The Easter Weekend edition of USA Today had a front page story on religious “reverts.” It explored the current push of various religious groups, including Jews and Christians, to reach out to a large and growing demographic. That demographic consists of millions of people who have left organized religion over the last two decades. The article told the story of people, ranging from cradle Catholics to former-Southern Baptists, who have come home.

For all that the article revealed about people who are on their way back this sentence said it all: “Then (referring to the reverts), unlike most, they came back.” Simply put the stories of reverts make an interesting narrative but the numbers of such reverts is still small. Very few people who leave the religion of their childhood ever return to it.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life noted that more than half of all Americans say they have switched religions at least once. Only 9% of them say that they’ve come back to the churches or religious centers that shaped them, or maybe I should say never shaped them.

The interesting thing […]