Christianity is the most adhered to religion
in the United States, with 75% of polled American
adults identifying themselves as Christian
in 2015.
This is down from 85% in 1990, lower than
81.6% in 2001, and slightly lower than 78%
in 2012.
About 62% of those polled claim to be members
of a church congregation.
The United States has the largest Christian
population in the world, with nearly 240 million
Christians, although other countries have
higher percentages of Christians among their
populations.
All Protestant denominations accounted for
51.3%, while the Catholic Church by itself,
at 23.9%, was the largest individual denomination.
A 2008 Pew study categorizes white evangelical
Protestants, 26.3% of the population, as the
country's largest religious cohort; another
study in 2004 estimates evangelical Protestants
of all races at 30–35%.
The nation's second-largest church and the
single largest Protestant denomination is
the Southern Baptist Convention.
The United Methodist Church is the third largest
church and the largest mainline Protestant
denomination in the United States.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(Mormons) is the fourth-largest church in
the United States and the largest church originating
in the U.S.
The Church of God in Christ is the fifth-largest
denomination, the largest Pentecostal church,
and the largest traditionally African-American
denomination in the nation.
Among Eastern Christian denominations, there
are several Eastern Orthodox and Oriental
Orthodox churches, with just below 1 million
adherents in the US, or 0.4% of the total
population.Christianity was introduced to
the Americas as it was first colonized by
Europeans beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Going forward from its foundation, the United
States has been called a Protestant nation
by a variety of sources.
Immigration further increased Christian numbers.
Today most Christian churches in the United
States are either Mainline Protestant, Evangelical
Protestant, or Catholic.
== Major denominational families ==
Christian denominations in the United States
are usually divided into three large groups:
Evangelical Protestantism, Mainline Protestantism,
and the Catholic Church.
There are also Christian denominations that
do not fall within either of these groups,
such as Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy,
but they are much smaller.
A 2004 survey of the United States identified
the percentages of these groups as 26.3% (Evangelical),
22% (Catholics), and 16% (Mainline Protestant).
In a Statistical Abstract of the United States,
based on a 2001 study of the self-described
religious identification of the adult population,
the percentages for these same groups are
28.6% (Evangelical), 24.5% (Catholics), and
13.9% (Mainline Protestant).
=== Protestantism ===
In typical usage, the term mainline is contrasted
with evangelical.
The Association of Religion Data Archives
(ARDA) counts 26,344,933 members of mainline
churches versus 39,930,869 members of evangelical
Protestant churches.
There is evidence that there has been a shift
in membership from mainline denominations
to evangelical churches.As shown in the table
below, some denominations with similar names
and historical ties to Evangelical groups
are considered Mainline.
==== Evangelical Protestantism ====
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement.
In typical usage, the term mainline is contrasted
with evangelical.
Theologically conservative critics accuse
the mainline churches of "the substitution
of leftist social action for Christian evangelizing,
and the disappearance of biblical theology,"
and maintain that "All the Mainline churches
have become essentially the same church: their
histories, their theologies, and even much
of their practice lost to a uniform vision
of social progress."
Most adherents consider the key characteristics
of evangelicalism to be: a belief in the need
for personal conversion (or being "born again");
some expression of the gospel in effort; a
high regard for Biblical authority; and an
emphasis on the death and resurrection of
Jesus.
David Bebbington has termed these four distinctive
aspects conversionism, activism, biblicism,
and crucicentrism, saying, "Together they
form a quadrilateral of priorities that is
the basis of Evangelicalism."Note that the
term "Evangelical" does not equal Fundamentalist
Christianity, although the latter is sometimes
regarded simply as the most theologically
conservative subset of the former.
The major differences largely hinge upon views
of how to regard and approach scripture ("Theology
of Scripture"), as well as construing its
broader world-view implications.
While most conservative Evangelicals believe
the label has broadened too much beyond its
more limiting traditional distinctives, this
trend is nonetheless strong enough to create
significant ambiguity in the term.
As a result, the dichotomy between "evangelical"
vs. "mainline" denominations is increasingly
complex (particularly with such innovations
as the "Emergent Church" movement).
The contemporary North American usage of the
term is influenced by the evangelical/fundamentalist
controversy of the early 20th century.
Evangelicalism may sometimes be perceived
as the middle ground between the theological
liberalism of the Mainline (Protestant) denominations
and the cultural separatism of Fundamentalist
Protestantism.
Evangelicalism has therefore been described
as "the third of the leading strands in American
Protestantism, straddl[ing] the divide between
fundamentalists and liberals."
While the North American perception is important
to understand the usage of the term, it by
no means dominates a wider global view, where
the fundamentalist debate was not so influential.
Evangelicals held the view that the modernist
and liberal parties in the Protestant churches
had surrendered their heritage as Evangelicals
by accommodating the views and values of the
world.
At the same time, they criticized their fellow
Fundamentalists for their separatism and their
rejection of the Social Gospel as it had been
developed by Protestant activists of the previous
century.
They charged the modernists with having lost
their identity as Evangelicals and the Fundamentalists
with having lost the Christ-like heart of
Evangelicalism.
