upright=1.2|thumb|The majority of American presidents have belonged to [[Protestantism|Protestant faiths. St. John's Church, an Episcopal church in Washington, D.C., has been visited by every sitting president since James Madison. Conspiracy theorists also falsely circulated rumors that Barack Obama was a Muslim during his 2004 Senate campaign and later time as president. Conversely, other presidents, such as Jimmy Carter, used their faith as a defining aspect of their campaigns and tenure in office. this is partly because the Church of England, from which the Episcopal Church is derived, was the established church in some of the British Colonies (such as New York and Virginia) before the American Revolution. The Episcopal Church has been much larger previously, with its decline in membership occurring only in more recent decades.
Deism and the Founding Fathers
Deism was a religious philosophy in common currency in colonial times, and some Founding Fathers (most notably Thomas Paine, who was an explicit proponent of it, and Benjamin Franklin, who spoke of it in his Autobiography) are identified more or less with this system. Thomas Jefferson became a deist in later life, and George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, James Monroe, and John Tyler are often identified as having some degree of deistic beliefs. and a fifth (Thomas Jefferson) was an exponent of ideas now commonly associated with Unitarianism. Unitarianism, the belief that God has a unitary nature, developed in opposition to Trinitarianism, the belief that God is three persons in one (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit). In a letter to Benjamin Waterhouse in 1822, Jefferson said, "I trust that there is not a young man now living in the US. who will not die an Unitarian." William Howard Taft, a Unitarian, said in a letter to a friend, "I am interested in the spread of Christian civilization, but to go into a dogmatic discussion of creed I will not do whether I am defeated or not. ... If the American electorate is so narrow as not to elect a Unitarian, well and good. I can stand it."
List of presidents by religious affiliation
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!
! Name
! Religion
! Branch
! Further Branch
! Denomination
! Years in office
|-
|1
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|frameless|15x15px Anglican
|Arms of the Episcopal Church|frameless|15x15px Episcopalian
|1789–1797
|-
|2
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|Nontrinitarian
| colspan="2" |Unitarian
|1797–1801
|-
|3
|
| colspan="4" |Unknown; possibly Deist
|1801–1809
|-
|4
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|frameless|15x15px Anglican
|Arms of the Episcopal Church|frameless|15x15px Episcopalian
|1809–1817
|-
|5
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|frameless|15x15px Anglican
|Arms of the Episcopal Church|frameless|15x15px Episcopalian
|1817–1825
|-
|6
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|Nontrinitarian
|Unitarian
|Unitarian
|1825–1829
|-
|7
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Reformed
|frameless|15x15px Presbyterian
|1829–1837
|-
|8
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Reformed
|Dutch Reformed
|1837–1841
|-
|9
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|frameless|15x15px Anglican
|Arms of the Episcopal Church|frameless|15x15px Episcopalian
|1841–1841
|-
|10
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|frameless|15x15px Anglican
|Arms of the Episcopal Church|frameless|15x15px Episcopalian
|1841–1845
|-
|11
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Methodist
|Methodist Episcopal
|1845–1849
|-
|12
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|frameless|15x15px Anglican
|Arms of the Episcopal Church|frameless|15x15px Episcopalian
|1849–1850
|-
|13
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|Nontrinitarian
|Unitarian
|Unitarian
|1850–1853
|-
|14
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Reformed
|Congregationalist- later converted to Episcopalian
|1853–1857
|-
|15
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Reformed
|frameless|15x15px Presbyterian
|1857–1861
|-
|16
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
| colspan="3" |Northern Baptist
|1861–1865
|-
|17
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
| colspan="2" |Nondenominational
|1865–1869
|-
|18
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Nondenominational
|
|1869–1877
|-
|19
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
| colspan="2" |Nondenominational
|1881–1881
|-
|21
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|frameless|15x15px Anglican
|Arms of the Episcopal Church|frameless|15x15px Episcopalian
|1881–1885
|-
|22/24
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Reformed
|frameless|15x15px Presbyterian
|1885–1889; 1893–1897
|-
|23
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Reformed
|frameless|15x15px Presbyterian
|1889–1893
|-
|25
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Methodist
|Methodist Episcopal
|1897–1901
|-
|26
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Reformed
|Dutch Reformed
|1901–1909
|-
|27
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|Nontrinitarian
|Unitarian
|Unitarian
|1909–1913
|-
|28
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Reformed
|Southern Presbyterian
|1913–1921
|-
|29
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Baptist
|Northern Baptist
|1921–1923
|-
|30
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
|Reformed
|Congregationalist
|1923–1929
|-
|31
|
|frameless|15x15px Christian
|frameless|15x15px Protestant
| colspan="2" |frameless|15x15px Quaker
- Jefferson was raised Anglican and served as a vestryman prior to the American Revolution, While not holding to the tenets of the church, "he never withdrew from the Episcopal Church [although] his views were essentially what are called Unitarian today."
- Modern Unitarian Universalists consider Jefferson's views to be very close to theirs. The Famous UUs website Carter continued to teach Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, which he had done since the 1980s. In 2007, Carter founded the New Baptist Covenant organization for social justice.
- Ronald Reagan – Presbyterian While living in Washington, he attended services at St. John's Episcopal Church.
- Barack Obama – Unspecified Protestant
- Donald Trump – Unspecified Protestant
- Joe Biden – Roman Catholic
- Biden is a lifelong Catholic, with Reuters describing his religious beliefs as "well-known and documented". Catholic social teaching has been cited as a major influence on his political views. In 2008, he was reported to regularly attend Sunday Mass at St. Joseph on the Brandywine in Greenville, Delaware. He continued to attend services there, or at other Catholic churches, during most weeks of his presidency.
</references>
Further reading
External links
- Abraham Lincoln was a Deist
- Six Historic Americans by John Remsburg, 1906, examines religious views of Paine, Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Lincoln, and Grant
- U.S. Library of Congress site: James Hutson article, James Madison and the Social Utility of Religion
- Shapell Manuscript Foundation: "We Have a Catholic for President" U.S. Presidents' Personal Correspondence and Historical Documents
- George Washington as Deist