Religion in the USA

According to a 2002 study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project , the USA is the only developed country where the majority of people surveyed expressed their commitment to religion, noting that religion plays a “very important role” in their lives ^[2] .

The US government does not maintain official religion statistics. According to the CIA World Book of Facts for 2018 : 46.5% of the US population are Protestants , 20.8% are Catholics , 1.6% are Mormons , 0.9% are members of other Christian denominations , 1.9% are Jews , 0.9% - Muslims , 0.8% - Jehovahs , 0.7% - Buddhists , 0.7% - Hindus , 1.8% - others, 22.8% - not belonging to any religious group ^{[ 3]} .

According to the 2012 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, in which the number of church members is given together for the United States and Canada and data from the National Council of Churches, the five largest religious organizations include ^[4] :

• Roman Catholic Church , 68,202,492 members
• Southern Baptist Convention , 16,136,044 members
• United Methodist Church , 7,679,850 members
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), 6,157,238 members
• Church of God in Christ (Pentecostals), 5,499,875 members

Protestants are divided into a number of churches, so the Catholic Church is the largest.

The state in the United States provides indirect financial support to religious organizations. For example, in 2006, 2.5 thousand, chaplain officers (out of more than 120 denominations) who received salaries from state funds served in the US Army ^[5] . They were led by the Chaplain Council ^[5] . The text of the oath of the US military ends with the words: “God help me!” ^[5] .

Protestantism in the USA is represented by many directions: Anglicanism , Presbyterianism , Lutheranism , Congregationalism , Quakerism , Baptism , Methodism and others.

US history is inextricably linked with Protestantism. In the period from 1630 to 1643, about 20 thousand Puritans settled in the colonies of New England , fleeing religious persecution in England and Scotland . Protestant ethics, asceticism of the first settlers influenced the formation of the national identity of Americans. Without knowledge of the Bible , a good reputation and an impeccable lifestyle, one could not take any responsible post. All decisions were made with the blessing of a Protestant pastor .

American society was characterized by religious pluralism . It was in America that the concept of “ denomination ” appeared, since the dominant, state churches were not there. Each Protestant denomination sought to win over as many believers as possible. Members of each denomination settled separately, trying to build their ideal of church and state in a new place. So, for example, the Rhode Island colony was founded by Baptists , and Quakers lived in Pennsylvania . The followers of small groups, such as Socinians , Mennonites , Pietists , Hernguters , formed districts and cities. The most numerous denomination was Methodism ^{[6] [7] [8] [9]} .

The acronym WASP ( White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), was similar to the concept of "100% American" - that is, representatives of the more affluent sections of US society, previously playing a dominant role in shaping the elite of American political and economic life.

According to a 2007 large study by the Pew Research Center , the share of the entire US population is: evangelical Christians - 26.3%, mainstream Protestants - 18.1%, parishioners of black churches - 6.9% ^{[10] [11]} . Another 2007 study by the Pew Research Center provides slightly different statistics: evangelists - 21%, mainstream Protestants - 18%, members of black churches - 8%, but this study also offers a fourth group of Protestant minorities, which includes 6%. This study, together with studies over the next five years, presents a picture of a decrease in the number of church members, which is different from the widespread belief, based on other sources, that the number of Protestant Meinstim decreases significantly, while the number of evangelical Protestants increases (the number of blacks and other minority Protestants almost invariably) ^[12] .

The 2007 Pew Research Center studies were large-scale and showed an average difference of opinion between Protestants of the main churches and the Gospel: the former showed more liberal views and rationalism , while the latter shared the conservative beliefs and traditional faith. Mainstream Protestants, on average, less adhere to the traditional practice of religious life: they attend worship services less often, pray and read the Bible ^[13] .

The most powerful are the positions of evangelical Christians in the so-called Bible belt , the core of which is traditionally the southern states .

In the middle of the 20th century, such a phenomenon as mega - churches appeared - religious organizations with tens of thousands of parishioners, a business structure, and huge revenues. Their number over the past half century has grown from 16 to 1,300. Services in them, often accompanied by concerts of pop stars and other vibrant events, attract many neophytes , especially young people ^[14] . Another religious phenomenon of our time has become televangelism . Some TV angels are pastors who preach in more traditional liturgical institutions, but most of their followers listen to their sermons on radio and television. Many TV angels generously promise their followers material, financial, physical and spiritual well-being ( en: prosperity gospel ). Some television angels have significant assets, expensive cars, real estate, or even private jets.

However, in 2012, the number of representatives of the adult population of the United States professing Protestantism reached the lowest level of 48%, for the first time falling below 50%. Experts see one of the reasons for the incident as the number of Americans who have not determined their religious affiliation has recently increased. According to a study by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, about 20% of Americans said this. In 2007, their number was 15% ^[15] .

In the United States, a partially recognized autocephalous local Orthodox Church operates - the Orthodox Church in America , which received autocephaly from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1970 . There are also a number of Orthodox church structures of other jurisdictions, the largest being the American Archbishopric and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA of the Patriarchate of Constantinople , as well as the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA and the Russian Orthodox Church outside the Moscow Patriarchate ^[16] .

In total in the USA, according to the estimates of sociologists, 1.1 million Orthodox believers. According to official figures for 2012, there are now 797 thousand 600 people in the canonical Orthodox parishes of the United States, while 209 thousand people regularly participate in parish life (that is, weekly). Moreover, 797.6 thousand people are divided by jurisdiction as follows ^[17] :

• Greek American Archdiocese (Patriarchate of Constantinople) - 476,000
• Orthodox Church in America - 84,600
• Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America - 75,000
• Serbian Orthodox Church in the USA and Canada - 68,000
• Russian Orthodox Church Abroad - 27,000
• Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA (Patriarchate of Constantinople) - 23,000
• Patriarchal Parishes in the USA - 12,400
• Romanian Orthodox Archbishopric of America and Canada - 11,200
• American Carpathian Orthodox Diocese (Patriarchate of Constantinople) - 10,500
• Vicariate of the Palestinian-Jordanian communities in the USA (Patriarchate of Constantinople) - 6,800
• Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese in the USA, Canada and Australia - 2,600
• Georgian Orthodox Parishes in the USA - 900
• Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America - 700

• Pentecostal Movement in the USA

• Christian Roots of the USA // washprofile.org, 02/03/2007 (web archive)
• Christianity in the United States took frightening forms // Look , September 7, 2018
• Tatyana Veselkina Eight hundred thousand people of Orthodox America // unification.com.au, May 29, 2017