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More On God's Fight For Us.

 

Passing On The Faith.

 Parents play decisive role in passing faith to the next generation, study finds.

 (Photo: Getty/iStock)

Parents who actively practise and discuss their faith at home are significantly more likely to see their children remain committed Christians into adulthood, according to a major new study.

The report, 'Passing the Torch: How Faith Moves Across Generations', analysed data from over 60,000 adult Americans who were raised in Christian households. 

Researchers concluded that family life remains the most influential factor in determining whether children retain their faith as adults.

Published by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) and Communio, the research comes amid ongoing concerns about declining religious participation in America. 

The report notes that younger generations are considerably less likely than their predecessors to identify with a faith tradition, attend worship services regularly, or regard religion as central to their lives.

The study finds that families are the "single most important factor in whether children adopt and maintain faith into adulthood”, with parental example, communal religious practices and the strength of relationships between parents and their children emerging as key influences.

Researchers found that parents modelling their faith is the most powerful influence on adult religiosity. 

Children whose parents attended church weekly were more than twice as likely to attend church weekly themselves as adults (26% compared with 12%). 

Similarly, almost two-thirds of adults described religion as very important when their parents had practised their faith during their upbringing as opposed to fewer than half of those whose parents placed less emphasis on faith. 

Nearly half (47%) of parents who prayed daily raised children who then also maintained a daily prayer life in adulthood, compared with less than a third of parents who did not maintain a regular prayer life.

The report found that family religious practices beyond Sunday worship also play an important role. 

Activities such as saying grace before meals and praying together as a family were associated with higher levels of church attendance, Christian identification, prayer and belief in Christ later in life.

Researchers found that adults who were raised in households where faith was a frequent topic of conversation had more than double the likelihood of remaining actively engaged and committed to religious life, including regular church attendance and daily prayer.

The study suggests that regular conversations about faith are among the strongest predictors of adult religiosity, helping children understand not only what their families believe but why those beliefs matter.

It also highlighted the importance of parental unity in religious practice and fathers were identified as a particularly important, but often overlooked, influence. 

While mothers frequently carry the primary responsibility for children's religious education, the report found that faith outcomes were strongest when both parents were actively involved.

Researchers found that when both parents attended church with their children, adult religious commitment was notably higher (41%) than in households where only one parent participated (29%).

Only 17% of fathers described themselves as primarily responsible for their children's religious learning, compared with 39% of mothers. 

Among teenagers who attended church with only one parent, 79% did so with their mother. 

Adults who regularly discussed religion with both parents during childhood were more likely to have similar conversations with their own children later in life, suggesting a multigenerational ripple effect.

Marriage and family relationships also featured prominently in the findings.

Children raised by their married biological parents generally showed stronger religious commitment as adults, while the quality of family relationships proved equally important. 

Researchers argued that stable marriages provide parents with greater capacity to invest time, energy and resources into faith formation while reinforcing the credibility of religious teaching within the home.

The report further indicated that parents who were “completely satisfied in their marriages reported having nearly five faith conversations with their children per week". This fell to four among dissatisfied couples.

Longitudinal data also showed that children raised in very happy marriages had a 46% predicted probability of praying daily as adults, in contrast to 41% among those raised in less happy family environments.

The quality of parent-child relationships emerged as another major factor. 

Adults who reported having strong relationships with both parents during childhood were substantially more likely to attend church, pray regularly and believe in God later in life. 

In fact, those with very good relationships with both parents had 76% greater probability of going church every week, a 66% higher chance of praying every day, 87% higher likelihood of considering religion highly important and 97% higher probability of having faith in God compared with those who experienced weaker parental relationships.

Parental oversight of media consumption may also play a role as teenagers whose television and internet use was more closely monitored were generally more likely to remain religious as adults, although the report notes that the underlying data was collected before the rise of smartphones and social media.

Researchers argued that churches should view families as central partners in faith formation rather than relying solely on congregational programmes.

“Congregational programmes, clergy leadership, and peer networks matter as well, but they are most effective when reinforced within the home,” the report states.

Parents who regularly participated in activities outside Sunday worship like volunteering and other church activities were more likely to raise children who remained committed to their faith into adulthood.

