The relationship between religion in the British colonies and religion today is complex. Let us look at two ways in which they are related to show this complexity.
In at least one way, colonial religion was the forerunner of today’s religion. The Great Awakening was a major religious revival in colonial times. This revival encouraged a more democratic religion with little hierarchy. It also encouraged people to have a more emotional relationship with their religion. These are aspects of religion that are very much in evidence in evangelical Christianity today. Evangelical churches tend to focus on their members’ personal relationship with God and they tend to be autonomous with no hierarchy that can order their pastors to do anything in particular.
However, in another way, colonial religion was the opposite of religion today. In a sense, we moved far away from colonial religion when we became independent. Every colony had...
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an established official religion. People had to pay taxes to support that religion. In some colonies, particularly the Puritan ones, town governments were essentially theocracies at some points in colonial history. These sorts of things were one reason why the First Amendment banned established religions. In this way, colonial religion was diametrically opposed to our current ways of observing religious freedom.
Thus, our relationship with colonial religion is partly negative and partly positive.
How do English colonies influence American religion today?
Religion in American during the 1700s was vastly more homogenous than exists today. The Protestant denominations that dominated throughout the colonies, a legacy of the Crown of England's "Great Awakening," were the overwhelming religious influences during the period of colonization.
Over the ensuing 200 years, increased immigration from Ireland, the European continent, China, Muslim regions, and every other region of the globe created a broad diversity of religious affiliation throughout the United States. Today, virtually every conceivable religion is represented in the United States, from Buddhism to Catholicism, from Judaism to Islam. One of the fastest growing religions in America is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons.
Freedom of religion, one of the central tenets of the U.S. Constitution, has been a strong motivator for persecuted religious minorities to emigrate to the United States over the last 100 years. The early prevalence of Protestant denominations, the result of English colonization, remain strong, but the diversity that exists today has transformed the way religion is discussed in the country today.
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