"The decline of traditional American religion has been well documented. Many books, articles, and reports leave no doubt that a major shift has occurred. There is no need to rehash the details here. Still, a fundamental principle of social science is theneed to "establish the phenomenon" before attempting to explain it. So, while the rest of this book will focus on the why, we begin here with the what. What has happened to traditional American religion? What do things look like to religious leaders on the ground? The evidence offers multiple empirical indicators of a larger latent fact about traditional American religion: that it has not only suffered weakening and decline, but has become obsolete-at least among Americans under the age of 50, which is tosay, nearly all of America in the not-distant future"--