Religious History In The United States

  Through the history of the United States it has always been a country of religious diversity. This factor which has created horrendous religious wars and years of deadly conflict in other countries the conflict in the United States seems almost minor.

The United States has had religious clashes from the Revolutionary War to the attacks of 9/11.  The history of religious violence, intolerance, discrimination, and persecution in the United States has not been as devastating as in other counties and, some possible explanations for why despite its diversity may be  that the United States is a nation founded on religious conflict. 

The colonies were settled by those escaping religious persecution in Europe.  Some historians have evidence that religion played a major role in the American Revolution and that revolutionaries believed it was willed by God for the Americans to engage in war against the British.

The Church of England was attempting to establish one, uniform religion the colonial America was divided, each of the colonies being bound by their own form of Christianity.  Many religions were able to establish themselves in America, colony by colony where distinct religious characters survived and had one religious denomination.

 The American colonists saw the Revolution as a war for political independence, but also a fight to protect the religious diversity of the colonies. It became a battle for religious independence and freedom to exist on the American continent and a conflict that the various American religious denominations revolting against the Church of England, who wanted to impose the Anglican religion in America.


After the Revolutionary War there was turmoil between the various states and Christian denominations.  During and soon after the Revolutionary War the political appearance of religious conflict in governing the various colonies. Some states abolished some churches, and supported others. The state constitution of each colony differed in its policy on religious establishment, or state-supported religion.

The 1800’s was in terms of religious discord in America was relatively calm.  The one religious dispute in this period were tension between Catholics and Protestants, which caused violence aimed at Irish Catholic immigrants.  The increase of immigration from Europe during this Century overlapped with a flood of Catholics and the rise of the activist Protestantism in the U.S.  As strong Protestant values infused the country, immigrants who were Catholic were viewed as outsiders and undemocratic. 

In the 1830s and 1840s, anti-Catholic violence occurred in the country.   In Philadelphia in 1844, gun fights between so called Native Americans and Irish Catholics. 

 Around the same time the Mormons, who materialized after the 1830 discovery of The Book of Mormon, were a religious community driven out of New York to Utah, where they finally settled after seeking shelter in various other states.

 The Mormons prospered, adopted the doctrine of polygamy, and founder Joseph Smith proclaimed his candidacy for president of the United States.  In 1857, with the threat of a religious state of Mormons the president ordered the installation of a new non Mormon governor.

The tension rose in the state. However, no violence occurred and, the attention became focused on the Civil War.

As the federal government fought the Civil War, political oppression of the Mormons continued and by 1887 the church disbanded until the 1890s, when the Mormons ended the practice of polygamy, and Utah obtained statehood in 1896.

The next century saw the beginning of anti Semitism; the federal government began restricting immigration from Europe.  While Jews had lived in America since colonial times, they were only tolerated and discriminated against in small incidents.  By 1920, immigration limits had taken effect on the basis of national origin.  They were not repealed during the Holocaust, when Jewish refugees were attempting to escape from Hitler in Europe.

During the period of the Great Depression anti Semitic increased to the magnitude that had not been seen before in the history of the Jewish experience in America.  In New York and Boston, Jews were violently attacked.  Most anti Jewish prejudice was seen in social and political discrimination.

 Racial and social injustice persisted until the 1950s, Jews were not allowed membership in country clubs, excluded from colleges, not allowed to practice medicine, and could not hold political office in many states.

The United States has approximately 1,500 religions and 360,000 religious centers.  Christianity dominates the country’s religions, followed by Judaism.   In the past few years Islam has surpassed Judaism and is the country’s second religion.

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, anti Muslim sentiments sparked religiously motivated hate crimes against Muslims in the United States.

The religious war and conflict seen in the Middle East and Europe has not been as pervasive in the United States.  Although the number of different religions has grown over the decades, this diversity has not led to serious conflict.

The American tradition of the separation of church and state can be one of the possible reasons for the incidences of disturbances between religions and preventing disharmony among the religions of the United States.