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* The '''Roman Catholic Church''' is the largest single denomination in not only the United States, but the world (although Sunni Islam is catching up with the second one). Historically, Catholicism was the religion of [[The City]] in general, and of [[Melting Pot|immigrant ethnic groups]] ([[The Irish Diaspora|Irish]], Italians, Poles and, more recently, Latinos) in particular. The association with immigrants and the supposed decadence of big cities, combined with America's longstanding Protestant tradition, led to widespread anti-Catholic prejudice in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with many claiming that the Catholics were agents of [[The Pope]] who were trying to subvert American society. However, outside of a few diehard fundamentalists (such as [[Jack Chick]]), this attitude has mostly disappeared, the pivotal moment being the election of [[John F Kennedy]] as America's first Catholic President in 1960.<ref>And even then, this was a ''huge'' deal at the time; many Protestants were still concerned that Kennedy would be a puppet of Rome. He had to give [http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-American-Society-of-Newspaper-Editors-Washington-DC-April-21-19.aspx a speech] specifically affirming that his first loyalty was to the US Constitution, and that his actions as President would not, and should not, be bound by the dictates of the Church. This speech wound up becoming a major landmark in the aforementioned separation of church and state.</ref> Historically, Catholics have generally been concentrated in the Northeast, Midwest, and in Louisiana<ref>due to large scale European immigration in the later part of the 19th century in the former, and the historic French influence in the latter</ref>. More recently, a mix of Latino immigration and internal migration has made the Church more popular in California, the Southwest, and Florida.<br /><br />American Catholics are often perceived as being more liberal than the American mainstream, dissenting from the Church in Rome on many social/cultural issues (such as gay rights, allowing priests to marry, birth control, and the ordination of women and gays) while supporting activism for social justice projects. However, the culturally conservative direction taken by the Church in the last few decades under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI means that many recent converts tend to have more conservative views on social issues than the stereotype suggests. The growing Latino contingent within American Catholicism also tends to hold more traditional values.
* '''Mainline Protestant churches''' include the Methodists, the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians (the American branch of the Anglicans), the United Church of Christ and other well-established, or "heritage", churches. These churches are the more liberal of the two Protestant groups, and will often take moderate or liberal positions on social issues. They are generally concentrated in the Northeast and the Midwest. Lately, these churches have been seeing steep declines in membership as people gravitate to either the more conservative evangelical churches or toward more secular outlooks. At the same time, some of the churches have been battling conservative defections due to their liberal social positions, especially with regards to homosexuality. The Episcopal Church's election of an openly gay bishop, for example, caused some parishes to break away and align themselves with more conservative Anglican denominations in Africa.
* '''Evangelical churches''', as defined by [[The Other Wiki]], are Protestant churches that are distinguished by four key traits -- a focus on personal conversion (becoming "born again"), spreading the message of [[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]] (evangelizing), placing high stock in Biblical authority, and a focus on Jesus' death and resurrection. Examples of such churches include most subgroups of Baptists, the Missouri Synod Lutherans, and the Presbyterian Church of America <ref>not to be confused with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which is mainline Protestant</ref>. They usually adhere to conservative social values, and are very often [[The Fundamentalist|fundamentalist]]. <ref>As always, there are exceptions to every rule. A number of more liberal, mainline churches call themselves evangelical (such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America), and a substantial minority of individual evangelicals, particularly younger ones, reject Biblical literalism.</ref><br /><br />They are the largest of the major Christian groups in America, and are most heavily concentrated in an area known as the [
** Related to the Evangelical movement is '''Pentecostalism''', which writers often lump in with the evangelicals due to a lack of familiarity with either one. Pentecostalism is based around a direct experience with God, and often includes faith healing, speaking in tongues, and getting "imbued" with the Holy Spirit. Often associated with loud, charismatic preachers (indeed, a subset of Pentecostalism is called the "charismatic movement," although the word has a [wikipedia:Charismatic_%28Christians%29|more specific meaning] in this context), who many skeptics will claim are responsible for the activity that goes on during Pentecostal sermons due to their getting the crowd riled up.
