US Presidents' RELIGIONS

The religious affiliations of presidents of the United States can affect their electability, shape their stances on policy matters and their visions of society and also how they want to lead it. Speculation of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Taft being atheists was reported during election campaigns, while others, such as Carter, used faith as a defining aspect of their campaigns and tenure to hold the office.

Almost all of the presidents can be characterized as Christian, at least by upbringing, though some were unaffiliated with any specific religious body. Mainline Protestants predominate, with Episcopalians and Presbyterians being the most prevalent. Kennedy was the first Catholic president and Biden, the current president, is the second. There have been at least four nontrinitarian presidents. No president has openly identified as atheist.

Most presidents have been formal members of a particular church or religious body, and a specific affiliation can be assigned to every president from Garfield on. For many earlier presidents, however, formal church membership was forestalled until they left office; and in several cases a president never joined any church. Conversely, though every president from Washington to John Q. Adams can be definitely assigned membership in an Anglican or Unitarian body, the significance of these affiliations is often downplayed as unrepresentative of their true beliefs.

The pattern of religious adherence has changed dramatically over the course of United States history, so that the pattern of presidential affiliations is quite unrepresentative of modern membership numbers. For example, Episcopalians are extraordinarily well represented among the presidents compared to a current membership of about 2% of the population; this is partly because the Church of England, from which the Episcopal Church is derived, was the established church in some of the British Colonies before the American Revolution. The Episcopal Church has been much larger previously, with its decline in membership occurring only in more recent decades. The first seven presidents listed as Episcopalians were all from Virginia. Unitarians are also overrepresented, reflecting the importance of those colonial churches. Conversely, Baptists are underrepresented, a reflection of their quite recent expansion in numbers; the list includes only two Catholic presidents including the current president, although they are currently the largest single denomination, and there have been no Adventist, Anabaptist, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostal, or Latter Day Saint presidents.

While many presidents did not formally join a church until quite late in life, there is a genre of tales of deathbed conversions. Biographers usually doubt these, though the baptism of Polk is well documented.

The inner beliefs of the presidents are much more difficult to establish than church membership. While some presidents have been relatively voluble about religion, many have been reticent to the point of complete obscurity. Researchers have tried to draw conclusions from patterns of churchgoing or religious references in political speeches. When explicit statements are absent, it is difficult to assess whether the presidents in question were irreligious, were unorthodox in their beliefs, or simply believed that religion was not a matter for public revelation.

On the other hand, there are several presidents who considered themselves aligned with a particular church, but who withheld from formal affiliation for a time. Buchanan, for instance, held himself allied with the Presbyterian church, but refrained from joining it until he left office.

Some presidents changed their beliefs and affiliation at some point in their lives; synthesis of statements and membership from different periods can be misleading.

St. John's Episcopal Church just across Lafayette Square and north of the White House, is the church nearest to the White House, and its services have been attended at least once by nearly every president since James Madison. Another Episcopal church, Washington National Cathedral, chartered by Congress in 1893, has hosted many funeral and memorial services of presidents and other dignitaries, as well as the site of interfaith presidential prayer services after their inaugurations, and the burial place of Wilson.

Presidential proclamations, from the earliest days, have often been laden with religious if not explicitly Christian language. In at least two cases, presidents saw fit to issue denials that they were atheists. At the same time, this was tempered, especially in early years, by a strong commitment to disestablishment. Several presidents especially stand out as exponents of this. Consideration of this has become increasingly contentious as topics such as civil rights and human sexuality have increasingly put churches at odds with each other and with the government.

MUSIC: 'I Know What You Are Thinking' by Paul Martin & Peter Maurice.