They argued that the Gospel needed to be reasserted
to distinguish it from the innovations of
the liberals and the fundamentalists.
They sought allies in denominational churches
and liturgical traditions, disregarding views
of eschatology and other "non-essentials,"
and joined also with Trinitarian varieties
of Pentecostalism.
They believed that in doing so, they were
simply re-acquainting Protestantism with its
own recent tradition.
The movement's aim at the outset was to reclaim
the Evangelical heritage in their respective
churches, not to begin something new; and
for this reason, following their separation
from Fundamentalists, the same movement has
been better known merely as "Evangelicalism."
By the end of the 20th century, this was the
most influential development in American Protestant
Christianity.The National Association of Evangelicals
is a U.S. agency which coordinates cooperative
ministry for its member denominations.
A 2015 global census estimated some 450,000
believers in Christ from a Muslim background
in the United States most of whom are evangelicals
or Pentecostals.
==== Mainline Protestantism ====
The mainline Protestant Christian denominations
are those Protestant denominations that were
brought to the United States by its historic
immigrant groups; for this reason they are
sometimes referred to as heritage churches.
The largest are the Episcopal (English), Presbyterian
(Scottish), Methodist (English and Welsh),
and Lutheran (German and Scandinavian) churches.
Mainline Protestantism, including the Episcopalians
(76%), the Presbyterians (64%), and the United
Church of Christ has the highest number of
graduate and post-graduate degrees per capita,
of any other Christian denomination in the
United States, as well as the most high-income
earners.Episcopalians and Presbyterians tend
to be considerably wealthier and better educated
than most other religious groups in Americans,
and are disproportionately represented in
the upper reaches of American business, law
and politics, especially the Republican Party.
Numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American
families as the Vanderbilts and Astors, Rockefeller,
Du Pont, Roosevelt, Forbes, Whitney, Morgans,
and Harrimans are historically Mainline Protestant
families.According to Scientific Elite: Nobel
Laureates in the United States by Harriet
Zuckerman, a review of American Nobel prizes
winners awarded between 1901 and 1972, 72%
of American Nobel Prize Laureates, have identified
from a Protestant background.
Overall, 84.2% of all the Nobel Prizes awarded
to Americans in Chemistry, 60% in Medicine,
and 58.6% in Physics between 1901 and 1972
were won by Protestants.
Some of the first colleges and universities
in America, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton,
Columbia, Dartmouth, Williams, Bowdoin, Middlebury,
and Amherst, all were founded by the Mainline
Protestantism, as were later Carleton, Duke,
Oberlin, Beloit, Pomona, Rollins and Colorado
College.
Many mainline denominations teach that the
Bible is God's word in function, but tend
to be open to new ideas and societal changes.
They have been increasingly open to the ordination
of women.
Mainline churches tend to belong to organizations
such as the National Council of Churches and
World Council of Churches.
The seven largest U.S. mainline denominations
were called by William Hutchison the "Seven
Sisters of American Protestantism" in reference
to the major liberal groups during the period
between 1900 and 1960.
These include:
United Methodist Church 6,951,278 members
(2016)
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 3,563,842
members (2016)
Episcopal Church in the United States of America
1,779,335 active baptized members (2015)
Presbyterian Church (USA) 1,482,767 active
members (2016)
American Baptist Churches in the USA 1,198,046
members (2014)
United Church of Christ 880,383 members (2016)
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 497,423
(2014)The Association of Religion Data Archives
also considers these denominations to be mainline:
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 108,500
members
Reformed Church in America 223,675 members
(2015)
International Council of Community Churches
68,300 members (2010)
National Association of Congregational Christian
Churches 65,569 members (2000)
North American Baptist Conference 47,150 members
(2006)
Moravian Church in America, Southern Province
21,513 members (1991)
Moravian Church in America, Northern Province
20,220 members (2010)
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community
Churches 15,666 members (2006)
Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
12,000 members (2007)
Congregational Christian Churches, (not part
of any national CCC body)
Moravian Church in America, Alaska ProvinceThe
Association of Religion Data Archives has
difficulties collecting data on traditionally
African American denominations.
Those churches most likely to be identified
as mainline include these Methodist groups:
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
=== 
Catholic Church ===
The Catholic Church arrived in what is now
the United States during the earliest days
of the European colonization of the Americas.
At the time the country was founded (meaning
the Thirteen Colonies in 1776), only a small
fraction of the population there were Catholics
(mostly in Maryland); however, as a result
of expansion and immigration over the country's
history, the number of adherents has grown
dramatically and it is the largest profession
of faith in the United States today.
With over 67 million registered residents
professing the faith in 2008, the United States
has the fourth largest Catholic population
in the world after Brazil, Mexico, and the
Philippines, respectively.
The Church's leadership body in the United
States is the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops, made up of the hierarchy
of bishops and archbishops of the United States
and the U.S. Virgin Islands, although each
bishop is independent in his own diocese,
answerable only to the Pope.
No primate for Catholics exists in the United
States.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has Prerogative
of Place, which confers to its archbishop
a subset of the leadership responsibilities
granted to primates in other countries.
