The decline of American religion is the most important demographic development of the 21st century. Over the last couple of decades, every aspect of religious life—formal worship, private prayer, affiliation, membership, and belief—has fallen. Fewer Americans attend worship services regularly or identify with a religious tradition today than did so a few years earlier. It’s been a long-time interest of mine (Dan) and served as the topic of my PhD dissertation: “And Then There Were Nones: An Examination of the Rising Rate of Religious Non-affiliation Among Millennials.”
There has always been a good deal of fluidity and fluctuation in American religious adherence, but more conservative Christian churches have typically been more successful in holding on to their members. Yet a significant number of Americans leave evangelical Churches to join a different religion or none at all. The reasons are varied, but the statistics mostly provide starting and ending points, revealing little abo…