Youth groups, church camps and retreats were found to be particularly important during adolescence, when peer influence often becomes more significant, leading to teens who participated in these being twice as likely to attend church weekly in their mid-to-late twenties compared with those who did not (22% vs 9%).

The report describes faith transmission as taking place through what researchers call a “nested model,” in which family life forms the primary environment for religious formation while churches provide support, community and reinforcement.

Despite highlighting the challenges facing Christianity in an increasingly secular culture, the authors maintain that the situation is far from hopeless.

J.P. De Gance, founder and CEO of Communio, said: “The reality is the married home is the most impactful small group.

"When parents are engaged in the discipleship of their children, this is where faith most often takes deep root.

"This report reinforces important biblical truths and provides some great actionable steps for both parents and pastors to restore Christian faith in their homes and across society.” 

Similarly, Jesse Smith, PhD, co-author of the report and assistant professor at The Ohio State University, said: “Faith isn’t something kids are going to get from the culture. Our study shows that parents are the most important figures for their children's spiritual formation.

"They're the key role models, teachers, and tone-setters for giving kids the foundation in faith they'll take with them into adulthood.”

The study concludes that reversing generational decline will require both churches and families to play an active role, with families leading the way and churches equipping parents, strengthening marriages, and investing in youth ministry. CT.

Awful News.

 

A cyclone in Indonesia last year wiped out 7pc of critically endangered Tapanuli orangutans Credit: AFP via Getty

Four days of extreme rain and flooding killed 7 per cent of all Tapanuli orangutans, a study has found.

At least 58 of the critically endangered great apes died during Cyclone Senyar, which hit Indonesia’s western island of Sumatra for four days last November.

Some of the Tapanulis, a distinct species from other orangutans, were found buried amid debris, mud and logs, as their habitat collapsed and was swept away.

At least 1,200 people were killed and 300,000 homes were destroyed by Senyar’s rain, flooding and landslides in the deadliest natural disaster in south-east Asia in 2025.

But the full effect on local wildlife has only just been revealed.

Amran Siagian, a forest ranger in Tapanuli, in an area where illegal logging has taken place, searching for orangutans one month after November’s cyclone Credit: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters

The Light Walk Challenge!

 

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Please pray this weekend! The Light Walk Challenge! In the early hours of Sunday Release International’s CEO Paul Robinson and a team of supporters will be taking on the Light Walk Challenge! Paul and the 22 other walkers have all been in training in recent weeks—and now the time to take on the challenge has arrived! The team will be carrying a 10-foot-high cross up England’s highest mountain, Scafell Pike, in the dark—aiming to raise it at the peak as dawn breaks. The symbolic act will serve to highlight the fact that many Christians around the world continue to be Christ’s light in the darkest places. The walk seeks to raise awareness of the persecution of Christians, as well as raising funds to support those who suffer for Christ and the gospel. You can give to support their endeavour by clicking the DONATE button. But we also encourage you this weekend to pray for the team. See the prayer details below. DONATE

Whilst Our Nation Is Starved of Defence - Labour COULD Have Used The Nonsensical Budget For Playing With Problems Caused By China.

 

Our Nation's Population Should Be Trembling With Fear!

 Defence Secretary John Healey and Armed Forces Minister .

Al Carns resignation letters in full

BBC

Defence Secretary John Healey and Armed Forces Minister Al Carns have 

resigned from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's government.

In a letter to the prime minister, Healey said the UK's defence 

investment plan "falls well short of what is required for defence 

and the country at this dangerous time".

In a separate resignation, hours later, Carns said he could not 

"in good conscience stand at the dispatch box and defend a level 

of investment I know to be inadequate to the task".

In his earlier response letter to Healey, Sir Keir said the plan was 

backed with "the necessary investment" and lamented the 

minister's departure.

Here are the letters in full:

Live updates on this story

Starmer dithering over defence spending, says Badenoch

Healey's letter to Sir Keir

Dear Keir,

This is a letter I never expected to write, and I do so now with great 

regret and reluctance.

I am proud of what we have done in less than two years as a Labour                                                                                                         Government. We've stepped up to lead internationally for Ukraine with the Coalition of the Willing and Ukraine Defence Contact                                                                                                        Group, established Britain as a leading voice for Europe in NATO, raised defence investment to 2.5% of GDP three years earlier than anyone expected, launched the deepest defence reforms in 50 years, won the biggest UK defence export deals for decades, published a first-of-its-kind Strategic Defence Review, gave our Armed Forces the biggest pay rise in nearly 20 years, boosted military morale, fixed over 1,200 of the worst forces family homes, reset relations with European allies and signed major defence agreements with Germany, Norway and France.