The number of Catholics grew from the early
19th century through immigration and the acquisition
of the predominantly Catholic former possessions
of France, Spain, and Mexico, followed in
the mid-19th century by a rapid influx of
Irish, German, Italian and Polish immigrants
from Europe, making Catholicism the largest
Christian denomination in the United States.
This increase was met by widespread prejudice
and hostility, often resulting in riots and
the burning of churches, convents, and seminaries.
The integration of Catholics into American
society was marked by the election of John
F. Kennedy as President in 1960.
Since then, the percentage of Americans who
are Catholic has remained at around 25%.According
to the Association of Catholic Colleges and
Universities in 2011, there are approximately
230 Roman Catholic universities and colleges
in the United States with nearly 1 million
students and some 65,000 professors.
Catholic schools educate 2.7 million students
in the United States, employing 150,000 teachers.
In 2002, Catholic health care systems, overseeing
625 hospitals with a combined revenue of 30
billion dollars, comprised the nation's largest
group of nonprofit systems.
=== Eastern Orthodox Christianity ===
Groups of immigrants from several different
regions, mainly Eastern Europe and the Middle
East, brought Eastern Orthodoxy to the United
States.
This traditional branch of Eastern Christianity
has since spread beyond the boundaries of
ethnic immigrant communities and now include
multi-ethnic membership and parishes.
There are several Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical
jurisdictions in the USA, organized within
the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops
of the United States of America.
Statistically, Eastern Orthodox Christians
are among the wealthiest Christians denomination
in the United States, and they also tend to
be better educated than most other religious
groups in America, in the sense that they
have a high number of graduate (68%) and post-graduate
degrees (28%) per capita.
=== Oriental Orthodox Christianity ===
Several groups of Christian immigrants, mainly
from the Middle East, Caucasus, Africa and
India, brought Oriental Orthodoxy to the United
States.
This ancient branch of Eastern Christianity
includes several ecclesiastical jurisdictions
in the USA, like Armenian Apostolic Church
in the United States, and Coptic Orthodox
Church in the United States.
There are also dioceses of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church, and Syriac Orthodox Church, including
Malankara Archdiocese of North America.
Also, there are dioceses of the Malankara
Orthodox Syrian Church in the USA (Malankara
Orthodox Diocese of Northeast America and
Malankara Orthodox Diocese of Southwest America).
=== Latter-day Saint Movement ===
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(LDS Church) is a nontrinitarian restorationist
denomination.
The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City,
and is the largest originating from the Latter
Day Saint movement which was founded by Joseph
Smith in Upstate New York in 1830.
It forms the majority in Utah, the plurality
in Idaho, and high percentages in Nevada,
Arizona, and Wyoming; in addition to sizable
numbers in Colorado, Montana, Washington,
Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii and California.
Current U.S. membership is 6.6 million.In
2010, around 13-14% of Latter Day Saints lived
in Utah, the center of cultural influence
for Mormonism.
Utah Latter Say Saints (as well as Latter
Day Saints living in the Intermountain West)
are on average more culturally and politically
conservative and Libertarian than those living
in some cosmopolitan centers elsewhere in
the U.S. Utahns self-identifying as Latter
Day Saints also attend church somewhat more
on average than Latter Day Saints living in
other states.
(Nonetheless, whether they live in Utah or
elsewhere in the U.S., Latter Day Saints tend
to be more culturally and politically conservative
than members of other U.S. religious groups.)
Utah Latter Day Saints often place a greater
emphasis on pioneer heritage than international
Latter Day Saints who generally are not descendants
of the Mormon pioneers.Community of Christ
(formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints) is a trinitarian
restorationist denomination based in Independence,
Missouri at the theologically significant
Temple Lot.
Community of Christ is the second largest
denomination in the Latter-day Saint movement
with 130,000 members in the United States
and 250,000 worldwide (See Community of Christ
membership statistics).
The church owns many of the early LDS historic
sites including the Kirtland Temple near Cleveland,
Ohio and the Joseph Smith properties in Nauvoo,
Illinois.
Community of Christ has taken an ecumenical
and progressive approach recent years including
joining the National Council of Churches,
ordaining women to the church's priesthood
since 1984, and more recently approving the
blessing of same-sex marriages.
Small churches within the Latter-day Saint
movement include Church of Christ (Temple
Lot), Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, Restoration Branches,
and Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints.
== History ==
Christianity was introduced during the period
of European colonization.
The Spanish and French brought Catholicism
to the colonies of New Spain and New France
respectively, while British and Germans introduced
Protestantism.
Among Protestants, adherents to Anglicanism,
the Baptist Church, Congregationalism, Presbyterianism,
Lutheranism, Quakerism, Mennonite and Moravian
Church were the first to settle in the American
colonies.
=== Early Colonial period ===
The Dutch founded their colony of New Netherland
in 1624; they established the Dutch Reformed
Church as the colony's official religion in
1628.
==== Spanish colonies ====
Spain established missions and towns in what
are now Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida,
and California.
Many cities and towns still retain in the
present day the names of the Catholic saints
these missions were named for; an excellent
example of this is the full legal name of
the city of Los Angeles: El Pueblo de Nuestra
Señora Reina de Los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula,
or The Town of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels
of the Porciuncula River.
