Unit 4: Religion in the United States

American Character of Religion

Some phenomena in American religion are uniquely American. First of all, Americans with different religions live together under the same law. The Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution insists that there should be no state religion. That means that the government has no right to interfere in people's religious affairs. The freedom of religion and the separation of state and church guaranteed in the Constitution are believed to be the basic principles against religious persecution. Due to this tradition and the basic law about religion, various religious groups in America have coexisted more harmoniously than the Old World.

A Church in Georgia

Crystal Cathedral in LA

Secondly, the religious beliefs of Americans continue to be strong with social progress.Every Sunday morning, all over America, people pour into the churches.Half of American Protestants are active church members, and there are few who habitually stay away. Not only the Catholic churches, but the Protestant ones too, are flourishing, and new church buildings, some with interesting architecture, keep pace with the ever-growing suburbs. Yet in England, leaving aside the Catholics, four-fifths of the people go to church less than once a month, and in Sweden the vast majority hardly ever go to church at all. In America, through all the social and economic changes religion has remained a constant factor. In Europe, scientific and economic advance and rising material prosperity have been accompanied by a decline in religious observance, but in the United States this has not happened.

Thirdly, in the United States every church is a completely independent organization, and concerned with its own finance and its own building. There has been little concentration on doctrine or religious argument such as in European history. If one goes to a Protestant church, he or she will hear morality preached, but not a word of doctrine. Anglicans do not pay much attention to 39 articles on which the belief of the Anglican Church is based. Churches and religious sects are expressions of group solidarity rather than of rigid adherence to doctrine. Baptist ministers are invited to preach in Methodist churches. Exchange of pulpits has been common for many years. A Protestant family moving to a new place will probably try out several of the nearby churches before deciding on the one that suits them best, not for doctrinal reasons, but that is where they find their friends.

Several explanations may be offered. In American history, religion has not been identified with an oppressive or dominant social class or set of political institutions. The Pilgrim Fathers, and many of those who followed them, left Europe to be free to worship in their own way, not as the established authorities told them to. Although some religious groups were also persecuted in early America and Catholics were prejudiced against, generally speaking, Americans have enjoyed greater religious freedom than Europeans. Paradoxically, the original basis of freedom creates a social pressure in favor of religion. Most people want to identify themselves with dominant values, and going freely to the church of one's choice is a way of doing so, and of gaining acceptance in the face of a subtle demand for conformity. And the church is a place where people can meet others with whom they would like to make friends. Religion, for most people, is important mainly as a means of getting together with others in a context which is so little defined that its values, expressing merely generally good will, can be easily shared. People go to church , and it helps them feel that they have a place in a community.

Young Students Praying

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