Religion in the United States

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Chapter 4 Religion in the United States
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Religion in the United States

• Religious liberty ????
• Three main faiths ??????
• Protestants ??
• Catholics ???
• Jews ???
• Religious Diversity ??????
• American characteristics of Religion ???????

3
WASP culture

• WASP, which stands for White Anglo-Saxon
  Protestants, is believed to be the basis of the
  mainstream culture of the United States.
• ??????????????????????????

4
Early American religions

• Lutherans from Germany ?????
• The Dutch Reformed Church flourished in New York
  and New Jersey ??????????????????
• Presbyterians came from Scotland ?????
• Huguenots from France ??????
• Congregationalists ?????
• Although the Church of England was an
  established church in several colonies,
  Protestants lived side by side in relative
  harmony. ?????????????????,????????????

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Religious Liberty

• The First Amendment to the Constitution of the
  United States forbade the new federal government
  to give special favors to any religion or to
  hinder the free practice, or exercise, of
  religion.
• The government supports all religions.
• The United States have no state-supported
  religion. In this way, diversity of religious
  belief political injustice or disaffection.
• American courts have become more sensitive in
  recent years to the rights of people who do not
  believe in any God or religion.
• Protestant religion and republican forms of
  government, they felt, went hand in hand
  (agreeable).

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The Great Awakening

• The Great Awakening of the 1740s, a revival
  movement which sought to breathe new feeling and
  strength into religion, cut across the lines of
  Protestants religious groups, or denominations.
• 18??40????????????????????????????????????????
  ?????????????????

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The Protestants

• Main denominations of the protestant church
  ???????
• the Baptists white and black ????
• the Methodists ??????
• Diversity of protestants ????
• Other small denominations ???

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The Catholics

• The largest single religious group
• Anti-Catholic prejudices
• In American history, the Catholics were
  discriminated against. Anti-Catholics prejudice
  was so strong that, on a few occasions, it broke
  out in mob violence.
• Catholic education

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The Jews

• The condition of Jewish posterity
• --Usually, Jewish children attended public
  school.
• --The children of the immigrants moved rapidly
  into professions and into American universities,
  where many became intellectual leaders.
• --Many remained religiously observant.
• Their religious practice
• Anti-discriminations

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Religious Diversity

• experimental tradition
• small sects and cults
• social disputes
• pastors

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Experimental tradition

• Many religious communities (????) and secular
  utopias (????????),experiments in new forms of
  social living (???????????),were founded in 18th
  and 19th century America. Many small
  sects(??)and cults(??) appear in American society
  all the time.

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Social disputes

• 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. 1973?,????????????,????????????????
  ???????????????????????????
• Yet more liberal Protestant and Jewish clergymen
  joined non-believers in maintaining that abortion
  is a basic right in a pluralistic, or religiously
  varied, society. ???????????????????,?????????????
  ????

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American Character of Religion

• Some phenomena in American religion are uniquely
  American.
• Different religions live together.
• Strong religious beliefs
• Independence of churches