The city was founded by Franciscan friars,
who named their tiny church and later the
town that formed around it after the Virgin
Mary, also known to Catholics as Our Lady,
Queen of the Angels.
Similar patterns emerged wherever the Spanish
went, such as San Antonio, Texas, (named for
Anthony of Padua, Santa Fe, New Mexico (named
after Francis of Assisi,) and Saint Augustine,
Florida, (named for Augustine of Hippo), as
was Saint Lucy County and Port Saint Lucy
in Florida named for Saint Lucy/Santa Lucia
although Saint Petersburg, Florida was not
named for St. Peter, but for the city of the
same name in Russia.
In the English colonies, Catholicism was introduced
with the settling of Maryland.
Conversion of Native Americans to Catholicism
was a main goal of the Catholic missionaries,
especially the Jesuits.
This was common in places where French influence
was strong, like Detroit or Louisiana.
==== British colonies ====
Many of the British North American colonies
that eventually formed the United States of
America were settled in the 17th century by
men and women, who, in the face of European
religious persecution, refused to compromise
passionately-held religious convictions and
fled Europe.
===== Virginia =====
An Anglican chaplain was among the first group
of English colonists, arriving in 1607.
The Church of England was legally established
in the colony in 1619; with a total of 22
Anglican clergymen having arrived by 1624.
In practice, "establishment" meant that local
taxes were funneled through the local parish
to handle the needs of local government, such
as roads and poor relief, in addition to the
salary of the minister.
There never was a bishop in colonial Virginia;
the local vestry consisted of laymen controlled
the parish.
The colonists were typically inattentive,
uninterested, and bored during church services,
according to the ministers, who complained
that the people were sleeping, whispering,
ogling the fashionably dressed women, walking
about and coming and going, or at best looking
out the windows or staring blankly into space.
There were too few ministers for the widely
scattered population, so ministers encouraged
parishioners to become devout at home, using
the Book of Common Prayer for private prayer
and devotion (rather than the Bible).
The stress on personal piety opened the way
for the First Great Awakening, which pulled
people away from the established church and
into the unauthorized Baptist and Methodist
movements.
===== New England =====
A group which later became known as the Pilgrims
settled the Plymouth Colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts
in 1620, seeking refuge from persecution in
Europe.
The Puritans, a much larger group than the
Pilgrims, established the Massachusetts Bay
Colony in 1629 with 400 settlers.
Puritans were English Protestants who wished
to reform and purify the Church of England
in the New World of what they considered to
be unacceptable residues of Catholicism.
Within two years, an additional 2,000 settlers
arrived.
From 1620 to 1640 Puritans emigrated to New
England from England to escape persecution
and gain the liberty to worship as they chose
independently of the Church of England, England
being on the verge of the English Civil War.
Most settled in New England, but some went
as far as the West Indies.
Theologically, the Puritans were "non-separating
Congregationalists."
The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially
tight-knit and politically innovative culture
that is still present in the modern United
States.
They hoped this new land would serve as a
"redeemer nation."
===== Tolerance in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania
=====
Roger Williams, who preached religious tolerance,
separation of church and state, and a complete
break with the Church of England, was banished
from Massachusetts and founded Rhode Island
Colony, which became a haven for other religious
refugees from the Puritan community.
Some migrants who came to Colonial America
were in search of the freedom to practice
forms of Christianity which were prohibited
and persecuted in Europe.
Since there was no state religion, and since
Protestantism had no central authority, religious
practice in the colonies became diverse.
The Quakers formed in England in 1652, where
they were severely persecuted in England for
daring to deviate so far from orthodox Anglican
Christianity.
Many sought refuge in New Jersey, Rhode Island
and especially Pennsylvania, which was owned
by William Penn, a rich Quaker.
The Quakers kept political control until Indian
wars broke out; the Quakers were pacifists
and gave up control to groups that were eager
to fight the Indians.Beginning in 1683 many
German-speaking immigrants arrived in Pennsylvania
from the Rhine Valley and Switzerland.
Starting in the 1730s Count Zinzendorf and
the Moravian Brethren sought to minister to
these immigrants while they also began missions
among the Native American tribes of New York
and Pennsylvania.
Heinrich Melchior Muehlenberg organized the
first Lutheran Synod in Pennsylvania in the
1740s.
===== Maryland =====
Catholic fortunes fluctuated in Maryland during
the rest of the 17th century, as they became
an increasingly smaller minority of the population.
After the Glorious Revolution of 1689 in England,
penal laws deprived Catholics of the right
to vote, hold office, educate their children
or worship publicly.
Until the American Revolution, Catholics in
Maryland, like Charles Carroll of Carrollton,
were dissenters in their own country but keeping
loyal to their convictions.
At the time of the Revolution, Catholics formed
less than 1% of the population of the thirteen
colonies, in 2007, Catholics comprised 24%
of US population.
==== Great Awakening ====
Evangelicalism is difficult to date and to
define.
Scholars have argued that, as a self-conscious
movement, evangelicalism did not arise until
the mid-17th century, perhaps not until the
Great Awakening itself.
