The increasing number of evangelicals number is bad news. That's enough to still overinfluence the political system. I'd rather us more Catholics and Lutherans than those types.
20 million more religious unaffliated in 7 years is pretty remarkable, especially during poor economic times.
Speaking of Catholics and mainline Protestants, it does seem to be a bit of a foot race as to which cohort is secularizing the fastest, doesn't it?
The Congregationalists led the way, splitting up with one branch becoming Unitarians en route to total secularism (one branch of my ancestors went that route), and then the remaining Congregationalists merged and morphed into the Church of Christ, which is a reasonable place to be for those who don't want much religious doctrine (as opposed to political doctrine) animating their lives.
