Religious affiliations of presidents of the United States

This is a list of the religious affiliations of Presidents of the United States. The particular religious affiliations of U.S. Presidents can affect their electability, shape their visions of society and how they want to lead it, and shape their stances on policy matters. For example, Alfred E. Smith's Roman Catholic faith is generally held to be a contributing factor in his defeat in the presidential election of 1928. Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and several other presidents were accused of being infidels during election campaigns—and at other times.

Throughout much of American history, the religion of past American presidents has been the subject of contentious debate. Some devout Americans have been disinclined to believe that there may have been agnostic or even non-Christian presidents, especially amongst the Founding Fathers of the United States. As a result, apocryphal stories of a religious nature have appeared over the years about particularly beloved presidents such as Washington and Lincoln. On the other hand, secular-minded Americans have sometimes downplayed the prominence that religion played in the private and political lives of the Founding Fathers.

Episcopalians are extraordinarily well represented among the presidents. This is in part because the Episcopal Church was the American branch of the Church of England prior to the American Revolution, and was the state religion in some states (such as New York and Virginia). The first seven presidents listed below with Episcopalian affiliation were also the first seven from Virginia. Five of those were among the six presidents most closely identified with Deism. Since there have seldom been any churches of Deism, strictly speaking Deist is not an affiliation in the same way Episcopalian is; it is included in the list below, however, to give a more complete view of the religious views of the presidents.

St. John's Episcopal Church, just across Lafayette Square north of the White House, and built after the War of 1812, is one of about five sometimes referred to as "the Church of the Presidents". It is the church closest to the White House, and its services have been attended at least once by nearly every president since James Madison.

Many people are interested not only in the religious affiliations of the presidents, but also in their inner beliefs. Some presidents, such as Madison and Monroe, were extremely reluctant to discuss their own religious views at all. In general, it is difficult to define with any certainty the faiths of presidents, because no one can truly be sure what relationship (if any) exists between another person and his deity, and because presidents, as public officials, have generally tried to remain outwardly within the mainstream of American religious trends.

Distinguishing affiliation from belief can be complicated. In most of the churches which are mentioned below, there is a formal registration process for membership in a congregation, and records of some sort are maintained. However, they often present a picture rather different from that captured in a president's writings or church attendance. This is particularly a problem with the many early presidents who, while formally members of Anglican churches, expressed deist or unitarian views. It is also a problem in considering someone like Grant, who was never baptized and therefore, by the standards of many churches, was never formally a Christian; or Polk, a lifelong churchgoer who wasn't baptized until his deathbed. Of the several presidents who declined church membership, we have of course only their own professions of Christian faith and the circumstantial testimony of their acquaintances as guides.

Related to this is consideration of membership in non-Trinitarian churches. With respect to such dogmatically non-Trinitarian bodies as the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, we at least have firm dogma about the nature of Jesus as a guide; in any case only one president (Eisenhower) has even the slightest connection to such a group. For the four presidents identified as Unitarians, the reverse issue exists. A lack of firm doctrinal commitment is virtually a defining characteristic of Unitarian bodies as they exist today; moreover, they have evolved considerably over the two-hundred-plus history of the United States. The identification of these four as Unitarians therefore is somewhat unrevealing, except as suggesting that they did not accept Trinitarian precepts.

Naturally, some presidents changed their beliefs and affiliation at some point in their lives; a synthesis of statements and membership from different periods may be misleading.

List of Presidential religious affiliations/beliefs (by President)

For each president, the formal affiliation at the time of his presidency is listed first. Qualifiers are added where this affiliation is in some respect misleading or oversimplified, as with the many deists who were nominally Anglican. Further explanation follows if needed, as well as notable detail.

1. George Washington – nominally Episcopal.
   • While Washington frequently attended Episcopal services, there are inconsistent reports as to whether he was in the habit of receiving communion (some eye witnesses comment on his doing so when at home, while others comment on his not doing so during his terms as President). There is considerable debate over the extent to which he was a believer in Christianity, and the extent to which his beliefs were deistic.
   • See George Washington and religion
2. John Adams – Unitarian
   • The Adamses were originally members of Congregational churches in New England. By 1800, all but one Congregationalist church in Boston had Unitarian preachers teaching the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of Christ, and salvation by character. Adams himself preferred Unitarian preachers, but he was opposed to Joseph Priestley's sympathies with the French Revolution, and would attend other churches if the only nearby Congregational/Unitarian one was composed of followers of Priestley.
3. Thomas Jefferson – Episcopal, Deist
   • Jefferson's views are considered very close to Unitarian. The Famous UUs website says:

