Contemporary American Religious Market Place Essay

Looking into the possible reasons for the decline in Protestant denomination from the contemporary American religious scene, we must consider what is described as the American religious marketplace. I believe the term American religious market place, stems from religious people, who often leave a particular faith, and merely turn to another as a replacement. Scholars and researchers alike have shown there has been a continuous movement of the faithful, from one denomination to another, as society changes quicker than religions. Often, the loss of members of a denomination, outnumber the amount of new members that have entered that specific faith.
During the first thousand years of Christianity, there was just one church, with no such thing as denominations, as we see currently. However, currently there are three main denominations or branches of Christianity, which are Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestant.
Another reason to consider the loss of the Protestants, is due to the faiths substantial underlying diversity and fragmentation. However, with all of their inner turmoil, the majority of the Protestants, like other religions, followers are not just moving to other churches, but instead are leaving all forms of organized religion completely.
A brief example for people leaving their religion includes a growth in liberals, and their disillusion of the churches stance on hot topic national issues like abortion and homosexuality. A decline in civic activity or social interaction with others. The theory that America is moving toward secularization. Secularization is defined as, “To draw away from religious orientation; make worldly” (thefreedictionary.com, 2015), and “to take religion out of (something): to make (something) secular” (merriam-webster,