The implication in the article was that it was a recent change:
> As more Americans have moved away from organized religion (a 2015 Pew Center study found that 23 percent of the adult population identified as “religiously unaffiliated,” up from 16 percent in 2007) they have also moved toward new forms of community building,
That's too small of a percentage to explain the large number of social clubs, including or especially clubs like Lions, Freemasons, Odd-Fellows, Elks. I say "especially" because some viewed them as pseudo-religious organizations. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Fellows .) Freemasons definitely have more rituals than the gyms the article was talking about.
Finally, the US has had neither a constant nor monotonic move away from organized religion. Compare the deism and skeptical rationalism of the late 1700s with the Second Great Awakening of the early 1800s.
> As more Americans have moved away from organized religion (a 2015 Pew Center study found that 23 percent of the adult population identified as “religiously unaffiliated,” up from 16 percent in 2007) they have also moved toward new forms of community building,
The growth in "religiously unaffiliated" is relatively recent. That is, http://www.atheismandthecity.com/2016/10/number-of-religious... shows it was around 5% from 1972 to 1992.
That's too small of a percentage to explain the large number of social clubs, including or especially clubs like Lions, Freemasons, Odd-Fellows, Elks. I say "especially" because some viewed them as pseudo-religious organizations. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Fellows .) Freemasons definitely have more rituals than the gyms the article was talking about.
Finally, the US has had neither a constant nor monotonic move away from organized religion. Compare the deism and skeptical rationalism of the late 1700s with the Second Great Awakening of the early 1800s.