MORE AMERICAN THAN CHRISTIAN?
Bernadette Murphy reviews sociologist Alan Wolfe's book The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith in an LA Times article. Wolfe has no particular religious affiliation but he is observant.

A quote from the review: What he finds are strikingly similar trends, regardless of religious affiliation. The way we worship, for example, is moving away from the solemn and ceremonial toward styles that are "joyful, emotional, personal and emphatic on the one hand, impatient with liturgy and theologically broad to the point of incoherence on the other." In general, Americans tend to shy away from talk of sin and an angry God, preferring instead a therapeutic relationship with the Divine, an alliance that strengthens self-esteem but doesn't exact too high a cost: "Talk of hell, damnation and even sin has been replaced by a nonjudgmental language of understanding and empathy." Likewise, most Americans today don't get into fiery arguments over issues of doctrine and theology because, for the most part, they know very little about the doctrinal and theological foundations on which their particular religions are based. Though they may belong to denominations that stress evangelization, Americans often draw back from bearing witness to their faith if doing so might "make them seem unfriendly or invasive."

Ouch.