Faith not constant for many in U.S.

Americans are fickle consumers of religion, with about half changing religious affiliations at least once as they drift away from childhood traditions or stop believing in the teachings of their faiths, according to a national survey released Monday.

The switching has swollen the ranks of the unaffiliated, according to researchers from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

The survey, "Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.," is a follow-up to a major study released last year by the Pew forum. The 2008 analysis found that 44 percent of U.S. adults have switched religious affiliations or abandoned ties to a specific religion.

Monday's survey, based on follow-up interviews with 2,800 people, delved more deeply into the reasons behind the religious churn among Catholics, Protestants and those who do not belong to a faith tradition. Jews, Muslims and other groups were not included because their numbers were not large enough to produce reliable results, the researchers said.

The survey found that most people who leave their childhood faith do so by age 24, and many change religions or denominations more than once.

The researchers found 16 percent of the nation's adult population to be unaffiliated. Most said they had moved away from religious observance because they no longer believe in God or religious teachings. Many also said they found religious people to be hypocritical, judgmental or insincere.

Many of the unaffiliated said they remained open to the possibility of finding a religion that suits them. And, paradoxically, most who were raised unaffiliated said they now belonged to a religious group, either because they felt spiritually unfulfilled previously or found religious services attractive, the survey showed.

Among other findings, the report found that 10 percent of U.S. adults who were raised Catholic have left the faith.

In most cases, former Catholics who are now unaffiliated said they were dissatisfied with the church's teachings on abortion, homosexuality, birth control or treatment of women.

More than two-thirds of those Catholics who switched to Protestantism, meanwhile, said their spiritual needs were not being met and that they found another religion they preferred.

About one-quarter of former Catholics surveyed cited the clergy sexual-abuse scandal as a factor.

Catholic officials said the survey underscored what they called the resilience of the Catholic faith, citing the finding that 68 percent of those raised Catholics have remained in the faith.

The survey also showed that 80 percent of those raised as Protestants have remained so. But more than a quarter of childhood Protestants have switched to a different Protestant tradition — for example, changing from Presbyterian to Episcopalian.

Those who shifted said they had done so for a variety of reasons. Some told researchers they had drifted away or found a tradition they liked more. Others said they had moved to a new community, married someone from a different religious background or were dissatisfied with the atmosphere at worship services, the report said.