
