From Cathleen Falsani at the Sun-Times

In the 1960s, scholars argued that religion was growing increasingly irrelevant and that sooner rather than later the United States would become a completely secular nation. What has happened in the intervening years has proved that secularization theory only partly correct.

The authority of religious institutions has dwindled, and not just for Christians. American Jewish and Muslim communities are dealing with similar phenomena.

At the same time as the influence of traditional religious institutions over their constituents has waned, individual religious quests and personalized spirituality are flourishing.

Thumma calls this an “era of seekership.” Many Americans — and not just the young ones — are perusing the religious landscape and trying to pick and choose on an individual level what they to believe, like chemists mixing and matching compounds in a spiritual experiment.

Religious labels are growing increasingly relative. While many people will still give a sectarian answer when asked what religion they are, often they attach a caveat to their answer.

Something like, “I’m an Episcopalian, but I’m really into yoga and I just read the Tibetan Book of the Dead.”

Or, “I’m Roman Catholic but I believe priests should be allowed to marry and I’ve been going to this nondenominational coffeehouse on Sunday nights for small-group Bible study.”

Or, “I was raised Baptist, but my husband is Jewish and we don’t attend church or synagogue, but we just saw ‘The Passion.’ What did you think about it?”