David, thanks for an interesting article. I would add an additional bit of information for part of the mix of why people started to question their religious belief in the early 90's. That would be the end of the Cold War. Everything that people knew to be certain just changed. The internet certainly plays a part in this and accelerates it. I add in the end of the Cold War because in many ways it had also been painted as a Christianity vs. Communist Atheism. That was useful for the politicians who have a long habit of using religion for their own purposes. The challenge with the end of the Cold War was that it left a significant void of meaning and purpose. The US had long defined itself based on the fact that it wasn't the USSR. Now that the boogeyman was gone, the unanswered question remains - who are we? And what do we actually believe. I don't think we've answered that question yet after 3 decades. For me, this relates with the rise of people asking questions about religious teaching as well. Religion is often about meaning and purpose in life. Organized religion is often really bad at dealing with these questions. Institutions exist to maintain a status quo and questions don't help with that.

To me, as a Christian pastor, I don't fear these trends at all. I'm glad people are asking questions rather than being spoon fed elementary school theology - if we can even call it that. The institution has to change so that it can also answer the question - what is the church really about? If it's primarily about power, then it should die off. If it's about service, then I think this will be seen as a time of "holy pruning" to cut away the deadwood and the things that were sucking the life out of what the church is supposed to be about. That's my two cents.