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Christianity in America
Christianity
is the largest religion in the US with over 85% of the population
having christian connections. Christian churches are divided
into two groups:
- Protestant
Churches
- Roman
Catholic Churches
Protestant
churches are often divided between "mainline" and "Evangelical"
denominations.
Evangelical
churches are those whose current practices include an active
and conscious drive to attract new members, in both the United
States and outside the country. Evangelical churches are often
less hierarchical, more "fundamental" in terms of a literal
interpretation of the Scriptures, and more inclined toward
a "personal" relationship with God.
Mainline
churches are more traditional, are less focused on soliciting
new members, may have a more "defined" body of religious leaders,
and in general comprise a diminishing percentage of overall
Protestant adherents.
Roman
Catholics also forms a major group with about 28% of the US
population.
Eastern
Orthodox, Armenian and Polish National Catholics 4%, with
the remaining 4%.
Judaism
in America
Judaism continues to be a religion of substantial importance
in the US, with persons of Jewish faith and culture making
extensive and wide ranging contributions in all walks of American
life. More Jews live in the United States than in any other
country, including Israel.
There
are three major branches of Judaism in this country: Orthodox,
Reform and Conservative.
Islam
in America
Islam in the US comes from two distinct traditions. African
Americans, seeking an alternative to their "slave" identities,
seized on the fact that many of the original slaves would
likely have been Muslim.
An evolving
"Black Muslim" community existed in the late nineteenth century,
but only came into its own at mid-twentieth century. Muslims
from Lebanon and Syria were present in America at the turn
of the century, but it was the revision of the immigration
laws in the mi-1960s which permitted the entry of substantial
numbers of educated Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India,
and the Middle East. It is this group of immigrants which
has largely defined the second American Islamic tradition.
Some
interesting facts and figures:
- 163
million Americans (63%) identify themselves as affiliated
with a specific religious denomination.
- Roman
Catholics are the single largest denomination with some
60 million adherents.
- Members
of American Protestant churches total some 94 million persons,
spread across some 220 particular denominations. The Universal
Almanac for 1997 groups the denominations into 26 major
families with memberships of 100,000 or more, but also notes
that there are thousands of self-identified independent
groups of believers.
- There
are more than 300,000 local congregations in the US
- There
are more than 530,000 total clergy.
- The
US has some 3.8 million religiously identified or affiliated
Jews (an additional 2 million define themselves as primarily
culturally or ethnically Jewish).
- There
are an estimated 3.5 - 3.8 million Muslims; Islam is the
most rapidly growing religion in the US
- In
any given week, more Americans will attend religious events
than professional sporting events.
- In
terms of personal religious identification, the most rapidly
growing group in the US is atheists / agnostics (currently
about 8 million).
Other
religions in America
As a result of immigration from India, Hinduism in the US
is a growing and temples can be found throughout the US. The
growth of Islam is also relatively recent and stems primarily
from Islamic countries and India. Perhaps 100,000 Buddhists
are active in the US, many of them native-born Americans who
have turned to Buddhism from other religions. In Chinese communities
around the country, people pray, burn joss sticks and give
offerings at Buddhist temples.
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