More & More People Losing Faith

I t’s Sunday in Moscow, Idaho , and all eyes turn to Tyler Palmer. “I couldn’t be happier,” he tells the group congregated before him. Palmer, 32, has a boyish quality to him, despite the day or two of stubble on his face. The sleeves of his military-style shirt are rolled up. Every Sunday, Palmer and the people here meet to talk about their beliefs. Unlike the vast majority of Americans, what binds them together isn’t a shared faith, but rather a shared faithlessness. They call themselves freethinkers, humanists, skeptics and secularists — all euphemisms for what has become a bad word in America. They’re atheists. Palmer wasn’t always this way. At 25, he was still a good Christian. Just north of Salt Lake City, Utah, his was a churchly family — his grandfather was a Mormon stake president, and his father a bishop. Like many Mormon children, he was baptized at 8 and later spent two years as a missionary, in Mexico/ Nicholas Deshaies , Inlander. More here. (Young Kwak Inlander photo of Tyler Palmer)

Question: Have you abandoned faith after being raised in the church or after having been a regular church goer?