Americans switch faiths early and often

Survey: Americans switch faiths early and often, reasons depend on childhood religion

By ERIC GORSKI
AP Religion Writer

The U.S. is a nation of religious drifters, with about half of adults restlessly switching faith affiliation at least once during their lives, a new survey has found.

And the reasons behind all the swapping depend greatly on whether one grows up kneeling at Roman Catholic Mass, praying in a Protestant pew or occupied with nonreligious pursuits, according to a report issued Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

While Catholics are more likely to leave the church because they stopped believing its teachings, many Protestants are driven to trade one Protestant denomination or affiliation for another because of changed life circumstances, the survey found.

The ranks of those unaffiliated with any religion, meanwhile, are growing not so much because of a lack of religious belief but because of disenchantment with religious leaders and institutions.

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You can find the rest of this article here. I find this article interesting because if you read a recent editorial by the President of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, you will see that he takes on Michael Spencer, the famed iMonk who recently had an article published by the Christian Science Monitor. In that article, iMonk predicted a coming partial collapse of evangelicalism sometime in the next 10 years or so. President Leith Anderson responded angrily saying that he saw no such thing coming, and in fact predicted better days for evangelicalism.

Unfortunately for Mr. Anderson, the latest Pew research, part of which is quoted above, shows just how wrong Mr. Anderson is. In addition, Mr. Anderson also defined evangelical in such a way that almost any serious Christian qualifies as an Evangelical. He said:

“Everything depends on definitions. My short definition of an evangelical is someone who takes the Bible seriously and believes in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.”

I must say that, under that definition, Pope Benedict XVI, the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Martin Luther, Jean Cauvin, Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, and Frank Graham are all equally Evangelical. In fact, perhaps I should apply for membership in the NAE. As is pointed out on iMonk’s blog, by some of the people leaving comments, this type of definition allows one to claim a rather broad membership, more so since no denomination affiliation or church attendance requirement is listed. Thus that growing rank of those, “unaffiliated with any religion” but who still have “religious belief” could conceivably be counted, despite the reality that they have little to do with the Church.

And perhaps this points to precisely what is wrong with Evangelicalism in America today. As iMonk points out, it is this very lack of definition, this inability to define oneself that is what is leading both to the coming collapse and the changing membership numbers. If Evangelicalism wishes to remain as a vital movement in America, it is going to have to develop the ability to say who they are. “I worship, therefore I am,” is insufficient for self-identity.