Religious disaffiliation

Religious disaffiliation is the act of leaving a faith, or a religious group or community. It is in many respects the reverse of religious conversion. Several other terms are used for this process, though each of these terms may have slightly different meanings and connotations.^[1]

Researchers employ a variety of often pejorative terms to describe disaffiliation, including^[2] defection, apostasy^[3] and disengagement.^[4] This is in contrast to excommunication, which is disaffiliation from a religious organization imposed punitively on a member, rather than willfully undertaken by the member.

If religious affiliation was a big part of a leaver's social life and identity, then leaving can be a wrenching experience, and some religious groups aggravate the process with hostile reactions and shunning.^[5]^: 91 Some people who were not particularly religious see leaving as not ‘all that big a deal’ and entailing ‘few personal consequences’, especially if they are younger people in secularized countries.^[1]

^ ^a ^b Eccles, Janet Betty; Catto, Rebecca (2015). "Espousing Apostasy and Feminism? Older and Younger British Female Apostates Compared". Secularism and Nonreligion. 4. doi:10.5334/snr.ax. ISSN 2053-6712.
^ Bromley, David G. Perspectives on Religious Disaffiliation (1988), article in the book edited by David G. Bromley Falling from the Faith: Causes and Consequences of Religious Apostasy ISBN 0-8039-3188-3 page 23
”One obvious problem is the terminological thicket surrounding the process of religious disaffiliation. Affiliation with a religious group is referred to as conversion, although there is continuing debate over the referent(s) of this term; but there is no parallel term for disaffiliation. Indeed as the essays in this volume reveal, researchers have employed a variety of terms (dropping out, exiting, dissidentification, leavetaking, defecting, apostasy, disaffiliation, disengagement) to label this process”
^ Hadden, Jeffrey
^ Roof, Wade Clark, and J Shawn Landres. "Defection, disengagement and dissent: The dynamics of religious change in the United States." Religion and the Social Order 7 (1997): 77-96.
^ McGuire, Meredith B. "Religion: the Social Context" fifth edition (2002) ISBN 0-534-54126-7 Chapter Three:the individual's religion, section disengagement

[EcclesCatto2015-1] Eccles, Janet Betty; Catto, Rebecca (2015). "Espousing Apostasy and Feminism? Older and Younger British Female Apostates Compared". Secularism and Nonreligion. 4. doi:10.5334/snr.ax. ISSN 2053-6712.

[2] Bromley, David G. Perspectives on Religious Disaffiliation (1988), article in the book edited by David G. Bromley Falling from the Faith: Causes and Consequences of Religious Apostasy ISBN 0-8039-3188-3 page 23
”One obvious problem is the terminological thicket surrounding the process of religious disaffiliation. Affiliation with a religious group is referred to as conversion, although there is continuing debate over the referent(s) of this term; but there is no parallel term for disaffiliation. Indeed as the essays in this volume reveal, researchers have employed a variety of terms (dropping out, exiting, dissidentification, leavetaking, defecting, apostasy, disaffiliation, disengagement) to label this process”

[3] Hadden, Jeffrey

[4] Roof, Wade Clark, and J Shawn Landres. "Defection, disengagement and dissent: The dynamics of religious change in the United States." Religion and the Social Order 7 (1997): 77-96.

[McGuire-5] McGuire, Meredith B. "Religion: the Social Context" fifth edition (2002) ISBN 0-534-54126-7 Chapter Three:the individual's religion, section disengagement

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