     "Like many others of his time (he died just one year after the founding of institutional Unitarianism in America), Jefferson was a Unitarian in theology, though not in church membership. He never joined a Unitarian congregation: there were none near his home in Virginia during his lifetime. He regularly attended Joseph Priestley's Pennsylvania church when he was nearby, and said that Priestley's theology was his own, and there is no doubt Priestley should be identified as Unitarian. Jefferson remained a member of the Episcopal congregation near his home, but removed himself from those available to become godparents, because he was not sufficiently in agreement with the Trinitarian theology. His work, the Jefferson Bible, was Unitarian in theology..."

   • See Wikiquote for many relevant quotes.
4. James Madison – Deist/Episcopal
   • Although Madison tried to keep a low profile in regards to religion, he seemed to hold religious opinions, like many of his contemporaries, that were closer to deism or Unitarianism in theology than conventional Christianity. He was raised in the Church of England and attended Episcopal services, despite his personal disputes with the theology.
5. James Monroe – Deist/Episcopal
   • Monroe was raised in a family that belonged to the Church of England when it was the state church in Virginia, and as an adult frequently attended Episcopal churches.
   • "When it comes to Monroe's ...thoughts on religion", Bliss Isely comments in his The Presidents: Men of Faith, "less is known than that of any other President." Monroe burned much of his correspondence with his wife, and no letters survive in which he discusses his religious beliefs; nor did his friends, family or associates write about his beliefs. Letters that do survive, such as ones written on the occasion of the death of his son, contain no discussion of religion.
   • Some sources classify Monroe as a deist. Franklin Steiner categorized Monroe among "Presidents Whose Religious Views Are Doubtful".
6. John Quincy Adams – Unitarian
7. Andrew Jackson – Presbyterian
   • He became a member of the Presbyterian Church about a year after retiring the presidency
8. Martin Van Buren – Dutch Reformed
   • Van Buren did not join any church in Washington, nor in his home town of Kinderhook (village), New York. The sole original source to claim that he did join a church – in Hudson, New York – is Vernon B. Hampton, in Religious Background of the White House (Boston: Christopher Publishing House, 1932). The basis for this claim has not been found.
   • When Van Buren became governor of NY, his wife joined the local Presbyterian Church in Albany.
   • His funeral was held at the Reformed Dutch Church in Kinderhook with burial in a family plot at the nearby church cemetery
   • Franklin Steiner lists Van Buren among those "presidents whose religious views are doubtful".
9. William Henry Harrison – Episcopal
   • Harrison died just one month after his inauguration. After Harrison's funeral, the rector at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. said Harrison had bought a Bible one day after his inauguration and had planned to become a communicant.
10. John Tyler – Episcopal
    • Franklin Steiner categorized Tyler among "Presidents Whose Religious Views Are Doubtful". Although affiliated with the Episcopal church, he did not take "a denominational approach to God," according to his biographer (Robert Seager II, and Tyler too: A Biography of John and Julia Gardiner Tyler, 1963, p. 109). Tyler was a strong supporter of religious tolerance and separation of church and state. Some sources classify him as a deist in belief and practice.
11. James K. Polk – Presbyterian ; later Methodist
    • Raised Presbyterian, Polk had never been baptized due to an early family argument with the local Presbyterian minister in rural North Carolina. Polk's father and grandfather were Deists, and the minister refused to baptize James unless his father affirmed Christianity, which he would not do. At age 38, Polk had a religious conversion to Methodism at a camp meeting, and thereafter he thought of himself as a Methodist. Out of respect for his mother and wife Sarah Childress Polk, however, he continued to attend Presbyterian services. Whenever his wife was out of town, or too ill to attend church, however, Polk worshipped at the local Methodist chapel. On his deathbed less than 4 months after leaving the Presidency, he summoned the man who had converted him years before, the Rev. John B. McFerrin, who then baptized Polk as a Methodist.
12. Zachary Taylor – nominally Episcopal
    • Although raised an Episcopalian and married to a devout Episcopalian, he never became a full communicant member in the church.
13. Millard Fillmore – Unitarian
14. Franklin Pierce – no specific affiliation (later Episcopalian)
    • Franklin Steiner quotes a personal communication from Roy Nichols (then engaged in writing a biography of pierce) in which the latter characterized Pierce's faith as "decidedly orthodox". However Pierce did not consistently attend churches of one specific denomination.
    • Four years after leaving office, he was baptized, confirmed, and became a regular communicant in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, in Concord, NH.
15. James Buchanan – Presbyterian
16. Abraham Lincoln – no affiliation See: Abraham Lincoln and religion
    • Life before the presidency
      • For much of his life, Lincoln was undoubtedly Deist (see [1], [2]). In his younger days he openly challenged orthodox religions, but as he matured and became a candidate for public office, he kept his Deist views more to himself, and would sometimes attend Presbyterian services with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln. He loved to read the Bible, and even quoted from it, but he almost never made reference to Jesus, and is not known to have ever indicated a belief in the divinity of Jesus.