You have led this as PM, earning wide respect at home and abroad. Like me, I know you are exceptionally proud of our Forces and all of those who work in UK Defence.

We came into government, recognising Britain faced a new era of threat which demanded a new era for defence. The SDR (Strategic Defence Review) we jointly commissioned set the 10-year vision to transform our Armed Forces, strengthen alliances, invest in the technology that is changing warfare and back British industry to make defence an engine for growth.

X/John Healey

This new era for defence required further investment through the Defence Investment Plan (DIP). The excellent and extensive cross-government work that completed in January-overseen by you, me and the Chancellor - confirmed the scale of the challenge and the rising demands on defence.

Since then, you have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.

X/John Healey

Since then, the demands on defence have increased still further, as have the UK commitments you have rightly made to allies. Conflict in the Middle East, with the UK now leading the multinational Strait of Hormuz military mission; High North security, with the UK now leading NATO's Arctic Sentry mission; increased Russian activity towards the UK and NATO nations and increased attacks in Ukraine, with the Paris Agreement confirming a British deployment to Ukraine after a ceasefire.

We have worked to secure a Defence Investment Plan that does two things. First, deal with the increasing operational demands on defence now and step up the SDR actions to meet the increasing threat. Second, set a clear path to meet the new NATO commitment you agreed to spend 3.5% of GDP in 2035 through the next Spending Review.

As we have regularly discussed, I am certain that a headmark date for 3% of GDP on defence in 2030 is what Britain must set. This commitment would have strong cross-party support. Other European allies are stepping up in this way.

I know how hard you have worked to get to this point. And in funding the DIP, I fully recognise the strain this places on colleagues in other Departments, both now as you have required spending switched into defence and in the future. I am very grateful to those colleagues who have supported this, and I appreciate how difficult their choices will have been.

As I've outlined to you, there are credible ways of meeting the mid-term funding challenges, working multi-nationally and as other European nations are doing, to allow us to protect our ability to deliver the missions of our Labour Government.

However, your DIP financial settlement - which I was first given in full on Monday afternoon this week-falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time. The extra support is backloaded when the pressure of operations and imperative to speed up readiness to fight is in the first two years and it rises to just 2.68% of GDP in 2030, when we will reach 2.6% next year with the investment we are already making.

You spelled out the threats last week: "it is our intelligence assessment, and the assessment of other countries in NATO, that there could be an attack by Russia on NATO as soon as 2030."

X/John Healey

You know what defence needs. You made the argument for this powerfully in your speech at the Munich Security Conference back in February. Without a DIP that meets the moment in this way, I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe.

After explaining to you that I would not be able to accept a DIP settlement that does not give our Forces the resources they need, I am now left with no other option than to submit my resignation as your Defence Secretary.

I wish you all continuing strength in the exceptional challenges you face as Prime Minister.

As always, our Labour Government will continue to have my fullest support.

Rt Hon John Healey MP

Carns' letter to Sir Keir

PA Media

Prime Minister,

It has been the privilege of my life to serve this country, first in uniform and then in government.

I have said that there are issues facing this Department that do not lend themselves to easy answers, and that there needs to be agreement throughout the government about the scale of the challenges we face. It has become clear to me that the change I had pushed for is not going to come. Given the situation, I have decided to resign as Minister for the Armed Forces.

We face a more unstable and dangerous world than at any point in recent decades, and having spent most of my adult life in uniform, I understand what public service in such a moment demands.

It is for this very reason I cannot continue.

I have watched, as a Marine, what war looks like now. I have spoken to those who have seen it up close in Ukraine. The lesson is uncomfortable and it is unambiguous. The character of conflict is changing faster than our procurement can keep up with. We are still purchasing capability suitable for the last war while our adversaries arm for the next one. Platforms that cost billions can be defeated by systems that cost thousands. Any serious Defence Investment Plan has to start from that reality.

