That would be a switch!

May 10, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

A few weeks ago, the results of another of those polls was published that revealed and extraordinary level of religion-swapping in America. This summary is from USA Today:

Survey: Half of U.S. adults have switched religionsKey findings:

• The reasons people give for changing their religion — or leaving religion altogether — differ widely: 71% of Catholics and nearly 60% of Protestants who switched didn’t think their spiritual needs were being met, liked another faith more or changed their religious or moral beliefs.

• Most switched early, committing to one faith by age 36. Americans switch religions “often, early and for many different reasons,” says John Green, a Pew senior fellow.

• Catholicism has suffered the greatest net loss in the process of religious change: The 10% of U.S. adults who have quit the church vastly outnumber the 2.6% who are incoming Catholics. Two in three who became unaffiliated — and half of those who became Protestant — say they left the Catholic Church because they “stopped believing its teachings.” The sexual abuse scandal was a factor for fewer than three in 10 former Catholics.

• Life circumstances, not religious doctrinal differences, prompt most Protestants who switch denominations (Baptist to Methodist, for example). Moving to a new town or marrying someone of a different tradition are the most often-cited reasons, but 36% attributed changes to “likes and dislikes about religious institutions, practices and people.”

• Many people who left a religion and now are “unaffiliated” say they did so in part because they see religious people as hypocritical or judgmental, because religious organizations focus too much on rules, or because religious leaders focus too much on power and money.

• Among the 16% of Americans who say they’re now not affiliated with any religion, most are former Protestants and Catholics who say they didn’t quit in a huff or get lured away by science or by atheist philosophy: About 70% say “they just gradually drifted away” from their childhood religion.

• About 9% return to their childhood religion, saying they tried another religion or two but then went back. Religious education or youth group participation seemed to make no dent, although people who say they participated frequently in worship services or Mass were less likely to switch.

Of course, I want to make a few evaluative comments (what else are blogs for?):

• If people switch because their spiritual needs aren’t being met, isn’t that a wake-up call for America’s churches? Why aren’t we meeting people’s spiritual needs — to offer strength, compassion, understanding and acceptance, in short to offer the same patient love as Christ did? Is there any other reason a church should exist?
• People switch early in life. Translation: while many people remain in the faith tradition in which they are raised, it’s not a slam-dunk. Young people are restless. That’s a given. When it comes to LGBT youth, it is not necessarily adolescence but the 20’s which are the greatest period of self-discovery. If 70% of those who remain “unaffiliated” just say that they “drifted away,” it could be that there is just not enough substance in “Christian Lite” way of life to keep people engaged. If love is no deeper than a pleasant feeling, and discipleship is no more demanding than church attendance, is that supposed to be a compelling reason for people to remain faithful?
• A lot of Catholics desert their faith, but hasn’t that been going on for generations? is this news, or just statistical evidence that huge religious systems don’t always speak to everybody. And the relative anonymity of large Catholic parishes makes it pretty easy to disappear. The Catholic church could ask itself, like Protestants have for years, what do we offer that will help keep those who nurtured as children? Why would they want to stay? Do we have a faith and a message and a spiritual way of life for adults.
• This study find that, as a factor in religion-switching or religion abandoning, the clergy sex abuse scandal has not done that much damage. People cite many other reasons besides that scandal for leaving the Catholic church. To me, here is the “smoking gun”: “Two in three who became unaffiliated — and half of those who became Protestant — say they left the Catholic Church because they “stopped believing its teachings.” Did they stop believing in Christ, in the power of God, in the love, forgiveness and renewal in the Gospel? Or did people stop believing or reject “teachings” that are in stark contrast to actual behavior and the real world? If teachings are hypocritically put out there (”don’t do as I do, do as I say”), isn’t it logical that people will reject the teachings as phony?
• Unfortunately— and this is not just a “Catholic problem” —the teachings I think many people don’t buy any more are the sexual control and narrow-mindedness. Included are teachings about birth control, abortion, homosexuality, divorce, abstinence before marriage, the evil of masturbation, guilt or shame over sexual feelings or an ordinary sex drive. This is not strictly a Catholic issue, but at least some non-Roman Catholic churches do a better job of grounding their ethical teachings in the Scriptures None of those strict, narrow teachings are well grounded in the Bible—certainly not birth control, homosexuality, abstinence before marriage, masturbation, guilt and shame. Vast parts of the Christian church have made sexual purity the ultimate measure of faithfulness, even though Jesus never did so. Is it any wonder people don’t believe those teachings any more?
• That life circumstances prod many to change affiliations is no surprise. If the churches are to nurture people in spirituality and faith are not responsive to real people’s life circumstances, they are clearly irrelevant. In our society, few people remain with anything in our lives simply out of a sense of loyalty or because of inertia. If a job, a marriage, a hobby, a political party, or a religion do not mesh with our sense of purpose and fulfillment, then “we’re outta here”–we’ll make a switch to something that does fit, or a switch to nothing at all. In that regard, LGBT people may have different life circumstances than others such as divorcees or whatever, but we’re going to have a similar reaction: if my church is out of touch with my life experiences and does not respond to my life circumstances with understanding and compassion, I will move on or at least move out.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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