      • Evidence against Lincoln's ever being Christian includes offerings from two of Lincoln's most intimate friends, Ward Hill Lamon and William H. Herndon. Both Herndon and Lamon published biographies of their former colleague after his assassination relating their personal recollections of him. Each denied Lincoln's adherence to Christianity and characterized his religious beliefs as deist or atheist.
    • Lincoln's religion at the time of his death is a matter about which there is more disagreement. A number of Christian pastors, writing months and even years after Lincoln's assassination, claimed to have witnessed a late-life conversion by Lincoln to Protestant Christianity. Some pastors date a conversion following the death of his son Eddie in 1850, and some following the death of his son Willie in 1862, and some later than that. These accounts are hard to substantiate and historians consider most of them to be apocryphal.
      • One such account is an entry in the memory book The Lincoln Memorial Album—Immortelles (edited by Osborn H. Oldroyd, 1882, New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., p. 366) attributed to An Illinois clergyman (unnamed) which reads "When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I do love Jesus." Other entries in the memory book are attributed by name. See a discussion of this story in They Never Said It, by Paul F. Boller & John George, (Oxford Univ. Press, 1989, p. 91).
      • Rev. Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian church in Washington D.C., which Lincoln attended with his wife when he attended any church, never claimed a conversion. According to D. James Kennedy in his booklet, "What They Believed: The Faith of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln", "Dr. Gurley said that Lincoln had wanted to make a public profession of his faith on Easter Sunday morning. But then came Ford's Theater." (p. 59, Published by Coral Ridge Ministries, 2003) Though this is possible, we have no way of verifying the truth of the report. The chief evidence against it is that Dr. Gurley, so far as we know, never mentioned it publicly. The determination to join, if accurate, would have been extremely newsworthy. It would have been reasonable for Dr. Gurley to have mentioned it at the funeral in the White House, in which he delivered the sermon which has been preserved [3]. The only evidence we have is an affidavit signed more than sixty years later by Mrs. Sidney I. Lauck, then a very old woman. In her affidavit signed under oath in Essex County, New Jersey, February 15, 1928, she said, "After Mr. Lincoln's death, Dr. Gurley told me that Mr. Lincoln had made all the necessary arrangements with him and the Session of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church to be received into the membership of the said church, by confession of his faith in Christ, on the Easter Sunday following the Friday night when Mr. Lincoln was assassinated." Mrs. Lauck was, she said, about thirty years of age at the time of the assassination.
      • John Remsburg, President of the American Secular Union, argued against claims of Lincoln's conversion in his book Six Historic Americans (1906). He cites several of Lincoln's close associates:
        • The man who stood nearest to President Lincoln at Washington -- nearer than any clergyman or newspaper correspondent -- was his private secretary, Col. John G. Nicolay. In a letter dated May 27, 1865, Colonel Nicolay says: "Mr. Lincoln did not, to my knowledge, in any way change his religious ideas, opinions, or beliefs from the time he left Springfield to the day of his death."
        • After his assassination Mrs. Lincoln said: "Mr. Lincoln had no hope and no faith in the usual acceptance of these words." His lifelong friend and executor, Judge David Davis, affirmed the same: "He had no faith in the Christian sense of the term." His biographer, Colonel Lamon, intimately acquainted with him in Illinois, and with him during all the years that he lived in Washington, says: "Never in all that time did he let fall from his lips or his pen an expression which remotely implied the slightest faith in Jesus as the son of God and the Savior of men." [4]
17. Andrew Johnson – no affiliation [5]
    • Some sources refer to Johnson having Baptist parents. He accompanied his wife Eliza McCardle Johnson to Methodist services sometimes, belonged to no church himself, and sometimes attended Catholic services—remarking favorably that there was no reserved seating. Accused of being an infidel, he replied: "As for my religion, it is the doctrine of the Bible, as taught and practiced by Jesus Christ."
18. Ulysses S. Grant – Presbyterian, Methodist
    • Grant was never baptized into any church, though he accompanied his wife Julia Grant to Methodist services. Many sources list his religious affiliation as Methodist based on a Methodist minister's account of a deathbed conversion. He did leave a note for his wife in which he hoped to meet her again in a better world.
19. Rutherford B. Hayes – No specific affiliation
    • Reports of Hayes's religion are confused, with some report stating that he was raised Presbyterian, others Methodist. In general, however, it is agreed that he held himself to be a Christian, but of no specific church.
    • In his 1890 May 17 diary entry, he states: "Writing a few words for Mohonk Negro Conference, I find myself using the word Christian. I am not a subscriber to any creed. I belong to no church. But in a sense, satisfactory to myself and believed by me to be important, I try to be a Christian, or rather I want to be a Christian and to help do Christian work."
    • Hayes' wife, Lucy, was a Methodist, a temperance advocate, and deeply opposed to slavery. Their children were baptized in the Methodist Church.
