Background

It is estimated that around half of American adults have changed religion or denomination at least once, yet little is known about the effect of different motives on these changes.

Purpose

This paper seeks to understand the motives driving religious change and the relationship between the reason for religious change on the nature of that change, be it denominational switching, conversion, or disaffiliation.

Methods

The data come from the Pew 2007 Religious Landscape Survey and 2008 Conversion Recontact Survey. First, reasons for changing religion are presented, followed by a series of binary logistic and multinomial regressions that analyze religious changes, their motivations, and justifications.

Results

Among the many reasons for changing religious affiliation, motives directly associated with personal aspects of religion are much more commonly cited than mundane rationales, such as marriage or geographic mobility. Disaffiliates are more likely to view their religious change as being motivated by personal religious concerns, whereas denominational switchers and, to a lesser extent, converts tend to cite mundane motives.

Conclusions and Implications

Decisions regarding affiliation are the most likely to be attributed to personal religious motives, either in an attempt to justify actions to family and friends who have remained religious or because affiliation and non-affiliation are perceived as religiously distinct. Denomination switching and conversion are associated with mundane motives, perhaps due to the rise of religious pluralism, which asserts the validity of a range of religious options, reducing the religious significance of denominational switching and conversion. Thus, personal religious motives play a role in deciding whether to consume religion as a product, while choices regarding a particular brand of religion are attributed to more mundane concerns. This paper adds to our understanding of the interplay between secular, communal, and personal religious motives in shaping religious preferences. In doing so, it sheds light on the nature of such decisions and the broader religious landscape. Additionally, it may provide insights useful to religious leaders on how they might best attract new affiliates.

中文翻译：

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当代美国宗教变革的动机和类型

背景

据估计，大约一半的美国成年人至少改变过一次宗教或教派，但人们对不同动机对这些改变的影响知之甚少。

目的

本文旨在了解推动宗教变革的动机以及宗教变革的原因与这种变革的性质之间的关系，无论是宗派转换、皈依还是脱离。

方法

数据来自 Pew 2007 年宗教景观调查和 2008 年转换重新接触调查。首先，提出改变宗教的原因，然后是一系列二元逻辑回归和多项回归，分析宗教变化、它们的动机和理由。

结果

在改变宗教信仰的众多原因中，与宗教的个人方面直接相关的动机比婚姻或地域流动等世俗的理由更常见。脱离教派的人更有可能将他们的宗教改变视为出于个人宗教问题的动机，而教派转换者以及在较小程度上皈依者倾向于引用世俗的动机。

结论和启示

关于隶属关系的决定最有可能归因于个人的宗教动机，要么是为了证明对仍然信教的家人和朋友的行为是正当的，要么是因为从属关系和非从属关系被认为在宗教上是不同的。教派转换和皈依与世俗动机有关，这可能是由于宗教多元化的兴起，它断言了一系列宗教选择的有效性，降低了宗派转换和皈依的宗教意义。因此，个人的宗教动机在决定是否将宗教作为一种产品来消费方面发挥着作用，而对特定宗教品牌的选择则被归因于更世俗的关注。本文增加了我们对世俗、公共、以及形成宗教偏好的个人宗教动机。通过这样做，它揭示了此类决定的性质和更广泛的宗教景观。此外，它可能会为宗教领袖提供有用的见解，帮助他们了解如何最好地吸引新的附属机构。