By Bill Sherman
Tulsa World
April 28, 2009
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090428_18_A1_Jackso524155&allcom=1
Fluid membership reportedly hurts the Roman Catholic Church the most.
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| Jackson Castillo receives his First Communion at Church of the Madalene on Saturday |
The reasons people leave the religion of their childhood are as diverse as the American religious landscape.
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life announced the results Monday of an extensive survey of 2,867 adults, seeking reasons behind an earlier study that found about half of all American adults have changed their religious affiliation, sometimes several times.
The fastest-growing group in the United States is made up of those who say they are unaffiliated with any religion, now at 16 percent of the population, about double the number who were raised unaffiliated.
Two-thirds of former Catholics in that category, and half of former Protestants, say they gradually drifted away from their childhood faith because they stopped believing its teachings.
Many of them said they think religious people are hypocritical or judgmental, religious organizations focus too much on rules, or religious leaders focus too much on power and money.
Not many of them said they became unaffiliated because they believe science has proven that religion is just superstition.
The Roman Catholic Church is hurt most by the fluid church membership in the United States, the Pew Forum found.
For every convert to Catholicism, four Catholics leave the faith. The church remains at 24 percent of the population, however, boosted by heavily Catholic immigration.
One of 10 U.S. adults is now a former Catholic.
Reasons for leaving Catholicism varied.
Unaffiliated people tended to say they stopped believing in Catholic teachings on such issues as abortion, homosexuality and birth control.
The most common reason people gave for leaving Catholicism to become Protestant was that their spiritual needs were not being met.
People who left Catholicism for evangelical churches tended to say the Catholic Church was weak on its literal interpretation of the Bible.
People who left for mainline Protestant churches typically reported it was for lifestyle reasons, such as marrying a Protestant.
Fewer than 30 percent cited the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal as one reason for leaving.
Monsignor Patrick Brankin, director of communications for the Diocese of Tulsa, said church leaders are concerned about Catholics who leave the faith.
"We have a generation of poorly informed Catholics," he said, "many of whom don't know their faith."
He said those who seek deeper Bible understanding in evangelical churches probably have never participated in Catholic Bible study and do not know what the church teaches about the inspiration of scripture.
"A second problem is badly formed Catholics," he said, who only go to church occasionally, don't have a regular prayer life, and don't practice their faith.
"They're vulnerable."
To those who disagree with the Catholic Church on moral issues like homosexuality, he said, "Truth doesn't change Religion doesn't change itself to suit modern morals."
The survey found most people who left the faith of their childhood did so by age 24, and nearly all by age 35. Few changed after 50.
Lifelong Catholics and Protestants were more likely to have attended worship regularly and had strong faith as children and teenagers.
Bill Sherman 581-8398 or bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com
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