*:Despite the fact that Hollywood screenwriters often lump Pentecostals and evangelicals together (most likely due to their shared social conservatism), the two groups differ on a great number of theological issues, which has led to some friction between them. Pentecostals and Charismatics believe in faith healing, speaking in tongues, and a continuing tradition/gift of prophecy (think mystics). Evangelicals believe in personal revelation and experience. Both believe in biblical inerrancy/literalism and baptism/rebirth in Christ. Pat Robertson (Charismatic) makes doomsday predictions and believes he speaks with the voice of God. Evangelicals confine themselves to agreeing with him when, ex post facto, he says a certain city was punished for not punishing homosexuality. To confuse things further, there are [http://www.ancient-future.net/charismatic.html charismatic Catholics], too.
* The '''Orthodox churches''' include the Eastern Orthodox (Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc.) and Oriental Orthodox (Coptic Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Ethiopian Orthodox, etc). <ref>The two are separate because the Eastern Orthodox Church accepts all seven ecumenical councils while the Oriental Orthodox only accept the first three; they're known as the Non-Chalcedonian churches because they rejected the Council of Chalcedon.</ref> They are both descended from the Orthodox Church of the Byzantine Empire, which split with the Roman Catholic Church in the 11th century following disputes over the respective authority of the Pope versus the Eastern Roman Emperor and Patriarch of Constantinople, doctrinal disputes over liturgy and the use of icons, and just plain West vs. East bigotry. The two, Pope and Patriarch, mutually excommunicated each others' followers around 1055.<br /><br />Orthodox Christians make up less than 1% of the American population, and are associated with particular ethnic groups even more than the Catholics. Basically, if someone is from Eastern Europe or the Balkans, they're more likely than not Eastern Orthodox, and vice versa. Copts aren't as common in America as they are in Canada (America's little brother). They're mostly from Egypt, Turkey, and Syria. There are purportedly 700,000 to 1 million Copts in America, but in very clustered communities. <ref>Mostly in New York, New Jersey, California, and Michigan. If the last one sounds weird, Michigan has a large population of Arabic-speakers -- for the Egyptian Copts -- and Armenians.</ref> The most common denominations of Oriental Orthodox in America are the Armenian Apostolic (mostly in California) and Ethiopian Orthodox (mostly in the Midwest) churches.
* The '''[[Useful Notes/Mormonism|Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]''' (or the LDS Church, or simply the Mormons) is a Nontrinitarian orientation (which basically means they don't believe in the Holy Trinity), and is based mostly in the state of Utah, although there are also significant populations in California, Idaho, Nevada and Arizona. They are stereotyped as having deeply conservative social views -- a view that is usually [[Truth in Television]]. Owing to their history of persecution and hard life on [[The Wild West|the frontier]], they also believe in self-sufficiency -- the Church recommends that all Mormons keep a few months of supplies on hand, and the Church itself has a massive stockpile of food and supplies in the event of a disaster. They also put more emphasis on helping people find jobs and become self-sufficient than on handing out charity or operating soup kitchens.<br /><br />Their religious beliefs often conflict with those mainstream Christianity, particularly with regard to their belief in [[The Book of Mormon (Literature)|The Book of Mormon]], which they believe to be a holy text on par with the Gospels. This, combined with their past practice of polygamy (which is not helped by the existence of breakaway sects that still practice it, in violation of both the law and current LDS Church doctrine), means that they are still an [[Acceptable Targets|acceptable target]] in many parts of the country, from both conservatives who view them as a [[Cult]] and secularists who associate them with the rest of the Christian Right. This became evident in the 2008 and 2012 Republican primaries, when Mitt Romney's Mormon faith caused issue with some Christian conservatives<ref>Most notably, in the '08 primary Mike Huckabee, a competing candidate who was running as a social conservative, caused controversy after making some derisive comments about Romney's Mormonism.</ref>, and in the California Proposition 8 debate in 2008, going by some of the reactions by the anti-Prop 8 side to their influence over the gay-rights debate in California.
