U. S. Presidents: Religious affiliations



The White House (by UpstateNYer)

What did Lyndon Johnson and James Garfield have in common besides the White House?  According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, they were both affiliated with the Disciples of Christ.

Martin Van Buren and Theodore Roosevelt were both listed by this Pew Forum as Dutch Reformed - Richard Nixon and Herbert Hoover as Quaker.  John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore and William Howard Taft were listed as Unitarian – and John F. Kennedy as Catholic.  Calvin Coolidge was listed as Congregationalist – and Barack Obama as United

Church of Christ (since he had been a member for more than 20 years).  Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman and Warren Harding were listed as Baptist – whereas Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson were listed as having no formal affiliation.  George W. Bush, William McKinley, Rutherford Hayes and Ulysses Grant were listed as Methodist.

The two longest listings were for Presbyterians and Episcopalians.  A total of eleven U. S. Presidents were listed as Episcopalian:  George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Franklin Roosevelt, Chester Arthur, Franklin Pierce, Zachary Taylor, John Tyler, William Harrison, James Monroe, James Madison, and George

Washington.  Nine were listed as Presbyterian:  Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, James Buchanan, James Polk, and Andrew Jackson.

A discerning reader might immediately note the absence of any non-Christian religious affiliations (and of atheists, too, for that matter).  A discerning reader might also wonder why Episcopalians and Presbyterians together comprise almost half of the total listed.  Regarding this latter point, Wikipedia explains that the “Episcopal Church had been the Church of England before the American Revolution and was the state

religion in some states (such as New York and Virginia).”

Another point worth noting is that these Pew listings are based upon formal religious affiliations, and not necessarily upon more private beliefs.

Resources

http://www.pewforum.org/The-Religious-Affiliations-of-US-Presidents.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_affiliations_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States