Religious affiliations of presidents of the United States
This is a list of the religious affiliations of Presidents of the United States. For better or worse, 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 positively or negatively 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 1960s, President John F. Kennedy faced accusations that as a Catholic president he would do as Pope John XXIII would tell him to do.
Some people who were president changed their beliefs during their lives. George Washington, for example, gravitated from conventional Christianity more towards Deism as he aged.
Evangelical Christians and religious Americans in general have a stake in the perceived religiosity of past Presidents and are disinclined to believe that there may have been atheist or agnostic Presidents, especially amongst the hallowed Founding Fathers. In general, it's difficult to define with any certainty the faiths of Presidents, because as with all religious beliefs, no one can truly be sure what relationship exists between a man and his God, gods or godlessness.
List of Presidential religious affiliations (by President)
- George Washington – Deist; Episcopalian
- According to his own journals Washington rarely attended church, going to Sunday services a handful of times each year. And the rector of the Episcopal chuch Washington attended while president, Rev. Dr. James Abercrombie, replied to someone who asked about Washington's religious beliefs long after Washington had died: "Sir, Washington was a Deist."
- John Adams – Unitarian
- Thomas Jefferson – Deist; Episcopalian
- Though a vestryman (lay officer) of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, his beliefs were primarily Deist, and 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.
- Though a vestryman (lay officer) of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, his beliefs were primarily Deist, and are considered very close to Unitarian. The Famous UUs website says:
- James Madison – Deist; Episcopalian
- James Monroe – Deist; Episcopalian
- John Quincy Adams – Unitarian
- Andrew Jackson – Presbyterian (shortly before he died)
- Martin Van Buren – Dutch Reformed
- William Henry Harrison – Episcopalian
- planning on becoming a full member (communicant) just before he died
- John Tyler – Deist; Episcopalian
- James Knox Polk – Presbyterian; Methodist
- Raised a Presbyterian, Polk had never been baptized due to an early family argument with the local Presbyterian minister in rural North Carolina. At age thirty-eight, 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, however, he continued to attend Presbyterian services. But whenever his wife was out of town, or too ill to attend church, Polk worshiped at the local Methodist chapel. On his deathbed, he summoned the man who had converted him years before, the Reverend John B. McFerrin, who at last baptized Polk as a Methodist.
- Zachary Taylor – Episcopalian
- Millard Fillmore – Unitarian
- Franklin Pierce – Episcopalian
- In later life, during the Civil War, he was baptized, confirmed and became a regular communicant in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, in Concord, NH.
- James Buchanan – Presbyterian
- raised a Presbyterian, he joined its church only after he retired
- Abraham Lincoln – Uncertain, possibly Deist; see [1], also (2)
- Andrew Johnson – none
- Some sources refer to Johnson having Baptist parents. He accompanied his wife to Methodist services sometimes, belonged to no church himself, and sometimes attended Catholic services -remarking it had no reserved seats. 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, by G.F. Minton, p. 80.)
- Ulysses S. Grant – none known
- Grant was never baptized into any church, though he accompanied his wife 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 – none
- In his diary (1890 May 17), 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
- Chester A. Arthur – Episcopalian
- Grover Cleveland – Presbyterian
- Benjamin Harrison – Presbyterian
- Grover Cleveland – Presbyterian
- William McKinley – Methodist
- Theodore Roosevelt – Dutch Reformed
- William Howard Taft – Unitarian
- Woodrow Wilson – Presbyterian
- Warren G. Harding – Baptist
- Calvin Coolidge – Congregationalist
- Herbert Hoover – Quaker
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt – Episcopalian
- Harry S. Truman – Baptist
- Dwight D. Eisenhower – Presbyterian, Jehovah's Witness
- John F. Kennedy – Roman Catholic
- Lyndon Johnson – Disciples of Christ
- Richard Nixon – raised as a Quaker
- Gerald R. Ford – Episcopalian
- Jimmy Carter – Baptist
- In 2000, Carter left the Southern Baptist Convention, disagreeing over the role of women in society. See [5]
- Ronald Reagan – Disciples of Christ
- George H. W. Bush – Episcopalian
- Bill Clinton – Baptist
- George W. Bush – Methodist
List of Presidential religious affiliations (by religion)
- George Washington
- James Madison
- James Monroe
- William Henry Harrison
- John Tyler
- Zachary Taylor
- Franklin Pierce
- Chester Arthur
- Franklin Roosevelt
- Gerald Ford
- George H. W. Bush
- James Polk (originally Presbyterian)
- Ulysses Grant
- William McKinley
- George W. Bush
- Andrew Jackson
- James Polk (later Methodist)
- James Buchanan
- Grover Cleveland
- Benjamin Harrison
- Woodrow Wilson
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (originally Jehovah's Witnesses)
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (later Presbyterian)
Presidents without affiliation
External links
- Adherents.com's list
- Unitarian Universalism is the religion generally associated today with those whose ideology is Deist.
- Abraham Lincoln was a Deist
- Excerpts from The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, 1936, by Franklin Steiner
Further reading
- Steiner, Franklin, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents: From Washington to F.D.R., Prometheus Books/The Freethought Library, July 1995. ISBN 0879759755