by Michael Foust, posted Monday, April 27, 2009 (15 years ago)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Evangelical leaders concerned about possible growth in the number of Americans unaffiliated with any religion may have found some good news Monday: A new study shows that many adults who were raised in an unaffiliated home later became Christian, mainly because they found themselves searching.
"If I was a religious leader ... part of the good news is in the low number of people who are raised unaffiliated who stay that way."-- Pew's Gregory A. Smith
The finding is part of a study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life that examined why Americans change their religious affiliation. It is a follow-up study to Pew's 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, which found that unaffiliated adults make up 16 percent of the population. That same '07 survey also found that, among those who were raised unaffiliated -- a category that includes agnostics, atheists and those who don't identify with any religion -- only 46 percent remain unaffiliated. That retention rate is far lower than Protestants (80 percent of whom remain Protestants) and Catholics (68 percent of whom remain Catholic).
"It does suggest that many people who are unaffiliated and who are raised unaffiliated are open to religion," Gregory A. Smith, research fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, said during a conference call with reporters.
The 2007 survey found that the category of unaffiliateds had grown, so evangelical leaders shouldn't be celebrating too much. But the new survey -- which included follow-up questions to 2,800 people from the original survey ... Read More
