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The religious history of the United States began with the first Pilgrim settlers who came on the Mayflower in the year 1620. Their Protestant faith motivated their movement as a community to the New World from Europe where they could practice in peace. The Spanish set up a famous network of Catholic missions in California, but they had all closed long before 1848 when California became part of the U.S. There were a few French Catholic churches and institutions in Louisiana, especially New Orleans. Most of the settlers came from Protestant backgrounds in Britain and the Continent, with a small proportion of Catholics (chiefly in Maryland) and a few Jews in port cities. The English and the German Americans brought along multiple Protestant denominations. Several colonies had an "established" church, which meant that local tax money went to the established denomination. Freedom of religion became a basic American principle, and numerous new movements emerged, many of which became established denominations in their own right. Historians debate how influential Christianity was in the era of the American Revolution.〔Compare Steven K. Green, ''Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding'' (2015) with Thomas S. Kidd, ''God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution'' (2010)〕 Many of the founding fathers were active in a local church; some of them, such as Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington had Deist sentiments. The First Great Awakening, the nation's first major religious revival in the middle of the 18th century injected new vigor into Christian faith. Religion in the period of the Second Great Awakening became increasingly involved in social reform movements, such as anti-slavery. Most of the denominations set up colleges to train new generations of leaders and nearly all were originally founded as Christian institutions. Later the Roman Catholics also set up colleges and a separate parochial school system to avoid the Protestant tone of the public schools. Black Americans, once freed from slavery, were very active in forming their own churches, most of them Baptist or Methodist, and giving their ministers both moral and political leadership roles. In the late 19th and early 20th century most major denominations started overseas missionary activity. The "Mainline Protestant" denominations promoted the "Social Gospel" in the early 20th century, calling on Americans to reform their society; the demand for prohibition of liquor was especially strong. After 1970, the Mainline denominations (such as Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians) lost membership and influence. The more conservative evangelical, fundamentalist, and charismatic denominations (such as the Southern Baptists) grew rapidly until the 1990s and helped form the Religious Right in politics. The Catholic element grew steadily, especially from Hispanic immigration after 1970. As Europe secularized in the late 20th century, the Americans largely resisted the trend, so that by the 21st century the U.S. was one of the most strongly Christian of all major nations. Religiously based moral positions on issues such as abortion and homosexuality played a hotly debated role in American politics. ==Native Americans== (詳細はindigenous peoples of the Americas. Traditional Native American ceremonial ways can vary widely, and are based on the differing histories and beliefs of individual tribes, clans and bands. Early European explorers describe individual Native American tribes and even small bands as each having their own religious practices. Theology may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, or some combination thereof. Traditional beliefs are usually passed down in the forms of oral histories, stories, allegories and principles, and rely on face to face teaching in one's family and community. From time to time important religious leaders organized revivals. In Indiana in 1805, Tenskwatawa (called the Shanee Prophet by Americans) led a religious revival following following a smallpox epidemic and a series of witch-hunts. His beliefs were based on the earlier teachings of the Lenape prophets, Scattamek and Neolin, who predicted a coming apocalypse that would destroy the European-American settlers.〔Adam Jortner, ''The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier'' (2011)〕 Tenskwatawa urged the tribes to reject the ways of the Americans: to give up firearms, liquor, American style clothing, to pay traders only half the value of their debts, and to refrain from ceding any more lands to the United States. The revival led to warfare led by his brother Tecumseh against the white settlers.〔Rachel Buff, "Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa: Myth, Historiography and Popular Memory." ''Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques'' (1995): 277-299.〕 Native Americans were the target of extensive Christian missionary activity. Catholics launched Jesuit Missions amongst the Huron and the Spanish missions in California) and various Protestant denominations. Numerous Protestant denominations were active. By the late-19th century, most Native Americans integrated into American society generally have become Christians, along with a large portion of those living on reservations.〔Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., ''Salvation and the Savage: An Analysis of Protestant Missions and American Indian Response, 1787-1862'' (1965)〕 The Navajo, the largest and most isolated tribe, resisted missionary overtures until Pentecostal revivalism attracted their support after 1950.〔Kimberly Jenkins Marshall, "“Navajo Reservation Camp Meeting a Great Success!” The Advent of Diné Pentecostalism after 1950." ''Ethnohistory'' 62#1 (2015) pp: 95-117.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of religion in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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