TUCSON, Ariz. – Faith among college-aged people in the U.S. is falling nationwide. Christian ministries at the University of Arizona, however, say they are seeing a different trend on campus.

In the 1990s, about 90% of US adults identified as Christian, according to a 2022 Pew Research study on religion. Today, only two thirds of adults consider themselves Christian. 

Eighty percent of adults within the U.S. believe that “religion’s role in American life is shrinking,” which is the highest percentage Pew has ever seen in their studies, according to another recent 2024 Pew Research study on religion. 

Pew also found that young Americans today are less likely to become or remain Christian. 

“There’s been all this research since the Enlightenment and the Second World War, there was this secularization, the idea that ‘Oh, if we get educated we won’t be religious, religion will fade away into the sunset,’” said Hester Oberman, a lecturer for the UA Religious Studies and Classics Department. 

But she doesn’t believe it. 

“We have always been religious and we will remain religious,” she said.

It’s been nearly 80 years since the end of World War II, when secularized campuses, disinterested students and college life began to change young people’s relationship to religion. 

But Oberman argues that faith remains a guiding force for many in the U.S., including on seemingly modernized and intellectually driven college campuses.

The UA Catholic Newman Center has been serving and empowering university Catholics since 1926, and this new age of Christian Catholicism is no different according to Father John Forte and Nathan Payne, both leaders and ministers for the Newman Center.

“I work with a group of anywhere from 14-16 students. They’re full time students and they’re student ministers, and our program has three goals: self-knowledge, growth in your faith and service,” said Forte, the leading pastor for the center. “You get to see these students really become real contributors, real leaders of the world and become the best of what Christianity means, showing the love and truth of God.” 

He said you can see a change in students throughout the university years.

“There’s one student I can think of, and they just seem to be happier already by the second semester,” said Payne, director of music for the center and a campus minister. “I do believe that it has something to do with our community, but there’s an infectious joy that has been revealed to this student and a bunch others.”

Other evangelical Christian groups like Student Mobilization (StuMo) and the Navigators also say they continue to see students’ lives change through engagement with the Christian faith while on campus.

Phillip Raic is a senior studying business management. His StuMo journey began with two men from the ministry who he said stood out as “humble men with loving intentions.” 

He wanted to follow the example of Austin Wales, a senior in StuMo, and his roommate Tyler Loop, kicker for the UA football team, who became his mentors, friends and role models in the faith, he said.

“I didn’t know there were this many people my age who are pursuing God passionately,” he said. “And I’m sitting in worship one time, and I’m looking around at all these hands raised, I’ve never seen this before, and that moment is when I gave my life to Christ.”

Raic said they showed him a “brighter light that I want to be like.” 

Ryzon Hazen is a StuMo member and a senior at the UA studying nutrition and human performance. He said he works for the ministry by reaching out to other members of the Japanese and Korean communities on campus.

Just over 21,200 student-aged minors died by suicide in Japan in 2024, according to a 2024 study by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), Japan’s only public broadcasting company. That hits close to home for Hazen, who is of Japanese descent.

“So many people in Japan take their own lives because of depression and anxiety, with less than 1 percent following the faith,” he said. “For me, the most rewarding thing I’ve experienced is just seeing the lives of the Japanese and Korean students I’ve been able to minister to over the last year, and to see how those guys’ heart postures have been continually changing.”

Laulaau Leuta is a junior at the UA studying business and creative writing, originally from an island in the South Pacific called American Samoa. She’s a member of the Navigators, a ministry that has been at the UA since 1933.

She said its community and her weekly Bible study has helped her heal from a brokenness from her past.

“I was sexually assaulted many times. I was molested and almost raped,” she said. “I hate saying it, but I hated the Lord. I thought ‘How could you let this happen to me even though I believed in you and loved you.’”

The faith community she found at the UA helped her reignite her passion for the faith and her trust in God, she said.

“Although it seemed like the Lord wasn’t there for me, He was there because He didn’t let it happen,” Leuta said. “I felt the Lord say, ‘I was there for you, but you just didn’t know it.’ I’m proud of my testimony now, and I’m not shy or embarrassed anymore to share it.”

While faith, healing and community impact aren’t reflected in national numbers, members of the Christian faith community on campus said they continue to help members thrive, seeing breakthroughs through one student at a time. 

“It gives me hope and it gives me purpose that, yes, I’m here for an education, but there’s so much more than what people think there is in life,” Hazen said. “Being able to go out and share the faith and see the lives of guys and girls that you’ve prayed for in the fall come to faith in the spring has been really cool to see.”

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.