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, a contributing factor to Alfred E. Smith's defeat in the presidential election of 1928 was his Roman Catholic faith. In the 1960 election, John F. Kennedy faced accusations that as a Catholic president he would do as Pope John XXIII would tell him to do. 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 state religion in some states (such as Virginia) before their Constitutions were changed. Before the American Revolution, the Episcopal Church was the American branch of the Church of England. The first seven presidents listed below with Episcopalian affiliation were also the first seven from Virginia, and 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.

The church closest to the White House is also Episcopal, and has been attended at least once by nearly every president since James Madison. 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".

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.

With regard to Christianity, distinguishing affiliation from belief can be somewhat complicated. At issue, to a certain extent, is "What counts as belonging to a church?" Must one be a communicant to belong, or is baptism or even simple attendance sufficient? Are Unitarians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and independents who generally hold Jesus in high regard, but do not believe that he is or was divine, to be counted as Christians or not? Numerous presidents changed their affiliations and/or their beliefs during their lives. George Washington, for example, gravitated from conventional Christianity as a youth towards deism as he aged. Conversely, it is sometimes claimed that religiously unaffiliated presidents experienced death-bed conversions.

List of Presidential religious affiliations/beliefs (by President)

George Washington – Deist; Episcopalian (VA)
- The religious views of George Washington are a matter of some controversy. This section has been omitted due to the uncertainty of Washington's religious views. There is much debate as to whether or not he was a Deist or an Episcopalian.
John Adams – Unitarian (MA)
- This section has been omitted due to the uncertainty of Adams' religious views. There is much debate as to whether or not he was a Deist or a Congregationalist.
Thomas Jefferson – Deist; Unitarian (VA)
- Though a vestryman (lay officer) of the Church of England in Virginia before the revolution, his beliefs were primarily Deist. Unlike its effect on Congregational churches, Deism had little influence on Episcopal churches, which have a more hierarchical structure making them slower to modify their teachings. Of only three things Jefferson chose for his epitaph, one was the 1786 Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom. Jefferson's views are considered very close to Unitarian [1]. The Famous UUs website says: [2]
  "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 and Positive Atheism for many relevant quotes.
James Madison – Deist; Episcopalian (VA)
- This section has been omitted due to the uncertainty of Madison's religious views. There is much debate as to whether or not he was a Deist or an Episcopalian.
James Monroe – Deist; Episcopalian (VA)
John Quincy Adams – Unitarian (MA) [3]
Andrew Jackson – Presbyterian (NC/SC)
- became a member about a year after retiring the presidency
Martin Van Buren – Dutch Reformed or no affiliation (NY)
- 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.
William Henry Harrison – Episcopalian possibly (VA)
- Harrison died just one month after his inauguration. After Harrison's funeral, the rector at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, DC said Harrison had bought a Bible one day after his inauguration and had planned to become a communicant.
John Tyler – Deist; Episcopalian (VA)
James K. Polk – Presbyterian; later Methodist (NC/TN)
- 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.
Zachary Taylor – Episcopalian (VA)
Millard Fillmore – Unitarian (NY)
- In the early 1830s, he worked to overturn the New York test law that required all witnesses in New York courts to swear an oath affirming their belief in God and the hereafter.
Franklin Pierce – Episcopalian (NH)
- 1850: unsuccessfully worked to abolish that portion of the New Hampshire Constitution which made the Protestant religion the official religion.
- 1853: Pierce's 12-year-old son died in a tragic train accident, which prompted Franklin into a great bout of depression, during which he questioned God's existence. At his inauguration he became the first, and to date only president to "affirm" rather than swear the oath of office; he also chose not to kiss the Bible.
- 1861: 4 years after retiring the presidency, he was baptized, confirmed, and became a regular communicant in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, in Concord, NH.
James Buchanan – Presbyterian (PA)
- raised Presbyterian, he joined its church after he retired the presidency
Abraham Lincoln – Deist; Presbyterian; no personal affiliation known (KY/IN/IL)
- This section has been omitted due to the uncertainty of Lincoln's religious views. There is much debate as to whether or not he was a Deist or a Presbyterian.
Andrew Johnson – no affiliation (NC/TN)
- 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 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." (See The Age of Hate, 1930, by G.F. Milton, p. 80.)
Ulysses S. Grant – no affiliation known (OH)
- 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.
Rutherford B. Hayes – no affiliation (OH)
- In his 1890 17 May diary entry, he states: "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 and to help do Christian work." (page 435)
James Garfield – Disciples of Christ (OH)
- In his early adulthood, Garfield sometimes preached and held revival meetings.
Chester A. Arthur – Episcopalian (VT/NY)
Grover Cleveland – Presbyterian (NJ/NY)
Benjamin Harrison – Presbyterian (OH/IN)
- Harrison became a church elder, and taught Sunday school
- Franklin Steiner, in his book The Religious Beliefs Of Our Presidents[4], categorized Harrison as the first President who was unquestionably a communicant in an orthodox Church at the time he was elected
Grover Cleveland – Presbyterian (NJ/NY)
- During his second (non-consecutive) term, Cleveland included mention of Jesus Christ in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, something no other President had ever done.
William McKinley – Methodist (OH)
- McKinley was a devout Christian and believed the U.S. government had a duty to help spread Christianity and Western civilization to the rest of the world.
Theodore Roosevelt – Dutch Reformed (NY)
- 1908: opposed putting In God We Trust on coins as sacrilegious
William Howard Taft – Unitarian (OH)
- 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 that he could not in good conscience accept it because he "did not believe in the divinity of Christ." (See 1912, James Chace, page 24.)
Woodrow Wilson – Presbyterian (VA/GA/NJ)
Warren G. Harding – Baptist (OH)
Calvin Coolidge – Congregationalist (VT/MA)
Herbert Hoover – Quaker (IA/OR/CA)
Franklin D. Roosevelt – Episcopalian (NY)
Harry S. Truman – Baptist (MO)
Dwight D. Eisenhower – Jehovah's Witness; later Presbyterian (TX/KS/PA)
- Brought up Jehovah's Witness, Eisenhower abandoned that before joining the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. (See [5], [6], and [7].) He was baptized, confirmed, and became a communicant in the Presbyterian church in a single ceremony 1953 February 1, just weeks after his first inauguration. He is the only president known to be baptized, or to be confirmed, or to become a communicant while in office. Eisenhower was instrumental in the addition of the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, and the 1956 adoption of "In God We Trust" as the motto of the USA (which was introduced and highly promoted by the Knights of Columbus), and its 1957 introduction on paper currency. The chapel at his presidential library is intentionally inter-denominational.
John F. Kennedy – Roman Catholic (MA)
- The first and only Roman Catholic to serve as president, Kennedy's faith was previously seen by some to be a liability that would hurt his chances during his run for the White House. Critics argued that a Kennedy presidency would be subservient to the wishes of the Vatican. He was also a member of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's fraternal organization.
Lyndon Johnson – Disciples of Christ (TX)
Richard Nixon – raised Quaker (CA)
Gerald R. Ford – Episcopalian (NE/MI)
Jimmy Carter – Baptist, born again (GA)
- In 2000, Carter left the Southern Baptist Convention, disagreeing over the role of women in society. See [8]
Ronald Reagan – Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian (IL/CA)
- Reagan, like his father John (Jack) was baptised as an infant in the Roman Catholic Church, but he was raised in his mother's Disciples of Christ denomination. 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".
George H. W. Bush – Episcopalian (MA/CT/TX)
Bill Clinton – Baptist (AR)
George W. Bush – raised Episcopalian, at age 40 born again Methodist (CT/TX)