Michael Paulson comments on Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S., a new Pew Forum study that explores the reasons why Americans change affiliations:
Among the most striking findings are that most people who change their religious affiliation leave the denomination in which they were raised by age 24, and many change religious affiliation more than once. And the study found that the growing population of unaffiliated Americans are more disenchanted with institutionalized religion than with the idea of God.
But the differences between Catholics and Protestants are also significant, suggesting that Catholics who become alienated from their church often leave, whereas Protestants have the option of simply switching denominations.
“Protestants show a lot of interdenominational mobility, in part because there are a lot of Protestant groups,” said John C. Green, a political science professor at the University of Akron. “Among Catholics, there is much less scope for mobility within the denomination, and a larger number ended up leaving.”
The study finds that about half of former Catholics cite religious and moral beliefs as the reason they left the Catholic church. About four in 10 former Protestants who became unaffiliated offer a similar explanation, but among Protestants who simply switch denominations, the main reasons are concerns about particular religious institutions, and life cycle changes such as marriage.