When it comes to religion, U.S. is a nation of shoppers, study finds

To say that Brenda Boles is a spiritual seeker is an understatement.

As a teenager, she was baptized in a Chinese Baptist church. Then she married an Episcopalian and became a mainstay at Sunday services. Now she is a member of Sacramento's Spiritual Life Center, an Interfaith Unity church.

"This is what I have been looking for," said Boles of Sacramento, who was raised by non-churchgoing parents. "I've found my church home."

The United States has become a nation of spiritual shoppers. More than half of Americans have changed their religious affiliations at least once in their lifetime and that's a "conservative" estimate," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Monday, the forum released "Faith in Flux," the most in-depth study ever undertaken on why people leave religious affiliations.

According to the survey, reasons for leaving childhood affiliations varied. Catholics are likely to leave because they disagree with church teachings or doctrine. Protestants switch because of lifestyle choices such as moving or marrying a person of another religion.

"The reasons for leaving their affiliation or changing are as diverse as the religious marketplace," said John Green, a University of Akron political scientist and senior fellow with the Pew Forum.

The study follows up the Pew Forum's 2007 study on the U.S. religious landscape, which noted that 44 percent of people left their childhood religious affiliation. …