Constitutional Issues, the Second Great Awakening, and War

Role of Religion in the Founding of the United States

• Constitutional Issues
• Background to the 1st Amendment

Second Great Awakening and the Westward Movement

• Surge in membership of Baptists and Methodist

• Decline in “mainline” denominations
• Entrenched liberalism
• Democratization of American society

Other religious developments

• Influx of Roman Catholics in the 1800s

• Rise of Unitarianism
• Latter-Day Saints

Slavery, War, and beyond

• Abolitionist Movements
• Role of religion during WBTS
• Manifest Destiny
 RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE PRESIDENTS

Denomination % of Presidents % of 2000 U.S. Population

Episcopalian 26.2 1.7
Presbyterian 21.0 2.8
Methodist 9.5 8.0
Baptist 9.5 18.0
Unitarian 9.5 0.2
Disciples of Christ 7.1 0.4
Dutch Reformed 4.8 0.1
Quaker 4.8 0.7
Roman Catholic 2.4 26.0
United Church of Christ 4.5 0.6

Denomination Presidents
Episcopalian George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry
Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Chester A. Arthur,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush (Bush the
Elder)
Presbyterian Andrew Jackson, James Knox Polk, Ulysses S Grant, James Buchanan,
Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan
Methodist Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley,
George W. Bush (Bush the Younger)
Baptist Warren G. Harding, Harry S. Truman, Jimmy Carter,
William Jefferson Clinton
Unitarian John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore,
William Howard Taft
Disciples of Christ James A. Garfield, Lyndon Baines Johnson
Dutch Reformed Martin Van Buren, Theodore Roosevelt
Quaker Herbert Hoover, Richard M. Nixon
Roman Catholic JFK
United Church of Christ Calvin Coolidge; Barack Obama
No specific denomination Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson