"for what makes people either join or leave a religion." This is a very American kind of statement. In this world, most people don't 'join' religions - they a

"for what makes people either join or leave a religion." This is a very American kind of statement. In this world, most people don't 'join' religions - they are born into them, and they are usually a part of the social fabric. In the New World we have this notion that Religions are a bunch of competing ideas, that you can join or unjoin this or that. Joining/unjoining kinds of religions are so fundamentally different things that they probably need different words. Catholicism is so different from Evangelicalism that they probably should not be put in the same boat. Catholicism in many ways is more similar to Judaism than Evangelicalism. Anglicans (Church of England), Catholics (Church of Latin world), Presbyterians (Church of Scotland), Methodists (Church of Some Germans) and Judaism ('Church' of Jews) - should almost be thought of in cultural or ethnic terms as much as religious. The Church has always been a cultural and community centre as much as any place of mere belief. The notion that we treat it almost in terms of 'belief' is a constant fallacy which causes us to often miss the point. Finally - religious fervour moved out of the Church in the last century into left/right wing politics. It's just taking a different form now.