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. Jefferson, Lincoln, and several other presidents were accused of being infidels during election campaigns -- and at other times.

The closest church to the White House has been attended at least once by nearly every president since 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".

Episcopalians are extraordinarily well represented among the Presidents. This is in part due to the Episcopal Church being the state religion in some states (such as Virginia) before their Constitutions were changed (1786 for Virginia). Before the American Revolution, the Episcopal Church was the American branch of the Anglican 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.

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 agnostic or even non-Christian Presidents, especially amongst the hallowed Founding Fathers. With regard to Christianity, 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 attendance sufficient? Are Unitarians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and independents who generally hold Jesus in high regard, but do not believe he was divine, to be counted as Christians or not?

Numerous Presidents changed their affiliations during their lives. George Washington, for example, gravitated from conventional Christianity more towards Deism as he aged. Many, of course, are interested not only in the 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's difficult to define with any certainty the faiths of Presidents, because no one can truly be sure what relationship exists between a person and his deity -- or lack thereof.

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 with his wife each year, but regularly leaving before communion - with the other non-communicants. When Rev. Dr. James Abercrombie, rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia mentioned in a weekly sermon that those in elevated stations set an unhappy example by leaving at communion, Washington ceased attending at all on communion Sundays. Long after Washington died, asked about Washington's beliefs, Abercrombie replied: "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.
James Madison – Deist; Episcopalian
James Monroe – Deist; Episcopalian
John Quincy Adams – Unitarian
Andrew Jackson – Presbyterian
- became a communicant some years after retiring the presidency
Martin Van Buren – Dutch Reformed
William Henry Harrison – Episcopalian
- bought a Bible day after his inauguration, died just 1 month later; rector at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, DC said Harrison planned to soon become a communicant
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
- 1853 inauguration: affirmed instead of swearing the oath; did not kiss 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
- raised a Presbyterian, he joined its church after he retired the presidency
Abraham Lincoln – Deist (see [1]), though a number of pastors claimed a late conversion
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 favorably it had 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 – 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 1890 May 17 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
Chester A. Arthur – Episcopalian
Grover Cleveland – Presbyterian
Benjamin Harrison – Presbyterian
Grover Cleveland – Presbyterian
- 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
Theodore Roosevelt – Dutch Reformed
- 1908: opposed putting In God We Trust on coins as sacriligious
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
- Brought up Jehovah's Witness, Eisenhower abandoned that before joining the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. (See [2], [3], and [4].) He became a Presbyterian in 1953 just weeks after his first inauguration. 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, and its 1957 introduction on paper currency. The chapel at his presidential library is intentionally inter-denominational.
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