The Encyclopedia of World Religions

460 S United States, religion in

Jefferson, who thought that without state support, religion might wither away. Instead, the opposite effect has occurred. There is far greater religious participation in the United States than in Europe, which has state church traditions, or in most other comparable developed countries. This is partly because “pluralism,” or a wide diversity of groups, all officially equal and with out state support, has created a competitive, “free enterprise” situation in religion, so that many feel responsible for supporting their own church or temple over others. It must also be recalled that America is a nation of immigrants, and that the tradition of supporting churches and temples stems in large part from times when a familiar religious institution was a vital anchor, a spiritual and social center alike, for newcomers to a strange and often baffling land. For African Americans, churches were virtually the only institutions they truly controlled, so they took on important cultural significance. Moreover, the United States is virtually the only immigrant society in which the majority of immigrants were at odds with the religious and political power structure of their native lands: Dissident Puritans ( see P URITANISM ), Baptists, and Methodists from England; Roman Catholics from Ireland and Poland, where they once lived under discriminatory non-Roman Catholic regimes; Jews escaping persecution in Russia, Germany, and else where. All these and many others sought freedom to practice their religion. There is thus an inner tradition of independence, of honoring the right to dissent and freedom of religious thought, which, though sometimes threatened, persists throughout American life. In practice, even religions with very different ways of operating elsewhere have had to accept the “ground rules” of a pluralistic, equal, free enterprise religious society in America, and they have often found that they flourished better in it than ever before. Because of its heritage and the nature of the groups that have made it up, American religion as a whole tends to be distinctively centered on inner, subjective experience as opposed to social and cultural bonding. The strong Evangelical and

the UCC also includes members who are conserva tive evangelicals. In the early 21st century more than 6000 con gregations within the United States belonged to the United Church of Christ. In addition, the UCC had official partnerships with churches in 70 countries around the world. United States, religion in As a religious soci ety, the United States is in many ways unique in the world. While the nation is predominantly Christian ( see C HRISTIANITY ), virtually every reli gion in the world can be found in America, prac ticed by both immigrants and converts. Statistics at the beginning of the 21st century show the population of 280 million to be about 85 percent Christian—20 percent Roman Catholic ( see R OMAN C ATHOLICISM ) and the remainder Protestant ( see P ROTESTANTISM ), E ASTERN O RTHODOX , L ATTER - DAY S AINTS , and others. Of the total population 2 per cent are Jewish ( see J UDAISM ), 1.5 percent Muslim ( see I SLAM ), 1 percent Buddhist ( see B UDDHISM ), and 0.4 percent Hindu ( see H INDUISM ); there are also members of NEW RELIGIONS , of other Asian religions, and of N ATIVE A MERICAN RELIGIONS and people who are nonreligious. Moreover, the Protestant part of the Christian population is divided into many DENOMINATIONS , including such well-known bodies as M ETHODISM , B APTIST CHURCHES , E PISCOPALIANISM , P RESBYTERIAN AND R EFORMED CHURCHES , L UTHERANISM , U NITED C HURCH OF C HRIST , and others. Indeed, the United States has been called a “denominational society.” Unlike most Christian (and other) countries, where one church, often traditionally a state church, is likely to embrace the great majority of the population, like Lutheranism in Scandinavia or Roman Catholi cism in Spain, in America the leading role is taken by a collection of churches. Behind this reality lies the traditional and constitutional separation of church and state. In principle, no religion is favored over any other, and each must fend for itself without assistance outside its own membership. In the early days of the Republic, there were those, including Thomas