Religion shaped the American society in many ways. Most of the people who came to America were in search of religious freedom. Their hope was to escape the religious persecution they were facing in their countries and they did not want to establish a church like the Church of England. The colonists wanted a chance to worship freely and have an opportunity to choose which religion they wanted to take part in. Upon arriving in America (the first pilgrims arrived at the beginning of the 17th century), their journey began for the search of the “perfect” religion that could satisfy the needs of the people.
Many religious groups (such as the Quakers and Puritans) formed the first 13 colonies on the basis of their religious beliefs. Although the plan was to escape persecution, as example of the Puritans, there was actually some amount of persecution happening in the colonies. Eventually this persecution was ended and other religions began to appear. Baptists, Roman Catholics and Protestants organized in Maryland. Later came the Lutherans, who formed in the German communities in Pennsylvania, and the Presbyterians. Religious diversity had become a dominant part of colonial life. The colonies were a patchwork of religiously diverse communities and, as a result, the population of America increased quickly. People from all over the world wanted the freedom that was found in America and they began to move their homelands to America. Groups such as the Scotch-Irish and Germans were among the first to begin that emigration to America. As a result, religious persecution was beginning to diminish and religious freedom began to replace it. Although most colonists considered themselves Christians, this did not mean that they lived in a culture of religious unity. Instead, differing Christian groups often believed that their own practices and faiths provided unique values that needed protection against those who disagreed, driving a need for rule and regulation.
In Europe, Catholic and Protestant nations often persecuted or forbade each other’s religions, and British colonists frequently maintained restrictions against Catholics. In Great Britain, the Protestant Anglican church had split into bitter divisions among traditional Anglicans and the reforming Puritans, contributing to an English civil war in the 1600s. In the British colonies, differences among Puritan and Anglican remained.
Between 1680 and 1760 Anglicanism and Congregationalism, an offshoot of the English Puritan movement, established themselves as the main organized denominations in the majority of the colonies. As the seventeenth and eighteenth century passed on, however, the Protestant wing of Christianity constantly gave birth to new movements, such as the Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Unitarians and many more, sometimes referred to as “Dissenters.” In communities where one existing faith was dominant, new congregations were often seen as unfaithful troublemakers who were upsetting the social order.
Christianity was further complicated by the widespread practice of astrology, alchemy and forms of witchcraft. The fear of such practices can by gauged by the famous trials held in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 and 1693. Surprisingly, alchemy and other magical practices were not altogether divorced from Christianity in the minds of many “natural philosophers” (the precursors of scientists), who sometimes thought of them as experiments that could unlock the secrets of Scripture. As we might expect, established clergy discouraged these explorations
Religion also became a dominant part of American politics. In 1649, the Act Concerning Religion was enacted. This act has even been considered one of the greatest additions to the freedom of religion in America. Later political documents included the Massachusetts Proposals and the Adopting Act of 1729. The Bill of Rights added to religious freedom with the First Amendment.
Eventually, the issue of church and state became a topic of debate. According to Clifton Olmstead, author of History of Religion in United States, the separation of church and state was completed by the Constitution in 1777 . There were numerous groups of people who disagreed with the separation. Some even thought that it would have no effect on the growth of religion in the United States. Olmstead quotes a Congregationalist minister about his idea of the separation: “It was as dark a day as ever I saw. The odium thrown upon the ministry was inconceivable. The injury done to the cause of Christ, as we then supposed, was irreparable. For several days I suffered what no tongue can tell for the best thing that ever happened to the State of Connecticut. It cut the churches loose from dependence on state support. It threw them wholly on their own resources and on God. . . .They say ministers have lost their influence; the fact is, they have gained. By voluntary efforts, societies, missions, and revivals, they exert a deeper influence than ever they could by queues and shoe buckles, and cocked hats and gold-headed canes”.
Overall, religion was an important aspect in the colonization of America. It became a dominant part of the lives of the colonists and continued to grow over the years. Events such as the Salem Witchcraft Trials of the 1690’s and the Great Awakening of the 1730’s only increased the influence of religion in America. America had become a refuge for those who wanted religious freedom and became a home to the many people that had the chance to improve their lives.
The main event that had repercussions on the American society was the Great Awakening.
By the eighteenth century, the vast majority of all colonists were churchgoers.
The New England colonists, with the exception of Rhode Island, were predominantly Puritans, who, by and large, led strict religious lives. The clergy was highly educated and devoted to the study and teaching of both Scripture and the natural sciences. The Puritan leadership and gentry, especially in Massachusetts and Connecticut, integrated their version of Protestantism into their political structure
Despite many affinities with the established Church of England, New England churches operated quite differently from the older Anglican system in England. Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut had no church courts to levy fines on religious offenders, leaving that function to the civil magistrates. Congregational churches typically owned no property (even the local meetinghouse was owned by the town and was used to conduct both town meetings and religious services), and ministers, while often called upon to advise the civil magistrates, played no official role in town or colony governments.
A religious revival swept the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. Jonathan Edwards, an American theologian, delivered a sermon entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” stirring up a wave of religious fervor which initiated the Great Awakening. Relying on massive open-air sermons attended at times by as many as 15,000 people, the movement challenged the clerical elite and colonial establishment by focusing on the sinfulness of every individual, and on salvation through personal, emotional conversion. By discounting worldly success as a sign of God’s favor, and by focusing on emotional transformation (pejoratively dubbed by the establishment as “enthusiasm”) rather than reason, the movement appealed to the poor and uneducated, including slaves and Indians.
In retrospect, the Great Awakening contributed to the revolutionary movement in a number of ways: it forced Awakeners to organize, mobilize, petition, and provided them with political experience; it encouraged believers to follow their beliefs even if that meant breaking with their church; it discarded clerical authority in matters of conscience; and it questioned the right of civil authority to intervene in all matters of religion. In a surprising way, these principles sat very well with the basic beliefs of rational Protestants (and deists). They also helped clarify their common objections to British civil and religious rule over the colonies, and provided both with arguments in favor of the separation of church and state.