Religion has played a major role in American society since 1619. Consider the Second Great Awakening and transcendentalism; in what ways did they reflect antebellum society's concerns? What was the Second Great Awakening's influence on abolition, women's status, and the poor?

150-250 word response.

Among developed nations, the USA is one of the most religious, where the majority of adult citizens adhere to Christianity (78.5%). American religious marketing is quite volatile, with almost half of American adults leaving the tradition of faith to one or another faithfulness or abandoning religious affiliation altogether.

Several of the original 13 colonies were established by English colonists who wished to practice their own religion without discrimination. Pennsylvania was established by Quakers, Maryland by Roman Catholics, and the Massachusetts Bay colony by Puritans.

The USA was one of the first countries to enact the separation of church and state and religious freedom. Modeling the provisions on religion within the Virginia Statute for religious freedom, the founders of the United States Constitution rejected the religious test for the office, and the First Amendment specifically denied the central government any power to enact any law establishing a official religion, or forbidding its free exercise. The founders were mainly influenced by Enlightenment ideals, but they also considered the pragmatic interests of minority religious groups that did not want to be under the power or influence of a state religion that did not represent them.

Catholics are the largest single religious group in the US Congress. They are about a quarter of the adult population in the United States and reach 30% in number of representatives in the legislature. The survey is from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which analyzed the composition of members of the United States House and Senate regarding their religious origin.