Pastor Ryan Burge, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and author of, "The Nones," a book on the growing number of religiously unaffiliated Americans, preaches a sermon at First Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, Ill., Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. For Burge, the rising number of "nones" and the dwindling number of religious is not simply a statistic, but a fact that he's been witnessing in his own parish for the past 16 years. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
