Have you ever seen Mennonites doing a Fortnite dance or an Amish girl in a horse-drawn buggy rocking out to Billy Ray Cyrus and Lil’ Nas X’s Old Town Road? If not, TikTok can help you out. The popular smartphone app, available in 75 languages, lets users record and share up to 15-second videos of themselves. It’s become particularly well-known for lip-syncing and short skits.
Formerly called Musical.ly, the app was re-released by the Chinese start-up ByteDance internationally as TikTok two years ago. Now worth over $75 billion, TikTok is a big feather in China’s cap; Facebook’s competitor Lasso, launched in late 2018, is almost unknown in comparison. In addition to generating the predictable range of amusing, cringe-worthy, and downright odd content, the app is gaining traction among some religious groups who see it as a way to show what they are really all about in an easygoing and fun way while courting the ever elusive youth at the same time.
More Americans today identify as spiritual but not religious. This is due to a decline in religiosity, not because of a rise in spirituality. In particular, young people are drifting away from attending worship services and identifying with organized religion. Children and young adults worldwide are more likely to be religiously unaffiliated, especially in North America. In the United States, fully 35% of Millennials (born between 1981 to 1996) are religious “nones.”
TikTok’s biggest user group is young people under 16, making it an optimal platform for reaching out to those “nones” who may be religiously unaffiliated. More than 1 billion users have TikTok on their phones, and its religion hashtag has millions of viewers. Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and “spirituality” are all present on TikTok. One TikTok video depicts the events of Passover with rap artist Redbone’s song “Come and Get Your Love” providing the musical accompaniment. Atheists, on the other hand, only have a few thousand views on their hashtag.
Although the Amish comprise less than one-tenth of a percent of the American population, the foothold they are gaining on TikTok, with millions of frequent viewers, is worth noting. Many videos are set to Weird Al Yankovic’s Amish Paradise and feature horse-drawn buggies, building, and daily life. Fourteen-year-old Rebecca Fisher garners millions of views on her videos alone, posts where she talks about her experiences as an Amish teen. The piety or orthodoxy of Amish using the app is another matter, however. Some users, for example, have rumspringa in their username, denoting the time in adolescence that young Amish are permitted to explore the outside world of “the English” and modernity before deciding whether to go back to their own community or not.
Even among the Mennonites, a small Christian denomination whose hardworking and pious way of life also often does not permit television and limits internet usage, some have taken to TikTok to showcase their fun side. For those who need some help to “Choose the Right,” Mormons are also staking out their own TikTok zone full of laugh-worthy videos. In one such sketch, user Anna Anderson muses about flirting with a guy “5 days before leaving for her mission,” who then immediately says he’s now in love and asks if he can write her while she’s away. Anderson’s expression becomes alarmed and the easy background music suddenly stops as she lip-syncs a deeper, African American male voice saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa now, brother, you got too much dip on your chip.” Mormon TikTok user Chani Davis, 30, from Utah, says she hopes that TikTok can dispel the impression that religious people consider themselves “exclusive and superior” and instead make faith a more “inclusive and loving thing.” There are also Catholics on TikTok, and worry not, there are even Episcopalian friars doing their thing.
Some hope that sharing amusing Christian TikTok memes could help bring religious “nones” back or maybe appeal to those who have gone astray. For example, 17-year-old nondenominational Christian (and poster on TikTok) Nick Touma believes that humorous memes can be a more effective way to bring young people to God than direct preaching. Eighteen-year-old Nakelle Garrett from Oklahoma (“jus’ a gal who loves Jesus,” according to her TikTok bio) mocks Satan for thinking he had killed Christ before the resurrection to the musical backing of Rihanna. See, posters wink and nod, religious people can be cool and funny, too. Some might say “irreverent,” but it is 2019 after all.
It isn’t all a blank slate of permissiveness for religious folks on TikTok, however. User KylerLovesJesus was infamously banned from the platform after clips where he expressed his strong opposition to abortion, calling it “murder” and “disgusting.” Other faith communities may have an even harder time of it in China, for example, where the government censors videos that have any references to banned religious groups such as the Falun Gong. According to parent company ByteDance, data from TikTok is saved outside of China, but the privacy terms also note that user data may be shared with Chinese authorities if required by law.
TikTok (called “Douyin” in Mandarin) has also been used by the oppressed Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, China, to show the persecution and family disappearances they are facing from the authoritarian communist government. Although using it is a major risk, TikTok has helped the Uighurs expose their situation to the outside world. In India, TikTok was at the middle of a dispute between Hindus and Muslims after a group of popular Indian Muslim TikTok users, called Team 07, made a video about the death of another Indian Muslim man accused of stealing. Team 07 argued that his children were justified in taking revenge. Hindu nationalists objected to the video and had Team 07 banned from the app, leading to widespread controversy.
Back in America, maybe you just want to know how to build like the Amish or get some answers to the age-old philosophical question of why good girls like bad guys? Religious TikTok has got you covered. Julia Alexander, writing for the Verge, says that her initial skepticism about TikTok evaporated after using it for a few months. In fact, Alexander says that TikTok has “quickly become the only app that gives me unbridled joy anymore.” As Alexander notes, TikTok combines slick editing abilities with a fun, more youth-oriented atmosphere full of special effects, sharing, duets, and unique idea prompts.
Will TikTok really get children back to church, synagogue, mosque, and temple or even just identifying with a defined religious identity? It’s unlikely. But while it’s doubtful an app can reverse declining religious belief among young adults, it is certainly the case that today’s lingua franca is parlayed via social media, memes, and viral videos. One may chuckle or scoff at religious individuals descending into silliness on teen-focused apps to generate interest, but there’s a certain logic to it, buoyed by an undeniable sincerity.
After all, traditionally religious young people are just as much a part of society as anyone else, despite mainstream media’s frequent attempt to gloss over, demonize, or oversimplify their identity and beliefs. Showing the viral and fun side of religion can be a good way to build social solidarity between those of different beliefs and remind us that even if we don’t share the same beliefs, we can all share a laugh.
Paul Brian is a freelance journalist focused on world affairs, religion, and culture. His work has appeared in First Things, Reuters, the American Conservative, and others.