The fundamental premise of evangelicalism
is the conversion of individuals from a state
of sin to a "new birth" through the preaching
of the Word.
The Great Awakening refers to a northeastern
Protestant revival movement that took place
in the 1730s and 1740s.
The first generation of New England Puritans
required that church members undergo a conversion
experience that they could describe publicly.
Their successors were not as successful in
reaping harvests of redeemed souls.
The movement began with Jonathan Edwards,
a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return
to the Pilgrims' strict Calvinist roots.
British preacher George Whitefield and other
itinerant preachers continued the movement,
traveling across the colonies and preaching
in a dramatic and emotional style.
Followers of Edwards and other preachers of
similar religiosity called themselves the
"New Lights," as contrasted with the "Old
Lights," who disapproved of their movement.
To promote their viewpoints, the two sides
established academies and colleges, including
Princeton and Williams College.
The Great Awakening has been called the first
truly American event.
The supporters of the Awakening and its evangelical
thrust—Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists—became
the largest American Protestant denominations
by the first decades of the 19th century.
By the 1770s, the Baptists were growing rapidly
both in the north (where they founded Brown
University), and in the South.
Opponents of the Awakening or those split
by it—Anglicans, Quakers, and Congregationalists—were
left behind.
The First Great Awakening of the 1740s increased
religiosity in most of the colonies.
By 1780 the percentage of adult colonists
who formally held membership in a church was
between 10-30%, not counting slaves or Native
Americans.
North Carolina had the lowest percentage at
about 4%, while New Hampshire and South Carolina
were tied for the highest, at about 16%.
Many others informally associated with the
churches.
==== American Revolution ====
The Revolution split some denominations, notably
the Church of England, most of whose ministers
supported the king.
The Quakers and some German sects were pacifists
and remained neutral.
Religious practice suffered in certain places
because of the absence of ministers and the
destruction of churches, but in other areas,
religion flourished.
Badly hurt, the Anglicans reorganized after
the war.
It became the Protestant Episcopal Church.In
1794, the Russian Orthodox missionary St.
Herman of Alaska arrived on Kodiak island
in Alaska and began significantly evangelizing
the native peoples.
Nearly all the Russians left in 1867 when
the U.S. purchased Alaska, but the Eastern
Orthodox faith remained.
Lambert (2003) has examined the religious
affiliations and beliefs of the Founding Fathers
of the United States.
Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional
Convention, 49 were Protestants, and two were
Catholics (D. Carroll, and Fitzsimons).
Among the Protestant delegates to the Constitutional
Convention, 28 were Church of England (or
Episcopalian, after the American Revolutionary
War was won), eight were Presbyterians, seven
were Congregationalists, two were Lutherans,
two were Dutch Reformed, and two were Methodists.
==== Church and state debate ====
After independence, the American states were
obliged to write constitutions establishing
how each would be governed.
For three years, from 1778 to 1780, the political
energies of Massachusetts were absorbed in
drafting a charter of government that the
voters would accept.
One of the most contentious issues was whether
the state would support the church financially.
Advocating such a policy were the ministers
and most members of the Congregational Church,
which received public financial support, during
the colonial period.
The Baptists tenaciously adhered to their
ancient conviction that churches should receive
no support from the state.
The Constitutional Convention chose to support
the church and Article Three authorized a
general religious tax to be directed to the
church of a taxpayers' choice.
Such tax laws also took effect in Connecticut
and New Hampshire.
=== 19th century ===
==== 
Separation of church and state ====
In October 1801, members of the Danbury Baptists
Associations wrote a letter to the new President-elect
Thomas Jefferson.
Baptists, being a minority in Connecticut,
were still required to pay fees to support
the Congregationalist majority.
The Baptists found this intolerable.
The Baptists, well aware of Jefferson's own
unorthodox beliefs, sought him as an ally
in making all religious expression a fundamental
human right and not a matter of government
largesse.
In his January 1, 1802, reply to the Danbury
Baptist Association Jefferson summed up the
First Amendment's original intent, and used
for the first time anywhere a now-familiar
phrase in today's political and judicial circles:
the amendment established a "wall of separation
between church and state."
Largely unknown in its day, this phrase has
since become a major Constitutional issue.
The first time the U.S. Supreme Court cited
that phrase from Jefferson was in 1878, 76
years later.
==== Second Great Awakening ====
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant
movement that began around 1790, gained momentum
by 1800, and after 1820 membership rose rapidly
among Baptist and Methodist congregations
whose preachers led the movement.
It was past its peak by the 1840s.
It was a reaction against skepticism, deism,
and rational Christianity, and was especially
attractive to young women.
Millions of new members enrolled in existing
evangelical denominations and led to the formation
of new denominations.
Many converts believed that the Awakening
heralded a new millennial age.
The Second Great Awakening stimulated the
establishment of many reform movements designed
to remedy the evils of society before the
anticipated Second Coming of Jesus Christ.During
the Second Great Awakening, new Protestant
denominations emerged such as Adventism, the
Restoration Movement, and groups such as Jehovah's
Witnesses and Mormonism.
