Conversion: Most American adults have changed faith

The little red church David Hansen and his wife attended when they moved to Virginia was an obvious choice, at first.

The church was Presbyterian — a faith they were raised in — they had family in the congregation and the man who married them was still the pastor. But as time passed, their children grew, and irreconcilable differences with the youth pastor arose. Reluctantly, they decided it was time to leave.

"It was hard," Hansen says from his home in Lexington, Va., about leaving the church. "And it was kind of painful, but it was one of those things where that was the best result for all parties involved."

As tough as it was for Hansen and his wife to leave their congregation and eventually join an Episcopal church across town, Hansen's story is not an unusual one.

As many as 59 percent of adults in America have changed their religious practice at some point in their life, according to a 2009 study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The fastest growing group among those who have changed religion are those who still believe in God, but no longer affiliate with any church — although that population does not have a high retention rate, according to the Pew study.

As the variety of religions in the United States flourishes, so too does the rate of conversion — but the churning in America's religious landscape doesn't mean sincere faith is waning, scholars say. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

The more, the merrier

When Michael Zimmerman started meditating to cope with the loss of his wife to cancer, he wasn't necessarily looking to convert to something. The former chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court had been raised Presbyterian, and he and his wife attended an Episcopal church in Salt Lake City until she died.

As Zimmerman meditated more and learned about Zen Buddhism, he discovered the similarities between his own worldview and the principles of Buddhism. He eventually became a Sensei — a Buddhist teacher — of his own right. That's something Zimmerman says wouldn't have been easy in a different time, a different society.

"It just seems to me that … there is a proliferation of acceptance in this culture of diversity in religious tradition," Zimmerman says. "It isn't just about being (Catholic or Methodist). Now I encounter Hindus, I encounter Buddhists, I encounter all sorts of varieties."

America's emphasis on religious freedom has contributed to a proliferation of religious choice, says Rachel McCleary, a senior research fellow at Harvard who studies the political economy of religion. The more varieties of religion there are, the more people convert, or change religions. Countries with higher rates of conversion generally have higher levels of education and a higher Gross Domestic Product. This is in part because churches typically invest in human capital — for example, building schools and hospitals, McCleary says.

A wide variety of religion also dampens religious violence, says Roger Finke, renowned professor of sociology and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University.

"Levels of religious persecution are far higher in countries where they deny religious freedom," Finke says. "The more pluralistic the culture is as a whole, the more important those freedoms become."

Apart from conversion, 44 percent of adults in America have changed their affiliation within a religion — such as switching from Methodist to Presbyterian within Christianity — at least once, according to the Pew study. But the churn between faiths doesn't mean Americans are losing interest in church. If anything, they're gaining more interest, says Rodney Stark, a scholar of religious history and co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University.