【英美概况】【课堂笔记】美国宗教religion in United States

RELIGION in the UNITED STATES

Religious Liberty

∙“Among the rights which the new nation guaranteed, as a

political necessity in a religiously diverse society, was

freedom of religion” (p. 86)

∙The Constitution forbade the government to give special

favours to any religion, nor were they allowed to stop or

interfere with religion. The USA was determined it would

have no state-supported religion.

∙When there is a disagreement between the government and

any religion, the American courts must settle it. Protestants in the United States

∙60% of Americans are Protestant believers. The Baptists are the largest Protestant group.* The largest concentration of

Baptists live in the Southern States of America and, although some Southern Baptists have liberal attitudes to black

Americans, many believe and practice racial discrimination and prejudice towards them.

∙Most black Americans are Baptists too, but they go to

different churches than the white Americans. Church is a

major social and community centre for the black churchgoers. ∙There are over a 100 Protestant sects in America. They

express variety on a theme, rather than major differences in

belief. In recent decades there has been an increase in the

number of fundamentalist churches, which often use the

medium of television to communicate with citizens. These

fundamentalists are sometimes extreme in their views. Catholics

∙The largest single religious group is the Roman Catholics.

More than 25% of Americans identify themselves as Catholics.

The increase in the number of Catholics is mainly due to later

immigration waves of Irish, Polish and Italians. For instance, over a million Irish Catholics left Ireland, due to a famine there that saw many suffer starvation.

∙There was significant prejudice against the Catholics by the Protestants. *

∙In the 1950s, many Catholics began to question the idea of the separation of Church and State. The Catholic Church had developed many social institutions, including schools, to preserve their faith. The Church wanted the government to help fund the cost of these schools. The Supreme Court was asked to rule whether this would be unconstitutional. The

Court ruled that it was unconstitutional, and that the

government could not help religious schools.

Three Faiths

∙By the 1950s, a kind of “three faiths” model of USA had

developed. All Americans were considered to come in one of three basic varieties: Protestant, Catholic and Jewish.

∙The Jews were a small minority in the first years of the

American republic. Later, many Jews came to the USA and became successful. There are now many Jews in the various professions and in the academic world.