While the First Great Awakening was centered
on reviving the spirituality of established
congregations, the Second focused on the unchurched
and sought to instill in them a deep sense
of personal salvation as experienced in revival
meetings.
The principal innovation produced by the revivals
was the camp meeting.
When assembled in a field or at the edge of
a forest for a prolonged religious meeting,
the participants transformed the site into
a camp meeting.
Singing and preaching were the main activities
for several days.
The revivals were often intense and created
intense emotions.
Some fell away but many if not most became
permanent church members.
The Methodists and Baptists made them one
of the evangelical signatures of the denomination.
==== African American churches ====
The Christianity of the black population was
grounded in evangelicalism.
The Second Great Awakening has been called
the "central and defining event in the development
of Afro-Christianity."
During these revivals Baptists and Methodists
converted large numbers of blacks.
However, many were disappointed at the treatment
they received from their fellow believers
and at the backsliding in the commitment to
abolish slavery that many white Baptists and
Methodists had advocated immediately after
the American Revolution.
When their discontent could not be contained,
forceful black leaders followed what was becoming
an American habit—they formed new denominations.
In 1787, Richard Allen and his colleagues
in Philadelphia broke away from the Methodist
Church and in 1815 founded the African Methodist
Episcopal (AME) Church.
After the Civil War, Black Baptists desiring
to practice Christianity away from racial
discrimination, rapidly set up several separate
state Baptist conventions.
In 1866, black Baptists of the South and West
combined to form the Consolidated American
Baptist Convention.
This convention eventually collapsed but three
national conventions formed in response.
In 1895 the three conventions merged to create
the National Baptist Convention.
It is now the largest African-American religious
organization in the United States.
==== Liberal Christianity ====
The "secularization of society" is attributed
to the time of the Enlightenment.
In the United States, religious observance
is much higher than in Europe, and the United
States' culture leans conservative in comparison
to other western nations, in part due to the
Christian element.
Liberal Christianity, exemplified by some
theologians, sought to bring to churches new
critical approaches to the Bible.
Sometimes called "liberal theology", liberal
Christianity is an umbrella term covering
movements and ideas within 19th- and 20th-century
Christianity.
New attitudes became evident, and the practice
of questioning the nearly universally accepted
Christian orthodoxy began to come to the forefront.
In the post–World War I era, liberalism
was the faster-growing sector of the American
church.
Liberal wings of denominations were on the
rise, and a considerable number of seminaries
held and taught from a liberal perspective
as well.
In the post–World War II era, the trend
began to swing back towards the conservative
camp in America's seminaries and church structures.
==== Catholic Church ====
By 1850 Catholics had become the country's
largest single denomination.
Between 1860 and 1890 the population of Catholics
in the United States tripled through immigration;
by the end of the decade, it would reach seven
million.
These huge numbers of immigrant Catholics
came from Ireland, Quebec, Southern Germany,
Italy, Poland and Eastern Europe.
This influx would eventually bring increased
political power for the Catholic Church and
a greater cultural presence led at the same
time to a growing fear of the Catholic "menace."
As the 19th century wore on animosity waned,
Protestant Americans realized that Catholics
were not trying to seize control of the government.
==== Fundamentalism ====
Protestant fundamentalism began as a movement
in the late 19th century and early 20th century
to reject influences of secular humanism and
source criticism in modern Christianity.
In reaction to liberal Protestant groups that
denied doctrines considered fundamental to
these conservative groups, they sought to
establish tenets necessary to maintaining
a Christian identity, the "fundamentals,"
hence the term fundamentalist.
Over time, the movement divided, with the
label Fundamentalist being retained by the
smaller and more hard-line group(s).
Evangelical has become the main identifier
of the groups holding to the movement's moderate
and earliest ideas.
=== 20th century ===
==== 
Evangelicalism ====
In the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, there
has been a marked rise in the evangelical
wing of Protestant denominations, especially
those that are more exclusively evangelical,
and a corresponding decline in the mainstream
liberal churches.
The 1950s saw a boom in the Evangelical church
in America.
The post–World War II prosperity experienced
in the U.S. also had its effects on the church.
Church buildings were erected in large numbers,
and the Evangelical church's activities grew
along with this expansive physical growth.
In the southern U.S., the Evangelicals, represented
by leaders such as Billy Graham, have experienced
a notable surge displacing the caricature
of the pulpit pounding country preachers of
fundamentalism.
The stereotypes have gradually shifted.
Although the Evangelical community worldwide
is diverse, the ties that bind all Evangelicals
are still apparent: a "high view" of Scripture,
belief in the Deity of Christ, the Trinity,
salvation by grace through faith, and the
bodily resurrection of Christ.
==== National associations ====
The Federal Council of Churches, founded in
1908, marked the first major expression of
a growing modern ecumenical movement among
Christians in the United States.
It was active in pressing for reform of public
and private policies, particularly as they
impacted the lives of those living in poverty,
and developed a comprehensive and widely debated
Social Creed which served as a humanitarian
"bill of rights" for those seeking improvements
in American life.
