Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Most of the Founders who agreed to this 1789 amendment were Deists, Unitarians, Quakers and almost anything but what predominates in the USA today. They would not have liked fundamentalists of any stripe -- and nor do I. As a Voltaire Catholic, I dig the First Amendment, and in part because of it, choose to live in the USA.
Note how Baptists (and other evangelical Protestant sects) stand out in the South: the entire 1861 Confederacy is there, shorn only of Texas and Florida. Mississippi (home of Jefferson Davis, the anti-Lincoln president of the CSA) and South Carolina (the chief fomenter of Secession) especially stand out. No surprise with Utah as Mormon bastion; nor with Catholic pluralities in various states; nor even with the pluralities of Lutherans and Methodists in small-population states.
Next in line after "no religion," a relatively small but compact Jewish population. No big surprise in settlement patterns.
Up and coming groups: people affiliated with Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and "other religions." By 2010, the Protestant Christian segment will have fallen from a majority to a plurality of the overall population's stated affiliation.
Today's Rune: Opening.
4 comments:
Ok, Erik. Now I have to look up 'voltaire catholic'!
It's amazing how much influence that 1.7% of Jewish population has on the foreign policy of the USA, though.
Louisiana is seriously Catholic, though Arkansas where I grew up was certainly Baptist, and they let the Catholics know it at times.
Thanks all for the comments~~
Jodi, I just did, too -- it's funny what turns up that way. Jamie -- as with Cuban Americans, influence on specific pieces of American foreign policy, certainly (Israel policy, Cuba policy). Charles, true dat!
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