Ryan Burge

But I think that's a very strategically smart thing to do, not just like nationally, but especially in Florida.

Because guess what?

If you go to a non-denominational church and a Catholic church, you've checked off religion in Florida for almost everyone.

So I do think that like these elites, they're strategic in this.

So one way that non-denoms have actually done well is by creating diverse congregations because they're in diverse areas.

You know, if you're suburban Houston, like, for goodness sakes, it's diverse.

But I think, you know, the Catholic Church in America would not be what it would be without immigration, especially from Central and South America.

The question, though, that we have is how do they assimilate to American culture?

You know, for instance, if you come here from the southern border, you land in a county that's overwhelmingly Catholic, you'll stay Catholic.

But let's say you move to a place like suburban Dallas where, you know, the elite class are all going to elevation and the journey.

Are you going to start moving in that direction because you want to sort of assimilate and be seen as part of polite society and not segregating in your own Hispanic community?

That's an open question that we don't really know the answer to because it's happening right now all across America, especially second generation, too.

So, you know, you weren't raised in a Catholic church in Mexico, so you don't have the strongest connection as your parents do.

Your parents, once you go to mass, I mean, all your friends are going to that cool church down the road.

What do you decide to do?

Right.

So that's a huge part of it.

But the other part of the immigration story that's really interesting is like if you look at like Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, those are immigrant religions like that.

That's how they got a foothold in America.

If they can't rely on immigrants because of the current situation that we're in right now, how do they maintain or grow their size in the United States when their fertility is starting to look like American fertility, which is very low?