Explain the American model of religion

Explain the American model of religion

The history of religion in the United States starts after the success of the American Revolution in 1776. During the colonial era, some states had specific faiths, and there was no uniformity of religion in the country. Although the country began its journey as a protestant state, the population is always reducing. According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of the Protestants is continually decreasing from the previous numbers of more than two-thirds of all Christians to less around 48 percent in 2012. The changes correspond to the relaxation of immigration laws as far as non-protestant countries were concerned.

It is notable that from the 1940s to the 1980s, the numbers of Catholics increased but began to decline after that. During the same period, the population size of the Jewish community has reduced from four to two percent. In 1948, the population of people practicing “other religions” was almost nonexistent, while those people who did not identify with any religion were a paltry 2 percent.

The American constitution does not mention religion except that people should not use it to bar people from holding public office. However, the First Amendment insists that citizens are free to exercise religious freedom in the country. It also determines that the nation cannot have an official religion. Therefore, governments at any level cannot use public resources to sponsor one religion or give it favors over others. From its foundation, it is clear that the founding fathers sought to separate religion from the state.

Some aspects of American religion entails periods of great awakening and evangelism that have had different consequences on religious traditions. The great awakenings referred to periods when many people converted to be Christians. Some of the most active churches in revival and awakening were the Baptist and the Methodists. For example, the number of Methodist believers grew from 58,000 in 1790 to more than 1,600,000 in 1860. While the church population grew by more than 28 percent, the nation’s population grew by an average of 8 percent.

The second awakening took place in the 19th century concentrating on the non-churched members of society. The program was championed by the Presbyterian Church to instill a form of personal salvation. They also had the support of the Methodist church, which had broader outreach. By the middle of the 19th century, evangelism had become a form of national religion as it developed themes that were acceptable to the majority of the Americans. One of the leading lights of this generation was Francis Asbury of the Methodist church. The third awakening followed IThis from the 1850s to the 20th century. During this era, Social Gospel Movements emerged and increased the participation of the American Churches in missionary work across the world.

During the second awakening, the Methodists and Baptist evangelism converted many African Americans to Christianity. However, they did not like the treatment they received from other believers forcing them to establish their churches. They developed their denominations, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The 19th and 20th century saw the emergence of Social Gospel Movements. The primary purpose of these changes was to use Christian ethics to solve social problems such as social injustice, poverty, alcoholism, and crime. The believers of this concept south to use the lord’s prayer as the rallying call towards spreading the gospel. This category of believers thought that the second coming of Jesus was impossible if society did not address all the social injustices in their communities. Although the concept was popular among the clergy, it received lukewarm support from the people. However, it was a politically conscious movement that was accepted by political leaders because it sought some of the issues that were prevalent in communities.

The recent history of religion in the United States shows that people are religious polarized and plural in their beliefs. However, religion is always changing, and citizens are learning to coexist and tolerate people of a different faith or a person without religion. An example that illustrates this point is the challenges that John Kennedy had to handle in the 1960s during the presidential campaigns for being a catholic and the same issue in John Kerry’s campaign in 2004. Although Catholicism was a controversial subject in the 1960s, it was a nonissue in the 2004 presidential elections. Thus, the American model of religion today is more plural, tolerates, but still polarized, requiring handling with care because it can destroy a country.

Although polarization and pluralism are the key elements that define American religion, they do not exhaust the changes that are always occurring in different faiths. Religion in the United States is an evolving concept

Any discussion about religion in the United States must start by agreeing that Americans are highly religious people. According to Putnam et al., 83 percent of Americans report belonging to a religion (19). It also indicates that 80 percent of Americans believe in the existence of God. However, a small percentage of Americans (15) do not attend religious services. Although all Americans do not believe in religion, the largest section of its population does not identify with one religion or another.

There are many religious faiths, denominations, and other subgroups within the religions. The religious fluidity means that there are more mergers, sprouting faiths, and the arrival of others from other nations. For example, there are many shreds of the Lutheran Church such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the Missouri Synod Lutherans, the Wisconsin Synod Lutherans, among numerous other denominations. Although these churches have a Lutheran foundation, they have remarkable differences in their worship, practice, and theology (Putnam et al., 23). The same tradition that exists in the Lutheran is also in other denominations in the country, such as the Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Jews, and Baptists. At the same time, numerous Christian churches continue to emerge without denominational labels.

Although there are many denominations for the Christian faiths, it is possible to classify them into religious traditions. The primary denominations in the United States are protestant churches. Some specific denominations under this umbrella include Black, mainline, and evangelical protestant. Evangelical protestant is one of the most significant religious traditions in the United States of America. The category is essential in understanding change in the American religion. Christian denominations began to disintegrate during the 19th and 20th centuries following liberal theology, biblical criticism, and a skeptical approach to supernaturalism. Modern Protestantism is conservative that engages the public in intellectual discourse.

The “mainline” denotes churches that emerged from modernist traditions. From the 1950s, the term means Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Lutheran, and Episcopalian. These institutions represent the dominant religious tradition in America. Although the between evangelical and mainline Protestants, the Black Protestantism is defined by race. The latter is the product of racial segregation in the United States. In most cases, it combines evangelical traditions with Social Gospel. The foundation of the black church theology and worship on giving it a unique culture.

Apart from Protestantism, Catholics, Jews, and Mormons represent other religious traditions. Catholics constitute a large population recognized by their religious culture and self-identity. Although Protestantism is popular in the country, the single largest denomination is the Roman Catholic Church. On the other hand, Jews and Mormons are fewer and do not feature prominently in the analysis of American traditions. Although the above traditions represent the majority of the religious traditions in the United States, there are other smaller religious groups such as Sighs, Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists, among others.

One of the largest categories of religious affiliations in the United States is people who do not affiliate themselves with any faiths. The “none” represent the third largest, which is higher than the mainline Protestants. The category may be likely to increase further as more mainline Protestants are reducing as more people stop affiliating themselves with the leading religious organizations.

Among the Protestants, congregations are central to their faith. The aspect of gatherings transcends all religions in the United States. Even denominations that do not hold the tradition as necessary in their respective homes of origin adapt to these changes once they take root in America. For example, it is common for Christians to use Mosques for Sunday school services in the country, which is not common in most states. At the same, Muslim leaders in the country allow citizens to use their social halls for community events, which is not a regular occurrence elsewhere. Occasionally, Imams are called upon to offer counseling services to Muslim and non-Muslim populations, which is a unique culture for American religious groups. Although these traditions are not common in the history and traditions of the faiths, it is a common practice for the United States’ spiritual practices where large congregations matter a lot to the leaders.

The congregational concept is not limited to Churches and Mosques, but Hindu temples are churchlike. Hinduism, like Islam across the world, is not organized through the congregation, but the two religions build places of worship for individuals to step in and serve their God. However, the issue is not a modern concept in the United States. From as early as the 1940s, it was common for the Buddhist communities to congregate in places of worship that resemble Protestant Churches. The structures are not similar to the temples in Japan or in other regions of the world where Buddhism is a dominant religion. Therefore, the concept of congregational worship is an aspect of prayer that is unique to American societies, and it is common to all religions in the country.

The use of congregations as a model unique to America had numerous advantages. First, most communities use it as an avenue to make friends (43). Therefore, apart from meeting in places of worship for spiritual nourishment, most Americans meet for social interactions with their friends. As a result, most people do switch from one congregation to another regularly. The connection to a specific group of people makes it easy for citizens to connect with their leaders for politics and civic duties.