Fathers and faith formation
June 22, 2026
On this day after Father’s Day, after the cards and cookouts, it’s worth pausing on one of the most consequential things a dad does: shaping whether his children grow up to share his faith. Our recent report with the Institute for Family Studies and Communio, Passing the Torch: How Faith Moves Across Generations, offers a striking reminder that fathers carry an influence far greater than they often realize.
The report addresses a sobering trend: religious participation in America has fallen by nearly every measure (church attendance, belief in God, self-reported faith, etc.) since the 1990s. This decline is largely generational, with each new cohort entering adulthood less connected to faith than the one before.