* '''Jehovah's Witnesses''', like the LDS Church, are Nontrinitarian, evangelical, and conservative, and are known to come off as strange to the majority of Americans. They are infamous for their [[Knocking On Heathens' Door|door-to-door preaching and proselytizing]] (so much that it even got them [[Hollywood
* Much less common than the above, but still prevalent in America, are '''Anabaptists'''. They are the descendants of the Radical Reformation, alongside the Protestant Reformation, who believe that being baptized and joining a church should be a choice, offered only to adults who had the knowledge to make such a decision. This sounds sensible now, but was pretty revolutionary in the 16th century.<br /><br />Surprisingly, this is not some liberal hippie denomination, but actually the "plain people": Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites. Each group is distinct from the others, but they all share core beliefs. They're famous for being [[Actual Pacifist|actual pacifists]] (believing that [[Turn the Other Cheek]] isn't just a suggestion), and also refusing to swear oaths, participate in politics, or drink any alcohol. The more conservative groups dress in plain clothes, keep technology use to a minimum, live in their own separate communities, and refuse to pay Social Security or even for insurance. More moderate branches, particularly the Mennonites, blend in more with society, though they still stick to their theology. Unusually for a Christian group, Anabaptists have their own language: Low German, also known as [http://www.mennolink.org/doc/lg/index.html Plautdietsch].
* The '''Religious Society of Friends''', or Quakers (the term was originally applied as an insult, but the Friends embraced it) is not so much a sect as a (very) loose network of people who agree on certain principles, and agree to disagree on others. There is enough variety and universalism among the Friends that a significant minority of them do not identify as Christian. The Friends have no clergy, and no creed, and are as a whole much more interested in activism and social justice than proselytizing.
Other religions are also well-represented in the country, although all of them are clear minorities of the United States population.
* '''[[Useful Notes/Judaism|Jews]]''' are primarily concentrated on the East Coast (particularly the New York and Washington areas, where they make up a double-digit percentage of the population in some counties), South Florida (where many of them go to retire), and California, with small enclaves elsewhere in the country. Their disproportionate presence in New York and Los Angeles explains why Jews are [[You Have to Have Jews|so well-represented in the entertainment and financial industries]]. They tend to pull for the Democrats in large numbers -- the only Democrat since [[Franklin D Roosevelt|FDR]] who earned less than 70% of the Jewish vote was Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956 -- and usually have social views more liberal than the American mainstream. <ref>They were heavily involved in the [[Civil Rights Movement]], and it was a Jewish woman who wrote ''The Feminine Mystique'', the book often credited with kick-starting the second wave of feminism.</ref> In America, as in most other places, Jews are [[Once
* There is significant debate of the number of '''[[Useful Notes/Islam|Muslims]]''' in the United States, with most estimates ranging from as low as one million to as high as seven million. Two-thirds of the Muslim community is foreign-born, while most of the rest consists of African-American converts (where we get the stereotypical "[[Malcolm Xerox|black Muslims]]"). Almost one-fifth of [[Useful Notes/American Prisons|American convicts]] are Muslims, most of whom converted to Islam while in prison (again, the "black Muslim" stereotype). They tend to be concentrated on the East Coast, in Detroit, in Houston, and in California.<br /><br />Thanks to the 9/11 attacks, Muslims have become [[Acceptable Target|acceptable targets]] in many parts of the United States, [[Defector From Decadence|which has caused many of them to support the Democratic Party]]. <ref>Interestingly, before the attacks, most Muslims voted Republican due to their affluence and social conservatism.</ref> Even so, they tend to be rather well-integrated compared to their European counterparts, having a higher average income and educational attainment than the national average. The first Muslim member of [[American Political System|Congress]] is Keith Ellison, an African-American Democrat from Minnesota elected in 2006; he was followed by another African American, Andre Carson (Democrat of Indiana), after a special election in 2008. And no, despite [[Conspiracy Theorist|what you may have heard]], the [[Barack Obama|current President]] is not a Muslim ([[Not That There's Anything Wrong With That|Not That There Would Be Anything Wrong With That]]...).