In 1950, the National Council of the Churches
of Christ in the USA (usually identified as
National Council of Churches, or NCC) represented
a dramatic expansion in the development of
ecumenical cooperation.
It was a merger of the Federal Council of
Churches, the International Council of Religious
Education, and several other interchurch ministries.
Today, the NCC is a joint venture of 35 Christian
denominations in the United States with 100,000
local congregations and 45,000,000 adherents.
Its member communions include Mainline Protestant,
Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, African-American,
Evangelical and historic Peace churches.
The NCC took a prominent role in the Civil
Rights movement and fostered the publication
of the widely used Revised Standard Version
of the Bible, followed by an updated New Revised
Standard Version, the first translation to
benefit from the discovery of the Dead Sea
Scrolls.
The organization is headquartered in New York
City, with a public policy office in Washington,
DC.
The NCC is related fraternally to hundreds
of local and regional councils of churches,
to other national councils across the globe,
and to the World Council of Churches.
All of these bodies are independently governed.
Carl McIntire led in organizing the American
Council of Christian Churches (ACCC), now
with 7 member bodies, in September 1941.
It was a more militant and fundamentalist
organization set up in opposition to what
became the National Council of Churches.
The National Association of Evangelicals for
United Action was formed in St. Louis, Missouri
on April 7–9, 1942.
It soon shortened its name to the National
Association of Evangelicals (NEA).
There are currently 60 denominations with
about 45,000 churches in the organization.
The NEA is related fraternally the World Evangelical
Fellowship.
In 2006, 39 communions and 7 Christian organizations
officially launched Christian Churches Together
in the USA (CCT).
CCT provides a space that is inclusive of
the diversity of Christian traditions in the
United States—Evangelical/Pentecostal, Eastern
Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, historic
Protestant, and historic Black churches.
CCT is characterized by its emphasis on relationships
and prayer.
Every year these communions and organizations
meet over four days to discuss critical social
issues, pray and strengthen their relationships.
==== Pentecostalism ====
Another noteworthy development in 20th-century
Christianity was the rise of the modern Pentecostal
movement.
Pentecostalism, which had its roots in the
Pietism and the Holiness movement, many will
cite that it arose out of the meetings in
1906 at an urban mission on Azusa Street in
Los Angeles, but it actually started in 1900
in Topeka, Kansas with a group led by Charles
Parham and the Bethel Bible School 
From there it spread by those who experienced
what they believed to be miraculous moves
of God there.
Pentecostalism would later birth the Charismatic
movement within already established denominations,
and it continues to be an important force
in Western Christianity.
==== Catholic Church ====
By the beginning of the 20th century, approximately
one-sixth of the population of the United
States was Catholic.
Modern Catholic immigrants come to the United
States from the Philippines, Poland, and Latin
America, especially from Mexico.
This multiculturalism and diversity have greatly
impacted the flavor of Catholicism in the
United States.
For example, many dioceses serve in both the
English language and the Spanish language.
== Youth programs ==
While children and youth in the colonial era
were treated as small adults, awareness of
their special status and needs grew in the
nineteenth century, as one after another the
denominations large and small began special
programs for their young people.
Protestant theologian Horace Bushnell in Christian
Nurture (1847) emphasized the necessity of
identifying and supporting the religiosity
of children and young adults.
Beginning in the 1790s the Protestant denominations
set up Sunday school programs.
They provided a major source of new members.
Urban Protestant churchmen set up the interdenominational
YMCA (and later the YWCA) programs in cities
from the 1850s.
Methodists looked on their youth as potential
political activists, providing them with opportunities
to engage in social justice movements such
as prohibition.
Black Protestants, especially after they could
form their own separate churches, integrated
their young people directly into the larger
religious community.
Their youth played a major role in the leadership
of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s
and the 1960s.
White evangelicals in the twentieth century
set up Bible clubs for teenagers and experimented
with the use of music to attract young people.
The Catholics set up an entire network of
parochial schools, and by the late nineteenth
century probably more than half of their young
members were attending elementary schools
run by local parishes.
Some Missouri Synod German Lutherans and Dutch
Reformed churches also set up parochial schools.
In the twentieth century, all the denominations
sponsored programs such as the Boy Scouts
and Girl Scouts.
== Demographics ==
=== 
Demographics by state ===
=== 
Beliefs and attitudes ===
The Baylor University Institute for Studies
of Religion conducted a survey covering various
aspects of American religious life.
The researchers analyzing the survey results
have categorized the responses into what they
call the "four Gods": An authoritarian God
(31%), a benevolent God (25%), a distant God
(23%), and a critical God (16%).
A major implication to emerge from this survey
is that "the type of god people believe in
can predict their political and moral attitudes
more so than just looking at their religious
tradition."As far as religious tradition,
the survey determined that 33.6% of respondents
are evangelical Protestants, while 10.8% had
no religious affiliation at all.
Out of those without affiliation, 62.9% still
indicated that they "believe in God or some
higher power".Another study, conducted by
Christianity Today with Leadership magazine,
attempted to understand the range and differences
among American Christians.
A national attitudinal and behavioral survey
found that their beliefs and practices clustered
into five distinct segments.
Spiritual growth for two large segments of
Christians may be occurring in non-traditional
ways.
