Alienation and apostasy

TL;DR: This paper examined the impact of religious identification on public attitudes in relation to moral issues and found that religious non-affiliates are more supportive of AIDS victims, less disapproving of homosexuals, and less likely to espouse a more conservative view in relation with either artificial insemination methods or pornography than their religious affiliates.

TL;DR: This article used innovation theory to understand the motivations of religious "nones", or people who express no religious preference, using data from the NORC General Social Surveys, 1973-1985.

TL;DR: Shields et al. as mentioned in this paper examined the claim that 70 to 90% of youth ministry graduates from conservative Southern Baptist churches leave the church after high school graduation and compared current levels of church involvement among young adults with their youth ministry commitment levels to look for significant relationships between the two and obtain a valid retention statistic.