Source: Public Orthodoxy by Very Rev. Dr. John Jillions Visiting Professor at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (Cambridge, UK) When the New York Times recently asked readers to tell them why they had left their religion behind some 7,000 readers responded (“Why Do People Lose Their Religion?” June 7, 2023). Clearly there is a lot of painful pent-up feeling about this. But an equally intriguing question is, “Why do people keep their religion?” This is a question that percolated throughout a course on religion in American history I was teaching this past Spring at Fordham University (“American Religious Texts and Traditions”). The class…