Following major news media reporting, others are beginning to weigh in,
The Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, 11th President of Chicago Theological Seminary, concludes the U.S. is post-denominational:
Protestant churches cannot count on their members knowing anything about the history and faith commitments of their particular tradition. These folks who are migrating from Catholic to Protestant or from liberal to evangelical or evangelical to progressive or whatever the pattern know more what they don’t want in a church than what they do want or believe.
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[W]hile the Pew study indicates that the “United States is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country,” these trends toward self-direction in faith is the distinctly, even uniquely Protestant ethos. We may be declining in numbers, we Protestants, but sociologically speaking, in the U.S. we won.
Chester Gillis, Amaturo Chair of Catholic Studies at Georgetown University, says Americans are seekers and shoppers:
Such fluidity has implications for those who administer churches and denominations, of course, who can no longer count on lifelong loyalty of their members. They must be aware that many Americans (probably more than they thought) change their religious afflation/identity. They must be open and welcoming to those who are inclined to switch. They should also be prepared to part with a significant portion of their adherents on a regular basis. They should also take comfort in the fact that Americans are more religiously identified than their European counterparts and that they have more religious flexibility than most of the world. Nevertheless, America remains one of the most religious of the developed nations.
Last night’s PBS Newshour included a segment with two analysts. Listen here. One theme: the more things change, the more they stay the same. America has had a fluid religious marketplace since its creation.
Our earlier roundups of the Pew survey on religion in the US are here and here.