nones

Without any fanfare or big declarations, people leave religion behind or chose a different faith. And yet we only have a very basic understanding of the mechanisms that make all that happen.

Among the 65% who said they were raised Catholic, 23% said they no longer identified as such.

If current trends continue, American Christians could make up less than half of the population — and as little as a third— in 50 years. Meanwhile, the so-called nones — or the religiously unaffiliated — could make up close to half of the population.

Christmas is just 10 days away, and most Americans will celebrate the birth of Jesus. But a new poll from Pew shows the share of U.S. adults who consider themselves Christian is falling.

A recent survey shows that mainline Protestants now outnumber white evangelicals while the numbers of religiously unaffiliated Americans has shrunk.

With due respect to the evangelical Christians who have swayed Republican politics over the past 40 years, there's no bigger story in American religion than the persistent and unceasing rise of the "nones" (people who do not identify with any religious tradition).

Eight out of ten evangelical teens and Catholic teens identify with the faith of their parents, Pew’s study found. This compared to only 55 % of teens raised in mainline Protestant households.

The first rule of thumb of church planting: Whatever you do to bring people into the facility must be maintained or they will end up leaving church as fast as they came.