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How Did Religion Change America

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Religion heavily altered and transformed America throughout the New World into the 21st century. Religion affects the way a person believes and behaves, which plays an enormous role in how a person’s life turns out. Religion influenced a politician’s decisions, decided who could hold office and who would be hired.
Religion has influenced politics in a positive way. Before religion was heavily involved in politics, politicians made decisions for the betterment of the country, not the people. Government officials did not care if their decisions were moral or not. No morality in politics, all changed with religion starting to get involved in politics. Before making decisions, politicians started to think about the ramifications of their decisions to the people. Politicians started to wonder if their decisions were immoral or not in the eyes of God. Politicians with these new found beliefs started to make more rational decisions. Their decisions were less harmful and more humane. The United States Declaration of Independence was celebrated by …show more content…

Throughout American history, religion has limited the people’s rights. Some states did not have religious freedom. People couldn’t hold office because of their religion. For example, in 1783 in Philadelphia, Jews couldn’t be a member of the general assembly in Philadelphia because they had to acknowledge “the scriptures of the old and new Testament to be given by divine inspiration” (Petition of the Philadelphia Synagogue to Council of Censors of Philadelphia). This religious condition to become a member of the general assembly in Philadelphia was unjust and discriminatory for Jews. The scriptures of the old and new Testament couldn’t be recited by Jews because that’s not what Jews believed in and Christians in Philadelphia’s government knew this. Thus, religious freedom was not being practiced for a short period in Philadelphia after the Declaration of Independence was

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In Colonial America, during the 1600’s and 1700’s, there were religious, political and geographical changes which resulted in democratic and undemocratic changes. Religion had a big impact on Colonial America. Maryland had to pass the Act of Toleration because too many people were not able to exercise their religion freely. (document 1) The act stated that nobody in Maryland who exercises their religion will be embarrassed and is free to do so willingly, however this act only applied to Christians.

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Dontae Joseph AP U.S. History Grade 11 Europeans had gone to the New World is search of wealth, power, or religious reasons, all had hoped for a better than in Europe. Religion was one of the reasons why the colonies had first developed, it helped create religious freedom and allowed people to continues their religious practice without persecution. However, not all the colonies had centered themselves around religion. In the early American colonies religion had a big impact on the development in the New England, Chesapeake, and Mid-Atlantic Colonies.

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To be free also came with other obstacles such as cutting off trade with other countries and suffering persecution from the King of Great Britain but both men still believed in the cause and their dreams of a nation “under God.” The language in the Declaration of Independance was so powerful because it showed citizens they still had a chance of freedom. Thomas Jefferson quotes in his script “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” That was a powerful language, especially to all the men who were fighting for our freedoms. Another one of his quotes “Give me liberty or give me death” was a quote he was admired for.

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This political discrimination towards men with the wrong beliefs led to Jefferson’s support for religious freedom. Consequently, Jefferson’s ideas and reasons to affirm the idea of religious personal preference, to end the forced practices of the unpopular Anglican church, to uphold the ideals of inherent civil rights, and to enable citizens to hold office positions regardless of faith sparked a change in America and impacted society in countless

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By making this argument, this further shows that instead of being a Christian, Thomas Jefferson was a Deist. To further continue, Thomas Jefferson proposed the Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom in 1786. Its goal was to separate the church from the state. Though there are good reasons to separate the church from the state, it also showed that Thomas Jefferson didn’t like the church presence in the governmental role. In fact, Thomas Jefferson disagreed with Christian ministry and in fact believed the church clergy were corrupt.

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He knew that religious persecution ensued when intolerance ran rampant; so through this notion of protecting his fellow citizen’s rights, he came to differentiate the rulers sphere of power from the “rights of the conscious”. This philosophical ideology of the “rights of the conscious” lays out the groundwork still used today in support for religious equality and tolerance. This is a pivotal idea. To avoid the religious persecution of citizens of the early Republic, Jefferson encouraged the separation of natural rights from governmental policy. This produced an ideology

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Thomas Jefferson desired a democracy where governmental decisions would not be affected by religious beliefs and biased views of the situation. Thomas Jefferson viewed separation of church and state here is some of his insight on the topic, “...legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, ' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties” (Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists). Jefferson became the sole author for the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which became the the most important religious separationist papers of the 1700’s. Jefferson’s ideas and writings for separation of church and state helped to form the American Enlightenment period, and to further his ideals based upon his

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This newfound freedom in the Protestant sector of Religion inspired the Methodists to create a legacy and reform their ways to keep up with the newly evolved America. Presbyterians eventually got involved in the evolution of the churches as well, making sure their blatant dis-agreeance to slavery was well understood. As a result of the war, Thomas Jefferson made a pass at enforcing a bill to eradicate England’s monopoly on American Religion. The bill was originally written in 1779, but was turned down due to its wild and uncommon nature. The bill was to allow townspeople to choose which church and church like entity their money would support instead of all the money from taxes going to England and English churches that the Americans no longer wished to be part of.

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