Several Stories on the same subject- LA TimesAmericans are becoming less religious, increasingly turning away from many denominations that once served as their spiritual homes, according to a major national survey released Monday.
The percentage of people who do not claim a religious identity has nearly doubled since 1990, growing to 15% of Americans last year, researchers with the American Religious Identification Survey found.
Mainline Christian denominations, once bulwarks of the religious landscape, have suffered most from the drift.
Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians are among the denominations that have seen their ranks decline.
Although 86% of Americans identified as Christians in 1990, just 76% said the same last year, the result of onetime adherents rejecting organized religion, the survey con- cluded.
The broad falloff has occurred as some groups, including Catholics, have seen their overall numbers rise.
But despite growing by 11 million new members since 1990, Catholics now account for a smaller percentage of the U.S. population than they did then -- 25% compared with 26%.
The survey's principal investigator, sociologist Barry A. Kosmin of Trinity College in Connecticut, described the overall trend as an erosion of the "religious middle ground."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-religion10-2009mar10,0,2852705.story
London Telegraph-
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2009/03/10/at_last_the_truth_about_america_its_becoming_less_religious
ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7041036&page=1
AFP-
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i9oUKRzJYBlPk0hhLOMaxzxw9_SA
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