ads position. It is possible that this characteristic of America's religious life, its attempts to accommodate two divergent positions and reach a compromise or transitional standing point, accounts in part for both the high visibility and viability of switching between variant religious denominations and sects. America established itself at a "crucial turning point in history" where the "Old World ideas of religion were forced to compete with the New World ideas of the Enlightenment and the scientific inquiry it encouraged" (Berman 6). Martin Marty, the University of Chicago religion professor has observed America's unique status among developed countries since although America is "all-pervaded by religion" it is simultaneously "a secular, non-religious culture" (Marty in Berman 6). In seeking spiritual satisfaction, many Americans believe in a single Deity as a remnant of America's "Old World religious heritage" while others adopt an antireligious or absolutely scientific viewpoint which honors the "modern pluralistic Enlightenment heritage" (Berman 6). Frequently, patterns of conversion or the switching between denominations marks an individual's desire to move away from this position of ambivalence or compromise toward a deeper and usually less adulterated commitment to God.
To review the historical formation and cyclical popularity of religious sects in America is to draw closer to an appreciation of the varieties of religious experience and the consequent desire to switch between them. In The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy Finke and Starke investigate what transforms sects into churches. Cotton Mather observed that "religion brought forth prosperity, and the daughter destroyed the mother" which can be interpreted to signify that prosperity acts as a threat to piety since "the enchantments of this world make them forget their errand into the wilderness" (Mather in Finke 43). ...