Editing Autonomy (section)

=== The disestablishment process ===
The first disestablishment began with the introduction of the [[bill of rights]].<ref name=":1">{{cite book|title=Religion and personal autonomy: the third disestablishment in America|last=Hammond|first=Phillip|date=1992|isbn=978-0872498204|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|edition=First}}</ref> In the twentieth century, due to the [[Great Depression|great depression]] of the 1930s and the completion of the second world war, the American churches were revived. Specifically the Protestant churches. This was the beginning of the second disestablishment<ref name=":1" /> when churches had become popular again but held no legislative power. One of the reasons why the churches gained attendance and popularity was due to the [[baby boom]], when soldiers came back from the [[World War II|second world war]] and started their families. The large influx of newborns gave the churches a new wave of followers. However, these followers did not hold the same beliefs as their parents and brought about the political, and religious revolutions of the 1960s.

During the 1960s, the collapse of religious and cultural middle brought upon the third disestablishment.<ref name=":1" /> Religion became more important to the individual and less so to the community. The changes brought from these revolutions significantly increased the personal autonomy of individuals due to the lack of structural restraints giving them added freedom of choice. This concept is known as "new voluntarism"<ref name=":1" /> where individuals have free choice on how to be religious and the free choice whether to be religious or not.