About 96 percent of Americans say they believe in God. About 90 percent say they pray. On most weekends, four out of 10 show up at religious services. For better or worse, they say, Americans have increasingly replaced God the moral arbiter and watchdog with God the spiritual entity that's out there, but not much involved in the details of our lives. The landscape has changed.
Prayer is out of schools.
Businesses open on Sundays. Families rarely observe Sunday as a day of rest. Organized religion is losing its hold on the collective American conscience. Pat McCormick, a Christian ethicist, remembers when Catholics were lined up out the door for confession, particularly during Lent. Now it's called the Sacrament of Reconciliation instead of confession, more like a counseling session and all about working out your relationship with God.