Giving Thanks for an American Awakening

Though Christmas is upon us, I’m still full of “Thanksgiving” for an American awakening taking place across our land.

I know Kamala Harris received 74 million votes in the past election. The nation is divided. And most elections don’t portend that revival is taking place.

But many thoughtful voices believe a cultural turning is happening in the United States that could become a full-blown awakening (as happened in the 18th and 19th centuries). 

Be encouraged–and continue to pray.

Giving Thanks for an American Awakening

Maybe the best analogy for what’s taking place is the end of the Civil War.

The “War Between the States” effectively “turned” on April 9, 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General “Sam” Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The North and South remained divided, and Southerners were left stunned, disillusioned, and even embittered over the outcome.

It would take decades to heal the divide, and 100 years to finally strike the death blow to racial injustice. But April 9, 1965 was the beginning of a major cultural reversal in the United States. 

November 5, 2024 just might be another hinge point in our history–from “woke” to being “awakened.”

I will let others share that belief from different perspectives. The various takes on the presidential election lend credence that something major is occurring. Here are some “lenses” to consider. 

A Spiritual Awakening

I have written extensively on the growing American revival (people coming to Jesus) as seen in mass baptisms and re-vitalized youth movements. Here is Gary Randall’s perspective:

Matt Brown writes in the Washington Times: “In the summer of 2019, my friend Malachi O’Brien called me and said, ‘I feel like we are supposed to call one million young people to fast and pray as we enter into the Roaring Twenties.’ We had the sense the 2020s would be a time when God would do something significant and powerful in America. Little did we know what was coming.”

On Feb. 8, 2023, Zach Meerkreebs a minister in Kentucky was preaching at the chapel at Asbury University when something unusual and extraordinary happened. It started with a handful of students who didn’t want to leave after service was over. They sensed they should keep praying.

Over the next few hours, more students filled the chapel, which snowballed into a 24-hour service that lasted 16 days. More than 200,000 people converged on the small town of Willmore, Kentucky – a town of just 6,000 residents. There was no desire for publicity. No famous Christian speaker or band played. The only draw was the unusually strong presence of God. What was it like to be in the room?

This movement of prayer, spiritual renewal, and worship is sweeping our nation’s cities and secular institutions, but the legacy media mostly does not report it.

I was a youth pastor in North Hollywood, California, in the 1970s when the great revival that we know as the “Jesus Revolution” took place. We didn’t realize it was history in the making at the time. Thousands of us ministry leaders saw it simply as an answer to prayer.

We are amid another great cultural shift, spiritually and politically.

A Citizenship Awakening

For decades I have lamented believer apathy toward voting. That changed in 2024. Here’s the evidence from the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal:

Overall, 56% of self-identified Christians voted in 2024, which Barna pointed out “was barely higher than the involvement among people aligned with non-Christian faiths (53%), but significantly higher than among voting-age Americans who have no religious faith (48%).” Interestingly, Catholic voters and Christians with a biblical worldview both outperformed their 2020 turnout by three points.

“Trump was a heavy favorite among most of the three dozen Christian segments studied by the Cultural Research Center survey. The former president received a landslide 56% to 43% margin of victory among all self-identified Christians,” Barna observed. “Among the approximately 75 million votes Trump garnered in the election, more than three-quarters of them—78%—came from the Christian community.”

Barna also noted that Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, scored low among almost all Christian denominations and demographics, with the exception of “mainline and traditionally black Protestant congregations.” Overall, less than two-thirds of Harris’ votes came from Christians.

The majority of Christian voters also identified their religious beliefs, the differing party platforms, and the needs of their family as the biggest impacts on their choice of candidates. “Consistent with the patterns established, Trump voters were twice as likely as Harris voters to identify their religious faith as a major influence on their candidate of choice (30% vs. 14%, respectively),” Barna noted.

Joseph Backholm, senior fellow at Family Research Council, explained, “Religion gives people a worldview which, among other things, gives people a way to understand what’s wrong with the world and what the solution is. Elections are one way people indicate their understanding of what’s wrong and what we need to do to fix it. Christians were always going to be a significant part of this election, either through what we did or did not do. In this case, tens of millions of Christians evaluated an admittedly tricky choice and reached the same conclusion, and as Robert Frost would say, that has made all the difference.”

Followers of Jesus became more active citizens in the recent election. People who said they believe in God made up 68% of the electorate in 2020 (largest group). But in 2024, 72% of people saying they believe in God turned out to vote. They strongly voted for Donald Trump because of the biblical worldview behind his policies. 

A Common Sense Awakening

Many people consider the Hoover Institution’s Victor Davis Hanson one of the best cultural commentators in America. I agree. His most recent publication is The Trump Counterrevolution is a Return to Sanity.

VDH frames the election as a return to common sense on government spending (high inflation), open border chaos, and woke ideology (regressive). It is worth a read.

A Constitutional Awakening

Larry Arn, president of Hillsdale College, frames the recent election as a renewal of constitutional government in the United States. (If you don’t get Hillsdale’s publication “Imprimis,” please sign up for it.) You can read it here.

A “Folks” Awakening

Finally, you might appreciate Bill O’Reilly’s “The Folks Saved America” column: 

The 77 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump stopped the far-left zealots cold. Harris, Biden, Pelosi, the corporate TV media, Hollywood, and the newspaper industry were all badly battered by the election outcome. Recovery is doubtful. Good.

The strength of America is not government but strong, well-intentioned individuals. President Biden will go down in history as a weak leader whose only problem-solving solution was massive spending and imposing onerous regulations and taxation. That equation spiked consumer prices, leading to the collapse of the Democratic Party.

Had she been elected, Vice President Harris would have been worse.

So, this Thanksgiving I said a prayer of gratitude for the voters who have saved the country from massive dysfunction and equity-driven unfairness. You guys stopped the madness.

And I thank God you did.

None of them are saying the battle is over. Tyler O’Neill is right when he writes:  “The Woke Movement Isn’t Dead.

But the tide has turned.

America can either be “Woke” or “Awakened” by God–in cultural influence. Woke policies are based in pride, a secular worldview (godless), and the use of force. Awakening comes from God through repentance (humility), a biblical perspective, and true freedom (the power to do what you ought).

Yes, there’s always a tough road ahead in a fallen world. 

But I’m giving thanks for the beginning of an American Awakening.