While I had no hand in the Defence Investment Plan, that distance does allow me to say plainly that it is not built for the threat we face. It is neither transformative enough nor sufficiently funded. We are asking our Armed Forces to operate in a more dangerous world on a budget written for a calmer one.

I have sat in the rooms, seen the assessments, and spoken to the commanders who will be asked to do more with less, and I cannot in good conscience stand at the dispatch box and defend a level of investment I know to be inadequate to the task. A serious country funds its defence to meet the threat it actually faces, not the threat it wishes it faced.

The same instinct, that serious problems can be managed rather than faced, runs through the Northern Ireland Legacy Bill. I have worked to fix the Bill from the inside, but it remains unfit for purpose. It risks failing the very veterans it claims to protect. Men and women I served with, those I buried friends alongside, people who did their duty under conditions most individuals in Westminster will never have to imagine.

Al Carns/X

I set out the changes I believed were necessary, and the lines which I could not in good conscience go beyond. Those lines have not been accepted. I have run out of room to argue this case honourably from inside government. A serving minister cannot ask fellow veterans to trust a process he no longer trusts himself.

These two failures are the same failure. We ask soldiers to fight for this country. In return, we owe them the kit to do the job and the loyalty to stand by them when it's done. We are failing on both.

The same failure of seriousness runs through how this country treats the people it asks the most of, in uniform and out of it.

Too many working people in this country feel insecure even when they are doing everything right. They work hard, contribute, pay their taxes, and still feel one setback away from trouble. Public confidence in our institutions is weakening, and politics increasingly looks performative while everyday life gets harder.

The machinery of government itself has been left to decay. Decisions that should take days, take months. Departments fight each other instead of the problem. Officials and ministers who know the truth are not always rewarded for telling it. We are trying to govern a more dangerous world with processes designed for a calmer one, and the gap is now showing in the things that matter most.

National resilience is about more than defence in the narrow sense. A strong country is not simply one with capable armed forces. It is one where working people feel economically secure, public services function, energy is resilient, communities are stable, and young people can see a future worth working towards.

If my resignation accelerates the transition towards resolution, then the impact will far outweigh the act. We need a new way of governing and we need it now.

For my own part, I will keep arguing for a politics rooted in resilience, seriousness, and national renewal. For a country where working people can once again feel secure about the future. And for the service personnel and veterans this government still has a duty to.

The deal this country makes with the people who serve it, in uniform, in classrooms, on building sites, is broken. I'm going to spend my time on the backbenches trying to fix it.

I'll keep fighting for the people I served with. I hope this government will too.

Yours sincerely,

Al Carns DSO OBE MC MP

Member of Parliament for Birmingham Selly Oak

Al Carns/X

Sir Keir Starmer's response to Healey

PA Media

Dear John,

The world today is more dangerous and uncertain than at any point in our lifetimes. That requires a serious response to build our economic resilience and our national defences.

We have achieved a great deal working together. We inherited a situation where our armed forces had faced years of underfunding and neglect. Our work leading the Coalition of the Willing on Ukraine, defending our Gulf allies, and working together with like-minded nations on a plan for the Strait of Hormuz has helped make the world more secure. I am proud of our record on funding.

When we entered government in 2024, I took the decision to increase defence spending after the Conservatives hollowed out our armed forces. That required a cut to the international aid budget but the result was the highest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War. I will always do what is needed to keep our country safe. I thank you for your work to deliver on all of this.

You are also right that we have to go further. The Defence Investment Plan does just that - delivering an unprecedented increase in defence spending in a sustainable way. It will provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe and the clarity the British defence industry needs to plan.

It will make the big strategic investments we need for the long term and give the certainty which private finance needs to invest. It will allow our armed forces to transform and modernise and back them with the tools they need to change the way we fight - and to deter our enemies. And crucially it will ensure the money spent is spent wisely and used to back jobs and growth here in Britain.

We are backing this with the necessary investment. The increases in spending that underpin this plan will be sustainable and fair. They will mean significant reallocations of funding from across government departments and the right choices to protect our nation. Strong public finances are part of what keeps us irresponsible borrowing only puts that at risk.

Taking these decisions is never easy. I am determined to rebuild our country after years of being buffeted by crises. I am sorry that you will not be part of that work going forward.

All best wishes,

Keir

THE RT HON SIR KEIR STARMER KCB KC MP

10 Downing Street

10 Downing Street

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