Instead of attending church on Sunday mornings,
many opt for personal, individual ways to
stretch themselves spiritually.
19 percent of American Christians are described
by the researchers as Active Christians.
They believe salvation comes through Jesus
Christ, attend church regularly, are Bible
readers, invest in personal faith development
through their church, accept leadership positions
in their church, and believe they are obligated
to "share [their] faith", that is, to evangelize
others.
20 percent are referred to as Professing Christians.
They are also committed to "accepting Christ
as Savior and Lord" as the key to being a
Christian, but focus more on personal relationships
with God and Jesus than on church, Bible reading
or evangelizing.
16 percent fall into a category named Liturgical
Christians.
They are predominantly Lutheran, Catholic,
Episcopalian, Eastern Orthodox or Oriental
Orthodox.
They are regular churchgoers, have a high
level of spiritual activity and recognize
the authority of the church.
24 percent are considered Private Christians.
They own a Bible but don't tend to read it.
Only about one-third attend church at all.
They believe in God and in doing good things,
but not necessarily within a church context.
This was the largest and youngest segment.
Almost none are church leaders.
21 percent in the research are called Cultural
Christians.
These do not view Jesus as essential to salvation.
They exhibit little outward religious behavior
or attitudes.
They favor a universality theology that sees
many ways to God.
Yet, they clearly consider themselves to be
Christians.
=== Church attendance ===
Gallup International indicates that 41% of
American citizens report they regularly attend
religious services, compared to 15% of French
citizens, 10% of UK citizens, and 7.5% of
Australian citizens.
==== By state ====
Church attendance varies significantly by
state and region.
In a 2014 Gallup survey, less than half of
Americans said that they attended church or
synagogue weekly.
The figures ranged from 51% in Utah to 17%
in Vermont.
=== Race ===
Data from the Pew Research Center show that
as of 2008, the majority of White Americans
were Christian, and about 51% of the White
American were Protestant, and 26% were Catholic.
The most methodologically rigorous study of
Hispanic and Latino Americans religious affiliation
to date was the Hispanic Churches in American
Public Life (HCAPL) National Survey, conducted
between August and October 2000.
This survey found that 70% of all Hispanic
and Latino Americans are Catholic, 20% are
Protestant, 3% are "alternative Christians"
(such as Mormon or Jehovah's Witnesses).The
majority of African Americans are Protestant
(78%), many of whom follow the historically
black churches.
A 2012 Pew Research Center study found that
42% of the Asian Americans identify themselves
as Christians.
=== Ethnicity ===
Beginning around 1600, Northern European settlers
introduced Anglican and Puritan religion,
as well as Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran,
Quaker, and Moravian denominations.Beginning
in the 16th century, the Spanish (and later
the French and English) introduced Catholicism.
From the 19th century to the present, Catholics
came to the US in large numbers due to the
immigration of Italians, Hispanics, Portuguese,
French, Polish, Irish, Highland Scots, Dutch,
Flemish, Hungarians, Germans, Lebanese (Maronite),
and other ethnic groups.
Most of the Eastern Orthodox adherents in
the United States are descended from immigrants
of Eastern European or Middle Eastern background,
especially from Greek, Russian, Ukrainian,
Arab, Bulgarian, Romanian, or Serbian backgrounds.Most
of the Oriental Orthodox adherents in the
United States are from Armenian, Coptic and
Ethiopian backgrounds.Most of the traditional
Church of the East adherents in the United
States are from Assyrian background.
Data from the Pew Research Center show that
as of 2013, there were about 1.6 million Christians
from Jewish background, most of them Protestant.
According to the same data, most of the Christians
of Jewish descent were raised as Jews or are
Jews by ancestry.
=== Conversion ===
A study from 2015 estimated some 450,000 American
Muslims who had converted to Christianity,
most of whom belong to an evangelical or Pentecostal
community.
In 2010 there were approximately 180,000 Arab-Americans
and about 130,000 Iranian Americans who converted
from Islam to Christianity.
Dudley Woodbury, a Fulbright scholar of Islam,
estimates that 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity
annually in the United States.It's been also
reported that conversion into Christianity
is significantly increasing among Korean Americans,
Chinese Americans, and Japanese Americans.
By 2012, the percentage of Christians within
the mentioned communities was 71%, more than
30% and 37%.Messianic Judaism (or Messianic
Movement) is the name of a Protestant movement
comprising a number of streams, whose members
may consider themselves Jewish.
It blends elements of religious Jewish practice
with evangelical Protestantism.
Messianic Judaism affirms Christian creeds
such as the messiahship and divinity of "Yeshua"
(the Hebrew name of Jesus) and the Triune
Nature of God, while also adhering to some
Jewish dietary laws and customs.
As of 2012, population estimates for the United
States were between 175,000 and 250,000 members.
== Self-reported membership statistics ==
This table lists total membership and number
of congregations in the United States for
religious bodies with more than 1 million
members.
Numbers are from reports on the official web
sites, which can vary widely based on information
source and membership definition.
== See also ==
Demographics of the United States
History of religion in the United States
Religion in the United States
Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches
