RELIGIOUS CHANGE IN AMERICA

10 RELIGIOUS CHANGE IN AMERICA Religious Switching in America: Winners and Losers in the American Religious Marketplace Overview of Religious Switchers In 2016, PRRI published data that examined the rate of religious switching in America, referring to individuals who left their childhood faith tradition as adults. [...] In total, 26% of Americans identify as religiously unaffiliated in 2023—the only religious category that has gained large numbers of members in the religious marketplace in the past decade. [...] RELIGIOUS CHANGE IN AMERICA 19 Profile of All Unaffiliated Americans and Their Relationship to Religion Who Are the Religiously Unaffiliated Today? The religiously unaffiliated are not a monolithic group, as atheists and agnostics are often distinc- tive with respect to partisanship, race, education, and gender, compared with those unaffiliated Americans who claim they are “nothing in particular.”. [...] 24 RELIGIOUS CHANGE IN AMERICA Religiosity Among All Americans Decline in the Importance of Religion Over the Past Decade A slim majority of Americans (53%) say that religion is the most important (15%) or one among many important things in their lives (38%) in 2023, notably lower than in 2013 when 72% of Americans reported that religion was the most important thing in their lives (27%) or one amo. [...] Charismatic Elements in Churches Christian religious practices that emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts, such as faith healing and speaking in tongues, have their earliest roots in Pentecostal denominations formed around the turn of the last century, such as the Assemblies of God and the Church of God in Christ.