2008 Survey Finds Americans Becoming Less Christian

I first heard this on Christian radio this morning, but I see that CNN now has a lead story on it. The American Religious Identification Survey 2008 results are out: adherents to Christianity are diminishing, losing ground not to another faith system as much as a rejection of all forms of organized religion. While the non-denominational Christian identity has been trending upward (particularly since 2001), the losses among historic Mainline churches and denominations has been more pronounced. In 1990, 86% of American adults identified as Christians while only 76% do so in 2008. Nevertheless, a bit more than one out of every three (34%) American adults today consider themselves either “Born Again” and/or “Evangelical Christians.” By contrast, one out of every five Americans does not indicate a religious identity.
The American Religious Identification Survey 2008 was performed by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Check out the highlights (and scroll down for what looks like links to the entire report).