Pick a Faith Already: The Changes in Church Affiliation in the US

Posted on November 19, 2009
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A Pew Research Center survey showed Americans switch religions often. Here are just a few famous people known to convert their beliefs more than once.

According to the survey: Americans change religious affiliation early and often. In total, about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives. Most people who change their religion leave their childhood faith before age 24, and many of those who change religion do so more than once. These are among the key findings of a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life. The survey documents the fluidity of religious affiliation in the U.S. and describes in detail the patterns and reasons for change.

The reasons people give for changing their religion - or leaving religion altogether - differ widely depending on the origin and destination of the convert. The group that has grown the most in recent years due to religious change is the unaffiliated population. Two-thirds of former Catholics who have become unaffiliated and half of former Protestants who have become unaffiliated say they left their childhood faith because they stopped believing in its teachings, and roughly four-in-ten say they became unaffiliated because they do not believe in God or the teachings of most religions.¹ Additionally, many people who left a religion to become unaffiliated say they did so in part because they think of religious people as hypocritical or judgmental, because religious organizations focus too much on rules or because religious leaders are too focused on power and money. Far fewer say they became unaffiliated because they believe that modern science proves that religion is just superstition.

Catholicism has suffered the greatest net loss in the process of religious change. Many people who leave the Catholic Church do so for religious reasons; two-thirds of former Catholics who have become unaffiliated say they left the Catholic faith because they stopped believing in its teachings, as do half of former Catholics who are now Protestant. Fewer than three-in-ten former Catholics, however, say the clergy sexual abuse scandal factored into their decision to leave Catholicism.

Read more here... Also for a slideshow of some more infamous people who have changed their religion repeatedly, check this out...

Todd

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Dave on Thu, November 19, 2009

Interesting that the chart at the Pew Forum showed that most of the reasons were based on people preferences, likes and affections rather than their thoughts and beliefs.
Rev Eric on Thu, November 19, 2009

Dave. Good point.

As a pastor I am trying to grow a church. This is good material. I’d like to know, based on the graph, why people “just gradually drifted away away from the religion.” Seems to me that would take time. What are we doing as a Church that allows/enables people to gradually drift away? And once answered, how do we address that without comprising our “non-negotiables”?

No answer here… just food for thought.
handbags shop on Thu, November 19, 2009

As a pastor I am trying to grow a church. This is good material. I��d like to know, based on the graph, why people ��just gradually drifted away away from the religion.�� Seems to me that would take time. What are we doing as a Church that allows/enables people to gradually drift away? And once answered, how do we address that without comprising our ��non-negotiables��?
Peter Hamm on Thu, November 19, 2009

Denoms are becoming less relevant. That’s all.
rbud on Mon, November 23, 2009

As I’ve written here before, churches are more often than not, highly organized social structures first, rather than spiritual structures. So, naturally, people will attend where they are most socially comfortable. When people say things like, I wasn’t getting fed at that church, what they really mean is that they didn’t like the social atmosphere or level of acceptance. People tend to like churches where the social atmosphere and sermons reflect what those people already think. They don’t want anything new, they want to be confirmed.