Notion d'Anglais Bac: Idea of Progress, The place of religion in the US today

Religion in the United States is characterized by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices. Various religious faiths have flourished within the United States. A majority of Americans report that religion plays a very important role in their lives, a proportion unique among developed countries. What is the importance of Religion in the United States more particularly Christian religion?

We are going to see the importance of religion in American history and then what place the Christian religion occupies in the American modern society.

Europe was dominated by the powerful Catholic Church. Martin Luther, a German priest who led a revolt known as the protestant reformation. This reformation stated that everyone should be free to interpret the Bible and manage their place of worship as they as they wanted . This new religion called protestantism was not really well accepted at first in Europe. In 1620, the Puritans (people who wanted to purify the Protestant church of England) crossed the Atlantic Ocean on board the Mayflower to be fully independent in their belief.

Other religions arrived after like Jews and Catholics. In 1776, United States became independents and wasn’t under the domination of the Church of England anymore.

In the newborn country, George Washington expressed the will to build ”a new Jerusalem” and make America the country of the Christianity.

Not all the religions were equal among the states first. Some granted privileges to some religions, in some other you could express freely your religion and your belief, and somewhere the atheism were prohibited.

But soon freedom of religion became a basic American principle, and numerous new movements emerged, many of which became established denominations in their own right. This tolerance derives from the possibility that people could interpret scripture on their own state by state, church by church.

The constitution support this tolerance in its First Amendment. This is why since in the US we can see the creation of many religious movement when in other countries those would have been illegal on considered as sects. In the middle of the 18th century, the First and Second Awakening initiated a jump of religion and its involvement in social causes such as anti-slavery.

In the 30’, with the great depression, Christian beliefs and faith were weakened. However when Europe became more and more secularized in the 20th century, American didn’t follow the trend.

Nowadays Religion still plays an important rôle in the US especially Christianity.

70% of the american define themselves as Christian and 39 % of them go to a church attendance at least once a week.

Even if the Church and the State are separated since the end of the 18th century, the American constitution is still based on the 10 commandments. However in the said constitution God is never mentioned and the original American motto is E pluribus unum which mean “Out of many, one”.

But the reference to god and religion in the public life are not rare, actually the secularity in America instead of being completely devoid of any religion like in France, is actually more neutral. So when God is stated, for example in the motto “In God we trust”, it doesn’t refer to a peculiar deity and during

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