Religion in the United States

Most Americans consider themselves religious or spiritual in some way, while Christianity is the most widely professed religion in the United States, with Protestantism being the most common form of Christianity in the country. According to Gallup, 58% and 17% report praying often or sometimes, respectively, and 46% and 26% report that religion plays a very important or fairly important role, respectively, in their lives. However, the majority of Americans do not regularly attend religious services and have low confidence in religious institutions, with the country rapidly secularizing since the 1990s. According to the 2017 World Values Survey, the U.S. is more secular than the median country. A large variety of faiths have historically flourished within the country. Freedom of religion in the United States is guaranteed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Historically, the United States has always been marked by religious pluralism and diversity, beginning with various native beliefs of the pre-colonial time, though Protestantism has long been the predominant majority belief. In colonial times, Anglicans, Quakers, and other mainline Protestants, as well as Mennonites, arrived from Northwestern Europe. Various dissenting Protestants who had left the Church of England greatly diversified the religious landscape. The Great Awakenings gave birth to multiple evangelical Protestant denominations; membership in Methodist and Baptist churches increased drastically in the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening led to what historian Martin Marty calls the "Evangelical Empire", a period in which evangelicals dominated U.S. cultural institutions. They were strong advocates of reform and supported measures to further women's rights, prohibition, abolish slavery, and supporters of reforms in education and criminal justice. In the 18th century, deism found support among American upper classes and intellectual thinkers. The Episcopal Church, splitting from the Church of England, came into being in the American Revolution.

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Related concepts (30)

History of religion in the United States

Religion in the United States began with the religions and spiritual practices of Native Americans. Later, religion also played a role in the founding of some colonies, as many colonists, such as the Puritans, came to escape religious persecution. Historians debate how much influence religion, specifically Christianity and more specifically Protestantism, had on the American Revolution. Many of the Founding Fathers were active in a local Protestant church; some of them had deist sentiments, such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington.

United States

The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America and consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations.