Tracking the Restructuring of American Religion: Religious Affiliation and Patterns of Religious Mobility, 1973-1998

Abstract

Trends and patterns of religious mobility have played a central role in theoretical controversies in thesociology ofreligion. Early examinations focused onhowsocial status mightmotivate religious switching, and recently scholars have claimed thatdiminishing status differences between denominations have opened denominational boundaries and led tohigher rates ofreligious mobility. Scholars workingfrom rational actor perspectives have generated several hypotheses. First, human capital andadaptive preference theories suggest that switching willremain infrequent, and willtend to occur between similar denominations. Second, "strict church" perspectives argue that demanding sectarian denominations willhave higher retention, and bemore attractive destinations. Third, marketniche perspectives argue that niche overlap willfoster high rates of religious mobility. Finally, theories emphasizing normative constraints onreligious choices suggest that quasi-ethnic religious groups will have a greater holdon members. This article examines trends andpatterns of religious mobility in the u.s. between 1973 and 1998 using data from the General Social Surveys. Retention rates, distributions of original and destination affiliations, and mobility tables are compared across three periods, and four broad cohorts using log-multiplicative association models. I find some support for hypotheses generated bystatus theories, andforseveral propositions from rational actor theories, however thedecline ofdenominationalism perspective isunsupported.In the U.S., individuals are relatively free to choose religious affiliations, and consequently religious mobility is not uncommon. The fluidity of attachments to religious institutions in the u.S. has been noted by a number of social >I-

Atheists, agnostics, and apostates.

“…These include the studies of Roof (1999), Fuller (2001), Sherkat (2001), and the Pew "Religious Landscape Survey" (Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2009). A few studies have devoted special attention to atheists and agnostics, including Hunsberger & Altemeyer (2006) and the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) (Kosmin & Keysar, 2009).…”

Communities of classes: A network approach to social mobility

“…What is more, as noted in the introduction, models of mobility have not exclusively been used to analyze social class mobility. Other applications include religious mobility (e.g., Sherkat, 2001), occupational mobility (e.g., Featherman, Jones, & Hauser, 1975), educational mobility, and differential mobility patterns (e.g., Higginbotham & Weber, 1992;Wilson, 2012). The method outlined in this paper could also benefit the literature on immigration between countries or regions.…”

The Socio-religious Brain: A Developmental Model

“…In the US, adolescents primarily attend religious services with their parents, and parents are more likely to attend than non-parent adults (Sherkat 2001). Parents expose their children to the beliefs and rituals of their group in order for them to build identity and bond with their cohort.…”