It’s no secret that trust in institutions has been shaky lately, but even religious communities are feeling the strain. People who grew up devout—attending services, learning moral values, and building their lives around faith—are now stepping back. Why? Because they feel betrayed by the very institutions meant to guide them.

Take Daniel Reece, for example. Raised in a Catholic family, he grew up attending church every Sunday and even went to a Catholic school. Today, he’s 37 and no longer participates in church activities. While he still holds onto the values he learned as a child, he can’t ignore the scandals and hypocrisy he sees in the Catholic Church. “The contradiction of the Church’s actions and its teachings is just too much,” he says. For Reece, the breaking point was the handling of sexual abuse cases within the Church. “It’s not just