According to the religious landscape study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2014, over 22 percent of the 35,000 Americans surveyed identified as having no religious affiliation. This rate is an increase of almost seven percent from the first survey that was conducted just seven years earlier. Of these individuals, approximately 78 percent were once affiliated with a particular religion but have since shed their religious identity. In fact, unaffiliated individuals now make up the largest religious group after Christians and Muslims. This has been called the Exodus, with Catholics and white Protestant Christians as the most significant demographic leaving religion behind. Research has shown that they are leaving for 4 primary reasons: intellectual reasons, religious trauma, personal adversity, and social reasons. Let’s take a closer look at what those mean.
 
1. Intellectual Reasons

Perhaps you have heard the term cognitive dissonance. This is when a person is trying to hold two conflicting views, values, or beliefs. Unless this dissonance is assimilated into previously held beliefs, it causes emotional and mental distress, which can lead to religious disaffiliation, or exiting . One area in which this happens is around incompatibility with science. Issues such as evolution versus creationism and stem-cell research have been points of contention. The evangelical community has voiced outrage against environmental issues and climate change. Sexuality is another point of contention. Purity culture often teaches that men are sexually weak and that women are sexual temptresses that cause men to sin by seducing them through provocative behavior and clothing. The science of psychology is another point of conflict. There is concern among church leaders that the values of mental health practitioners do not align with the values of the church. While the church works to care for its affiliates’ emotional and spiritual needs, the literature suggests that leaders are not adequately trained by the evidence-based mental health treatment interventions its congregants need.
Another area of intellectual conflict is individual and religious political positions. Three prominent American studies: The 2012 Election Panel Study, The 2006 Franklin County Republican Primary Study, and The Portraits of American Life Study found that politically active conservative Christians, called the Christian Right, and their political activism impact how others feel about and react to evangelical Christianity. They found that more political activism by the Christian Right within congregations causes conflict among congregants who do not hold the same political convictions. One of the national samples found that many church exiters were once evangelical Republicans who felt they could no longer continue attending church services because they disagreed with the extreme political activism and believed it to be contrary to Christian principles. 

2. Religious Abuse

Another reason for leaving religion is associated with abusive behavior that is perpetuated by clergy members or in the name of God. Sexual abuse within the Catholic church has been widely publicized; however, research on issues of sexual abuse within the evangelical church is sparse. In one study, more than 98 percent of sexual abuse offenders were male clergy members, with the majority being in the role of Pastor or Youth Minister.  A lesser-known type of sexual abuse within the religious community is sexual coercion, often perpetrated by males within marriage. Sexual coercion uses power differentials within the relationship to manipulate an unwilling partner into non-consensual sexual acts through nonviolent means. The nonviolent tactics include unwanted touching, guilt or emotional manipulation, and wearing down the unwilling partner over time. Sexual coercion is often connected to rape myths, which are false, prejudicial beliefs about rape, including the idea that women cannot be raped if the act is within the marital relationship. 

Another abuse dynamic is corporal punishment, which promotes, and even requires, religious parents to punish children physically. These punishments can be mild to severe and include tactics such as mild swats to more severe physical abuse such as hitting, pulling hair, punching, and beatings with implements and weapons. This punishment is child abuse that is justified by religious doctrine.Research has shown that children who experience physical punishment are more likely to exhibit emotional issues such as low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. 

3. Personal Adversity

As stated above, many religious affiliates experience cognitive dissonance and religious doubt. In one study, more than 70 percent of religious individuals admitted to doubting core tenets of their faith at one point or another. Yet, attitudes toward doubt continues to be one of the primary reasons why people feel the need to step away from their religious communities. Some exiters felt they were not allowed to possess critical thinking skills while in their church and that any form of questioning was seen as unbelief by other community members. Another study found that individuals who experience more negative interactions in their church congregations tend to experience more religious doubt over time. They also found that individuals who experience doubt and are met with adverse reactions tend to suppress their doubt, practice negative coping, and produce negative health symptoms over time.

This is in line with another issue in which the religion displays church narcissism. Research has explored narcissistic traits among clergy and religious organizations. It is commonly divided into grandiose (or overt) narcissism and covert narcissism. Overt narcissism is characterized by traits of self-aggrandizement, manipulation, gaslighting, domineering behavior, and entitlement. A narcissistic religious leader has an overwhelming need for power and control as well as for admiration from others in his congregation. Covert narcissism is also characterized by personal entitlement and a need for admiration from others, but the narcissist’s actions appear more vulnerable and humble. They are more readily invited into positions of influence because of their charming demeanor and exuberance for future directions of the community. Narcissistic churches operate with a sense of self-aggrandizement and entitlement, believing themselves to be better than all other religions and organizations.

4. Social Reasons

Although the evangelical church posits that all sin is equal, in practice, sexuality is judged more harshly by the church through homonegativity and aggression. In one study, more than 1600 individuals were surveyed to assess the impact of religious LGBTQ+ Rejection on mental health.  These individuals had experienced high rates of depression, anxiety, stress, and shame, more occasions of verbal and physical assault within the religious community, and reported lower mental health outcomes simply by exposure to religious prejudice. Many religious affiliates choose to reject an organization that rejects anyone in the LGBTQ+ community. Especially when that rejection is justified through religious texts or the person of God.
In the same way, many exiters are tired of patriarchal Ideologies. Patriarchy is a social construct in which certain powerful men hold power over less powerful men and women. It is a supremacist ideology—a form of oppression and exploitation over others—that has been shaping societies for centuries. Rooted in religious doctrine, the belief of male superiority is reflected in its worship of a male deity, its refusal to allow women to teach or lead in the religious community, and its teaching that women are to be subordinate to men in household roles. As was discussed earlier, sexual abuse in the church is most commonly perpetuated by males in positions of authority. Male perpetrators are often protected, provided with a place to hide, and not held accountable for their actions. One study explored a national sampling of more than 1500 American adults to assess the correlation between belief in patriarchal gender ideology and Christian nationalism. Overwhelmingly, individuals who embrace the idea of Christian nationalism also seek a time when a more patriarchal family structure was the norm for American families. This vision craves a return to more traditional and authoritarian social arrangements and gender narratives. For many reasons, this is a problem for religious affiliates and exiters. The teaching that men are superior to women or that a patriarchal order is the will and design of the Divine is a significant reason for many exiters to leave church affiliation. Religion continues to refuse egalitarianism, refuses to give women prominent roles in church leadership, and refuses to denounce Christian nationalism. Until the church radically shifts its patriarchal ideologies, exiters will continue to find their way out of evangelical affiliation.

Resource: Doll, B. R. (2022). Therapeutic considerations in the treatment of religious trauma. [Doctoral Dissertation; submitted for publication].