ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Feb. 28 2008

Religious commitment in a conversion-prone culture
By Colleen Carroll Campbell

"There is no happiness in the world comparable to that of the experience known
as conversion." Those words were penned nearly a century ago by Robert Hugh
Benson, an Anglican convert to Catholicism who knew the joys of conversion
firsthand. Benson also knew its costs: As the youngest son of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, he was inundated with pleas from shocked and saddened Anglican
friends urging him to return to the faith of his father.

Benson never did. But the experience solidified his belief that authentic
conversion — the kind that justifies a break from one's religious roots — must
be driven by a sincere search for truth, not a self-centered quest for
spiritual novelty or emotional highs.

Given the new Pew Forum poll that found nearly half of Americans have switched
religious affiliations, it is worth pondering whether our contemporary
conversions meet Benson's criteria.

Are we a nation of sincere spiritual seekers driven by our hunger for truth to
leave the confines of our childhood churches? Or are we a nation of spiritual
dilettantes more interested in finding a faith that suits our fancy than one
that challenges and transforms us? The results of Pew's groundbreaking U.S.
Religious Landscape Survey of more than 35,000 American adults could be
interpreted either way.

On the one hand, the survey depicts an American religious scene bursting with
vitality. We are an overwhelmingly religious and largely Christian people: Only
4 percent of Americans describe themselves as atheists or agnostics, and nearly
80 percent identify themselves as Christian. The percentage of religiously
unaffiliated Americans is on the rise — one-sixth of the respondents fit that
description — but most reject the atheist and agnostic labels, and more than a
third say that religion is somewhat or very important in their lives.

Yet our religious ties don't bind as they once did. More than a quarter of
Americans have left the faith in which they were raised. That number jumps to
44 percent when movements among Protestant denominations are included.

This fluidity has touched every segment of American religion, and the results
for almost every group are mixed. Protestants still account for a majority of
the population, but that majority has slipped to a bare 51 percent.
Non-denominational Protestant churches are gaining members, but Baptists and
Methodists are losing them. Catholics remain America's largest single religious
group with stable population levels, but gains among converts and immigrants
have been offset by losses among cradle Catholics. Many of today's Buddhists
and Jehovah's Witness adherents are converts, but those groups struggle to
retain members. American Jews easily outnumber Muslims, but the disparate
immigration and birth rates of the two groups suggest a reversal down the road.

"This is an incredibly dynamic religious marketplace," said Pew Forum director
Luis Lugo. "Everybody has to scurry to retain their members and to gain new
members."

That scurry has energized our religious scene and allowed America to resist the
religious apathy and secularization that have engulfed other developed nations.
Having to compete for members tends to make our religious leaders more
responsive to their flocks and more ready to explain the contemporary relevance
of ancient beliefs.

Yet living in a religious buyer's market has its drawbacks. Many religious
leaders feel pressured to focus on style over substance and gimmicks over
doctrine. Many seekers feel overwhelmed by options and discouraged that after
years of adopting and discarding religious beliefs, intimacy with God still
eludes them.

The Pew poll is a reminder to America's market-savvy religious leaders that
their zeal for numbers should not stop them from telling the truth about
authentic conversion. It is an ongoing process that demands perseverance, and
its best fruit is borne in communities marked by commitment.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television host and St. Louis-based
fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.