20. James Garfield – Disciples of Christ
    • He was baptized at age eighteen.
    • Through his twenties, Garfield preached and held revival meetings, though he was never formally a minister within the church.
21. Chester A. Arthur – Episcopalian
    • His father was a Baptist preacher.
    • Upon his wife's death in 1880, he commissioned a memorial window for the south transept of St. John's, Lafayette Square, visible from the White House and lighted from within at his behest.
22. Grover Cleveland – Presbyterian
23. Benjamin Harrison – Presbyterian
    • Harrison became a church elder, and taught Sunday school.
    • Franklin Steiner categorized Harrison as the first President who was unquestionably a communicant in an orthodox Church at the time he was elected.
24. William McKinley – Methodist
    • Early in life, he planned to become a Methodist minister.
    • James Rusling, a McKinley supporter, related a story that McKinley had addressed a church delegation and had stated that one of the objectives of the Spanish-American War was "to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them". Recent historians have judged this account unreliable, especially in light of implausible statements Rusling made about Lincoln's religion.
25. Theodore Roosevelt – Dutch Reformed
    • Roosevelt always stated that he was Dutch Reformed; however, he attended Episcopal churches where there was no Reformed church nearby. (His second wife Edith was Episcopal from birth.) As there was no Dutch Reformed church in Oyster Bay, New York, he attended Christ Church Oyster Bay when in residence there, and it was in that church that his funeral was held.
    • His mother was Presbyterian and as a child he attended Presbyterian churches with her.
26. William Howard Taft – Unitarian
    • Before becoming president, Taft was offered the presidency of Yale University, at that time affiliated with the Congregationalist Church; Taft turned the post down, saying, "I do not believe in the divinity of Christ."
    • Taft's beliefs were the subject of some controversy, and in 1908 he found it necessary to refute a rumor that he was an atheist.
27. Woodrow Wilson – Presbyterian
    • Wilson's father was a Presbyterian minister and professor of theology.
    • Prior to being Governor of New Jersey and President of the United States, Wilson served as President of Princeton University, which was at the time affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.
28. Warren G. Harding – Baptist
29. Calvin Coolidge – Congregationalist
30. Herbert Hoover – Quaker
    • As Quakers customarily do not swear oaths, it was expected that Hoover would affirm the oath of office, and most sources state that he did so. However, a Washington Post article dated February 27, 1929 stated that he planned to swear, rather than affirm, the oath.
31. Franklin D. Roosevelt – Episcopal
32. Harry S. Truman – Baptist
33. Dwight D. Eisenhower –Presbyterian
    • Eisenhower's religious upbringing is the subject of some controversy, due to the conversion of his parents to the "Bible Student" movement, the forerunner of the Jehovah's Witnesses, in the late 1890s; originally, the family belonged to the River Brethren, a Mennonite sept. According to the Eisenhower Presidential Library, there is no evidence that Eisenhower participated in this group, and there are records that show he attended Sunday school at a Brethren church.
    • Until he became president, Eisenhower had no formal church affiliation, a circumstance he attributed to the frequent moves demanded of an Army officer. He was baptized, confirmed, and became a communicant in the Presbyterian church in a single ceremony February 1, 1953, just 12 days after his first inauguration, the only president to undergo any of these rites while in office.
    • Eisenhower was instrumental in the addition of the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 (an act highly promoted by the Knights of Columbus), and the 1956 adoption of "In God We Trust" as the motto of the USA, and its 1957 introduction on paper currency. He composed a prayer for his first inauguration, began his cabinet meetings with silent prayer, and met frequently with a wide range of religious leaders while in office.
    • His presidential library includes an inter-denominational chapel in which he, his wife Mamie, and his firstborn son (who died in childhood) are buried.
34. John F. Kennedy – Roman Catholic
    • Kennedy is the first and thus far only Catholic president.
35. Lyndon Johnson – Disciples of Christ
36. Richard Nixon – Quaker
    • Contrary to Quaker custom, Nixon swore the oath of office at both of his inaugurations.
37. Gerald R. Ford – Episcopal
38. Jimmy Carter – Baptist, born again
    • In 2000, Carter left the Southern Baptist Convention, disagreeing over the role of women in society. He continued to teach Sunday School and serve as a deacon in his local Baptist Church.
39. Ronald Reagan – Presbyterian
    • Reagan's father was Roman Catholic, but Reagan was raised in his mother's Disciples of Christ denomination and was baptized there on September 21, 1922. Nancy and Ronald Reagan were married in the Disciples of Christ "Little Brown Church" in Studio City, California on March 4, 1952. Beginning in 1963 Reagan generally attended Presbyterian church services at Bel-Air Presbyterian Church, Bel-Air, California. During his presidency he rarely attended church services. He became an official member of Bel-Air Presbyterian after leaving the Presidency. Reagan stated that he considered himself a "born-again Christian".
40. George H. W. Bush – Episcopal
41. Bill Clinton – Baptist
    • Clinton, during his presidency, attended a Methodist church in Washington along with his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was baptized and raised Methodist.
42. George W. Bush – Methodist

