ALL IN THE FAMILY - RELIGIOUS MOBILITY IN AMERICA

Despite recent research interest in switching among American denominat ions, the fact remains that the majority of church members never chang e denominations. Further, when Americans do switch, they often remain within the same broad denominational family. Thus, this paper examines denominational mobility (switching) with a focus on stability. The fi rst half of the paper examines changing patterns of denominational mob ility from 1973 to 1990. In summary, we found that: (1) switching, in general, has increased but switching between denominational families h as not, (2) patterns of stability and net gains and losses through swi tching reflect broad denominational membership trends; and (3) disaffi liation remains high while rates of disaffiliation have fallen. The se cond half of the paper looks at correlates of stability at the individ ual level: why people stay or switch. The data show that consistent so cialization (and marriage) within a single denominational tradition re stricts switching more than any other set of factors.