** The '''Nation of Islam''', whose more prominent members have included [[Malcolm X]] and Louis Farrakhan, and Muhammad Ali, is an American offshoot of the religion of Islam. As with mainstream Islam, the NOI preaches adherence to the five pillars of Islam, personal modesty, eschewing pork, and many other similarities. They differ from mainstream Islam in that they also preach black supremacy and that their founder, Wallace Fard Muhammad, was the Christian Messiah and the Muslim Mahdi (much the same thing). With its own religious text, doctrinal differences with traditionalists, and American origin, the Nation of Islam can be seen as analogous to Mormonism, and its reception has often been similar (frosty at best, hostile at worst).
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* '''Native American spirituality''' has still held on at reservations.
* '''[[Church of Happyology|Scientology]]''' is a... [[Internet Backdraft|highly controversial religious movement]] founded in the United States. They claim to have over three million members in America, but most estimates put their numbers at below 100,000. They have lots of missionaries giving "Free Stress Tests" or the like, and many are attracted from the "Free" offer. However, most "converts" leave soon after they find out about the exorbitant prices one must pay to continue on the Bridge, as well as the practice of shunning non-members or "SPs". They are extremely well-represented in Hollywood, due to their practice of proselytizing toward celebrities (who are usually rich enough to afford the thousands of dollars that their programs cost) in order to use them as spokespeople to gain further converts. They also have a strong presence in Clearwater, Florida, often called "Scientology's Town", where they have their headquarters.
* '''[
* '''The Church of [[Satan]]''' was founded in [[The Sixties]] by Anton LaVey in [[San Francisco]]. Sources state that there are about 10-20,000 official members of the Church of Satan in the United States, and there are possibly tens of thousands more who adhere to the philosophy or one of its offshoots. Despite their name and reputation, they [[Non-Indicative Name|do not actually worship Satan]], being an atheistic organization rooted in a mix of pseudo-[[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzschean]] philosophy<ref>LaVey claimed inspiration from [[Useful Notes/Objectivism|Objectivism]], but his philosophy is significantly different.</ref> and the theatrics of [[Aleister Crowley]] and other occultists. They chose the name because they feel that Satan, the original rebel in Christian theology, is a role model for people to look up to, and that the Christian message of tolerance, humility, and egalitarianism is self-destructive for both individuals and society. (That, and [[No Such Thing As Bad Publicity|nothing draws attention]] like calling yourself the Church of Satan.) Note that the Church of Satan is not to be confused with...
** '''The Worldwide Satanic Church of Evil''', which is ''not'' a real church -- although that hasn't stopped thousands of [[Urban Legends]]. Since time immemorial, many religious groups have claimed that there is an evil [[Cult]] that performs occult rituals, [[Human Sacrifice]], and other evil acts. <ref>The Church of Satan actually did perform Black Masses during their heyday, but they were purely for show and to spark controversy.</ref> Fear of Satanism turned into [[The New Rock and Roll|a moral panic]] back in [[The Eighties]] following the publication of ''Michelle Remembers'', a book [[Based on a Great Big Lie|purporting to be]] an expose of an underground, worldwide Satanic organization with millions of members performing horrific acts on children. The ensuing panic over "[[Useful Notes/Conspiracy Theories|Satanic ritual abuse]]" did lasting damage to the day care industry (which was hit hard by dozens of allegations of Satanic abuse) and social services (which jumped onto the Satanism bandwagon early, and saw a huge backlash once Satanic abuse became discredited), and even saw Proctor & Gamble forced to change its logo following accusations that its original logo was Satanic (they would be awarded $19 million in damages from the people who spread the rumors, which had caused their stock to plummet).
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