Bush was raised in the Episcopal Church but converted to Methodism upon his marriage in 1977.

List of Presidential religious affiliations (by religion)

Baptist

• Warren Harding
• Harry Truman
• Jimmy Carter (Southern Baptist) (after serving as president, Carter broke with the SBC over its stand on the submission of women)
• Bill Clinton (Southern Baptist)

Roman Catholic

• John F. Kennedy

Congregationalist

• Calvin Coolidge

Disciples of Christ

• James Garfield
• Lyndon Johnson
• Ronald Reagan

Dutch Reformed

• Martin Van Buren
• Theodore Roosevelt

Episcopal

The first seven presidents listed below were all from Virginia. Until 1786, the Church of England (predecessor of the Episcopal church in the USA) was the "state church" of Virginia. See above for more detail on each.

• George Washington
• Thomas Jefferson (sympathetic to Unitarianism and Deism)
• James Madison [also Deist]
• James Monroe [possibly Deist]
• William Henry Harrison
• John Tyler
• Zachary Taylor
• Franklin Pierce
• Chester A. Arthur
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Gerald Ford
• George H. W. Bush

Methodist

• James Polk (originally Presbyterian)
• Ulysses Grant (allegedly; his theology is unknown)
• William McKinley
• George W. Bush (originally Episcopal)

Presbyterian

• Andrew Jackson
• James Polk (later Methodist)
• James Buchanan
• Grover Cleveland
• Benjamin Harrison
• Woodrow Wilson
• Dwight D. Eisenhower

Quaker

• Herbert Hoover
• Richard Nixon

No denominational affiliation

• Abraham Lincoln
• Andrew Johnson
• Ulysses Grant
• Rutherford Hayes

Deist

• Thomas Jefferson (sympathetic to Unitarianism)
• James Madison (fraternized Episcopal)
• James Monroe (disputed)
• John Tyler (also Episcopal)
• Abraham Lincoln (disputed)

Unitarian

• John Adams
• John Quincy Adams
• Millard Fillmore
• William Howard Taft

Disputed

• James Monroe
• Martin Van Buren
• John Tyler
• Zachary Taylor
• Abraham Lincoln
• Ulysses Grant

External links

• Adherents.com's list
• Abraham Lincoln was a Deist
• Excerpts from The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, 1936, by Franklin Steiner
• Steiner's chapter on Jefferson
• Six Historic Americans by John Remsburg, 1906, examines religious views of Paine, Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Lincoln, & Grant
• U.S. Library of Congress site: James Hutson article, James Madison and the Social Utility of Religion
• Washington quotes on religion
• Jefferson quotes on religion

Further reading

• Steiner, Franklin, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents: From Washington to F.D.R., Prometheus Books/The Freethought Library, July 1995. ISBN 0-87975-975-5
• David L. Holmes, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers, Oxford University Press, May 2006. ISBN 0-19-530092-0