The United States became more secular and materialist over time, though most citizens continued to call themselves Christians.

Judged as of 2007, using trends up to then (e.g. mid-20th century to 2007). There are three parts: (1) the US became more secular (falling religious affiliation or attendance, rising 'nones', per Gallup, GSS, ARIS or Pew); (2) it became more materialist (e.g. rising consumption, or survey evidence of greater emphasis on wealth and material goods); (3) most Americans still called themselves Christians. TRUE: all three are supported by survey or statistical data. MOSTLY TRUE: (1) and (3) are clearly supported and (2) is plausibly but only loosely supported. MIXED: one of (1) or (2) is contradicted by the data, while (3) holds. MOSTLY FALSE: (3) holds but both secularisation and materialism trends are unsupported or contradicted. FALSE: most Americans did not identify as Christian, or the data show the US becoming more religious and not more materialist.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Survey: Non-Religious Americans on the Rise in Every State The Christian Post · 9 March 2009

   “shows that the percentage of Americans claiming no religion, which jumped from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 14.2 in 2001, has now increased to 15 percent.”

2. E2 Survey: Non-Religious Americans on the Rise in Every State The Christian Post · 9 March 2009

   “Meanwhile, the percentage of Christians in America has declined from 76.7 in 2001 to 76 percent, down from 86.2 percent in the 1990s.”

3. E3 The "New Normal" For the U.S. Economy: What Will It Be? | Brookings Brookings Institution · 9 March 2022

   “Personal consumption rose to 64.6 percent in the 1980s, 67.3 percent in the 1990s, and an astounding 69.8 percent between 2001 and 2008.”

4. E4 Long-Term Gallup Poll Trends: A Portrait of American Public Opinion Through the Century Gallup · 20 December 1999

   “While the measure most probably is not a precise indicator of the exact number of people who attend church on specific weeks, the fact that it has remained so constant over the years is an important indicator of the stability of a broad attitudinal indicator of religiosity in the American population.”

E1 shows that Americans reporting no religion rose from 8.2% in 1990 to 14.2% in 2001. E2 shows that the Christian share fell from 86.2% to 76.7% over the same period but remained a clear majority. Together these support part (1), growing secularism, and part (3), that most Americans still called themselves Christian, although E4 reports that church attendance stayed stable over the long term. E3 shows personal consumption rising across the decades to 2008. The quote does not say what that percentage measures, so it only loosely supports part (2), growing materialism.