Unit 4: Religion in the United States

Religious Diversity

Amish People in Pennsylvania

The United States has always been a fertile ground for the growth of new religious movements. Frontier America provided plenty of room to set up a new church or found a new community. For example, the ancestors of the Amish, very strict Protestants who live in rural areas and scorn modern life, came from Germany in the 18th century to escape persecution.

Many religious communities and secular utopias, or experiments in new forms of social living, were founded in 18th and 19th century America. Most did not last long. But some prospered for a while and a few are still in existence. 20th-century Americans who follow the impulse to withdraw from society and "join a commune" are following in an old American tradition.

Small sects and "cults" do have certain tendencies in common. Often they regard the larger society as hopelessly corrupt. Prohibition of alcohol, tobacco and caffeine are common. Sometimes dramatic expectations about the future—predictions of the end of the world or the dawning of a new age—form the main tenets, or doctrines, of the group. Often the founder is a charismatic person, dynamic personality who claims some special revelation or relationship with God. Some groups never win a large following. Others grow smaller or disappear when the founder dies or his prophecies fail to come true. Still others prosper, win large followings and “graduate” into the ranks of the "respectable" denominations.

Some groups, like the Amish of Pennsylvania, simply want to be left alone in their rural communities. They wish to keep their children out of high school so they will not be affected by modern society.

A few prefer faith healing to modern medicine or object to certain medical practices. What should society do when a Jehovah's Witness refused a blood transfusion for himself or his child?

A Mormon Temple in the Great Salt Lake City

Questions like these often come before the courts in the United States. They are generally settled according to a principle the Supreme Court established when it ruled that the Mormons, a large and prosperous Christian sect that settled the state of Utah, could not marry more than one wife. Individuals may believe anything they please in America, but they may not do anything they want, even if the action is based on a religious belief. Such questions do not usually cause great controversy, because they do not reflect basic divisions in American society. The Mormons, for example, continue to flourish, and are one of the fastest growing church groups in the United States.

But other questions reflect continuing conflicts in American life. When a 1973 Supreme Court decision made abortion legal in America, many Catholics were shocked. Many evangelical Protestants and Orthodox Jews also objected. Yet more liberal Protestant and Jewish clergymen joined nonbelievers in maintaining that abortion is a basic right in a pluralistic, or religiously varied, society.

Other world religions are increasing their numbers and influence in America. Over 2 million members of the Islamic religion live in America.Some are immigrants or the children of immigrants; others are Americans, including some black Americans who have converted to Islam.

Praying Outside a Mosque in New Mexico

A Buddhist Temple in Hawaii

Buddhism is a growing faith in America. Recent immigration from Asia has raised the number of Buddhists in America to several hundred thousand—no one seems quite sure how many. Several hundred thousand Hindus have also come to America. In recent years, young native-born Americans have shown great interest in these and other eastern religions and philosophies.

Worship in a Hindu Temple in New Jersey

An Anglican Woman Priest

American pastors are as varied as the flocks they serve. Some of them are women. The Protestant Episcopal Church now ordains women as priests,although the Catholic Church continues to have an all-male clergy. The United Methodist Church has appointed women as bishops. Women can also be ordained as rabbis among some Jewish congregations. Catholic nuns teach and manage large hospitals. Chaplains of all faiths visit the sick in hospitals and nursing homes.

American pastors of churches are expected to be active in the civic affairs of their communities. Often they have psychological training and spend part of their time counseling people with personal problems. They preach to congregations assembled in small chapels and huge city cathedrals, in modern synagogues, and even sometimes in drive-in churches where people can worship without leaving their cars! Some evangelical preachers reach a television audience of millions.

Princeton University Chapel	Preaching in a First Congregational Church, New England

How do Americans of so many different religions manage to live together under common laws and pursue common goals? The answers can be found in the American character of religion.

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