Franklin Graham Attributes Growing Church Attendance from Young People Who Reject 'Anti-God Socialism'

Evangelist Franklin Graham recently noted that more young Americans are attending church in their rejection of "anti-God socialism."
Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, shared a clip of his appearance to Fox News on Saturday, in which he reacted to statistical findings that Generation Z and millennials, the two youngest groups of American adults, have greater average monthly church attendance rates than older generations.
"I think Gen Z and millennials have been fed the lie of socialism, and socialism is basically anti-God," he said, The Christian Post reported. "They have been turned off, I think, by this, and they're asking themselves, 'there's got to be something more.'"
A September report by the Barna Group found that Generation Z churchgoers attend services an average of 1.9 times per month, while millennials attend 1.8 times per month. In contrast, elders (1.4), baby boomers (1.4), and members of Generation X (1.6) had lower average monthly church attendance.
"I think it's socialism," Graham said regarding higher church attendance of the younger generations.
He cites increased Bible sales and references the assassination of conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk as factors for increased church attendance from GenZers.
“The man supposedly who killed him said that too many people were listening to Charlie Kirk and he wanted to shut him up," Graham said. "I think that's just increased the appetite even more for this generation. What was Charlie Kirk saying? They tuned into his memorial service, 100,000 were there present, and they say 100 million were watching."
"People are wanting to know the truth and that's the thing. ... Charlie was teaching truth," he added. "They've listened to lies and lies and lies from their university professors and those coming out of the Department of Education. I think they're wanting to know the truth."
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Originally published December 31, 2025.





