Religion is changing right along with Society, by Moranda Zimmer

While talking in class about religion and how people tend to go to church less now than they used to really got my attention as I think about my own life.  My grandparents will not miss a Sunday of church, unless they are extremely sick.  However, my family, as regular attenders, will miss every once in awhile.  Looking at this from a bigger picture is this how it is all across the United States or just in certain areas? 

            A recent survey was done by Gallup showing that the ratings have been the lowest they have ever been.  The survey was done to see how American’s felt religious influence was in the United States.  It came back with results that said “77 percent of American said that religion is loosing it’s influence on the American life, while only 20 percent said religion has gained in influence” (Kaleem).  The most interesting part of this all is that only one year after the September 11^th attack Americans believed that the influence of religion was increasing.  However this chart shows a different response.

            Another interesting thing about religion is not only how people are attending less, but how often people change their religion in the United States.  “More than half of American adults say they have changed religious affiliation at some point in their lives” (Paulson).  The most interesting part of this is that most people switch out of the religion they were raised in by age 24 and many change religions more than once in their lifetime.  One of the most jaw dropping finding was that “one in ten Americans is now a former Catholic, and about half of the former Catholics are now Protestants, and about half are now unaffiliated” (Paulson). 

            Many reasons due to changing a religion have to due to getting married and changing for the spouse.  As well as not agreeing with the church's beliefs anymore.  With the uproar controversy topics such as abortion, same sex marriages, birth control, as well as the gender of the pastor/priest this has let people to either switch churches, or just not attend anymore.  This graph also shows some reasons why people leave their childhood religion. 

I found all this information really fascinating because I am from such a small town that I really have never looked at religion across the United States.  It was shocking to realize how many people just don’t go to church anymore, and how many people change their religion over their lifetime.  My religion is something that I cherish very much so this topic was fitting for my interest.

Works Cited:

Kaleem, Jaweed. "Religious Influence In U.S. Seen As Decreasing, But Most Americans Want More: Survey." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 May 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/29/religions-influence-us_n_3354499.html>.

Paulson, Michael. “Why do Americans change their faith? – Articles of Faith – Boston.com” Boston, MA news 27 Apr. 2009. 10 Oct. 2013. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/04/why_do_american.html