Holy Shift: More Americans Finding Faith Outside Church

A “remarkable” transformation is underway in American religious life, new Cornell-led research finds: Large numbers are leaving organized religion – not in favor of secular rationality, but to pursue spirituality in ways that better align with their individual values.

This reimagining of religion outside traditional institutions fits within broader social changes that have prioritized individual fulfilment and “finding” oneself, including shifting views about gender and sexuality and the rise of the internet. Spanning political views, it also reflects a revolt against religious organizations growing more bureaucratic, rigid and political over time.

“People aren’t leaving religious institutions passively or only because of partisan politics, but because of more deeply held values – about the sacredness of the individual, their concern for others, and feeling that their participation in an institution doesn’t align with being the type of person they want to be,” said Landon Schnabel, associate professor of sociology and first author of “Breaking Free of the Iron Cage: The Individualization of American Religion,” published in Socius. “They’re more intentionally choosing to follow what they really believe in.”

The proportion of religious “nones” in the U.S. – those claiming no religious affiliation – has surged in just a few decades, from 1 in 20 to more than 1 in 4. The new research advances understanding of the reasons behind that change, leveraging a nationally representative study that tracked teens as they came of age early in the 21st century – amid shifting social values and technological and economic upheaval.

The scholars analyzed data from more than 1,300 participants in the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) who completed four rounds of surveys between 2003 and 2013, starting when they were between 13 and 17 years old. Over that decade, participants reported how frequently they attended religious services or prayed alone; if they were affiliated with a religion and believed in God; if they supported converting others to a religion; and if they practiced meditation.

The results showed institutional aspects of religion declined significantly faster than individual faith and spirituality. Estimated trajectories showed a sharp decline in religious attendance while prayer frequency dipped but plateaued, producing a widening gap between institutional engagement and individual practice. Religious affiliation dropped precipitously while belief in God held stable. Support for proselytism declined nearly 10%, while meditation practice grew about as much – the only variable to show growth.

The analysis showed steeper declines in religious attendance and affiliation among more liberal study participants – including those who supported same-sex marriage and abortion rights – but declines among moderates and conservatives as well, “suggesting broad change across this cohort” across gender, race, class and sexual orientation.

The NSYR also conducted in-depth interviews with some study participants. Repeatedly, interviewees described experiencing dissonance between their values and those of institutions that seemed most concerned with doctrine and finances. That prompted not an abandonment of faith but dynamic searches for alternate ways of finding spirituality, meaning and community, driven by authenticity and moral conviction.

“The move away from organized religion doesn’t look like kind of the pure material secularism that some people thought,” Schnabel said. “It doesn’t reflect disenchantment with the world, but re-enchantment through something other than church.”