According to this Times story, coming to America means abandoning religion for many people:
As a child in Guatemala, Mr. Chilín attended Mass every Sunday. But after immigrating to the United States 25 years ago, he and his family lost the churchgoing habit. “We pray to God when we feel the need to,” he said, “but when we come here to America we don’t feel the need.”
A wave of research shows that increasing percentages of Hispanics are abandoning church, suggesting to researchers that along with assimilation comes a measure of secularization. …
“Migrating to the U.S. means you have the freedom to create your own identity,” said Keo Cavalcanti, a sociologist at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., and a co-author of a recent study that found a trend toward secularization among Hispanics in Richmond. “When people get here they realize that maintaining that pro forma display of religiosity is not essential to doing well.” …
Jesus Cerritos, a 37-year-old construction worker who immigrated from Mexico 18 years ago, said he spent his weekends running errands, going to Wal-Mart and watching television. His children, ages 11 and 9, tell him that church is boring and that they have no desire to go, but Mr. Cerritos has mixed feelings.
“Here, the people get more materialistic,” Mr. Cerritos said. “The culture here is really barren. There’s no traditions.”
Part of me is troubled by this news. I’m a pastor, and pastors are supposed to believe that everybody belongs in church. There’s also a very legitimate concern about the way American individualism and materialism mutes our need for God.
But a bigger part of me is relieved that cultural Christians and Catholics who have been practicing a “pro-forma display of religiosity” are no longer under the illusion that following these outward customs will get them anywhere with God. Jesus spent much of his ministry refuting the belief that lineage and tradition define a relationship with God.
My prayer is that once these cultural Christians have broken free from superstitious faith, their eyes will be opened to their need for a savior and the full life he’s offering them now and for eternity.