Religion in American Life Diversity is the chief featur

Religion in American Life
   Good Morning, everybody. Today’s lecture is about religion in American life. Diversity is the chief feature of religion in the United States. Although Christianity has always been the major American faith, the existence of more than 250 different religious sects here has made Americans tolerant of all forms of worship—Christian and non-Christian.
   Maybe this tolerant attitude to different religions can be traced back to the early settlers of this country. Among the first immigrants, quite a number of them were Puritans, whose purpose of coming to this New World was to pursue religious freedom, to practice their religion and worship God as they wished. This is why the nation’s forefathers demanded legal guarantees of religious freedom. So the First Amendment to the Constitution not only forbids the establishment of an official national religion but also prohibits state or federal interference with religious institutions or practices.
   Now, about 60 percent of Americans are attached to a particular church. Of these, about 95 percent are Christians and nearly 5 percent are Jews. Only a very small number of Americans belong to other faiths. Approximately 58 percent of church-attached Christians are Protestants.  And American Protestantism is divided into more than 200 different sects. The major Protestant groups are the Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians.
   The combined Protestant sects form the largest religious faith in the United States. But Roman Catholicism is by far the largest unified religious body. About 48 million Americans are baptized members of Catholic congregations. As many Catholics send their children to parochial schools, Catholic funds have built thousands of elementary and secondary schools, as well as many fine colleges and universities. Catholics have also played a prominent role in American politics.
   The third biggest religion in the United States is Judaism. During the Sabbath, which is observed from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday, Orthodox Jews neither ride nor conduct business. Jewish tradition imposes certain dietary restrictions, prohibiting pork and certain seafoods and forbidding the serving of milk products as meals. Nevertheless, reform Judaism does not follow these restrictions.
   Although in the United States religion provides the customs and ceremonies that mark life’s most important events—birth, coming of age, marriage, and death, religion has declined in importance in terms of influencing behavior and philosophical outlook. When Americans need personal advice, they usually turn to psychiatrists or to professional counselors rather than to religious leaders for help. The twentieth century has often been called a secular age, and certainly  it is in the U. S. A. Belief in a personal God, concern for God’s judgment of one’s behavior,  and concern about the afterlife seem to be declining. They are more interested in improving their life on earth.  And they have a strong faith in their ability to improve conditions through their own efforts, which probably originated from Benjamin Franklin who had said, "God help them that help themselves."
   But, of course, religious outlook varies quite a bit depending upon one’s age group, social class, degree of education, and region of the country. The rising rate of interfaith marriages suggests that religious differences are less significant to the younger generations than to their parents’ generation. Religion seems to have a greater emotional grip upon the poor and uneducated than upon the rich and educated.  In the southern part of the country, parishioners are generally more traditional in their attitudes towards religion than in the rest of the nation.
   Probably influenced by the nontraditional religious fervor of die young Americans, people in churches throughout the country are now adopting new kinds of religious services. Just like what is shown in the well-known film Sister Act, people are using popular media of expression-jazz, "rock", and folk music; folk dancing and modern dancing; contemporary art and poetry; and even plays and movies. These new services have offended some traditionalists. But many congregations respond enthusiastically to the discovery that prayer need not be just mindless repetition of words and music from past centuries. The reality is that many of these progressive churches draw crowds to their weekly services, while more traditional ones are halfempty.