Within one month’s time this fall, two different analyses of American religious disaffiliation have been published — the first, a book-length treatment from secular humanist sociologists, Ryan Cragun and Jesse M. Smith, on “the causes and consequences of secularization,” and the second, an extensive Wheatley report on “leaving, staying, and returning to faith” by Latter-day Saint scholars, Stephen Cranney, Justin Dyer, Sam Hardy, Paul Lambert and Loren Marks.
Despite exploring essentially the same phenomenon, the conclusions of these analyses couldn’t be more different. While one downplays family influences on religious exiting, the other highlights them as consequential. While one paints an appealing picture of life after faith drawing on interviews with people estranged from their former religion, the second emphasizes the range of data illustrating the longer-term consequences of faith dissolution.
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