Jonathan Rauch says he was “flat wrong” to celebrate US secularisation as religion declined

What was said

"But I wrote in praise of what I called apaththeism. And by that I meant secularization, which is I was looking at the numbers showing that Americans were becoming less religious. And I said, "Isn't that great?""

Jonathan Rauch says he once praised what he called “apaththeism” as Americans became less religious, but now believes he was mistaken after what he describes as rapid “dechurching”. He links the shift to loneliness, isolation, anger and “toxic partisanship”, arguing that political identities can replace religious meaning.