2,630 Religions in U.S. According to Study (CNN)
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Friday, January 31, 2003
SANTA BARBARA, California (AP) -- Americans are proud of their freedom
of religion, and the work of J. Gordon Melton shows they have a whole
lot of religions to choose from.
The Roman Catholic Church may be huge but it's only one among 116
Catholic denominations. Orthodox Christians have an even higher total,
and Protestantism is notoriously splintered; its Pentecostal segment
alone counts groups by the hundreds.
There's a denomination for practically everyone.
If the Episcopal Church won't do, worshippers can move leftward into the
Metaphysical Episcopal Church or Free Episcopal Church, or rightward
into dozens of breakaways like the Anglican Mission in America.
Does Unitarianism seem too conventional? The denomination offers a
subgroup of Unitarian Universalist Pagans.
Moving further from the mainstream, there's always the Church of God
Anonymous, the Nudist Christian Church of the Blessed Virgin Jesus or
the Only Fair Religion.
All are among 2,630 U.S. and Canadian faith groups described in the new
edition of the indispensable "Encyclopedia of American Religion."
Melton, a one-time United Methodist pastor and part-time instructor at
UC Santa Barbara, treats each entry with nonpartisan objectivity and --
when necessary -- a straight face.
The total includes ecumenical organizations, loosely knit movements and
defunct faiths. But most are still-existing denominations with distinct
flocks (Melton prefers to call them "primary religious groups").
Melton's task includes placing religions into 26 "families" -- and then
breaking those down into subcategories. For instance, his "Psychic New
Age" family includes Sun Myung Moon's Unification movement, Jim Jones'
suicidal People's Temple and the Church of Scientology.
Among religions difficult to classify are the eight that practice drug
use, 22 that believe in UFOs -- including the Raelians at the center of
the recent human cloning claims -- and 12 mail-order religions that
dispense instant clergy credentials or divinity degrees.
Melton is especially adept at tracking obscure, smaller groups. He's an
expert on occultism and takes pride in discovering religions that
practice rigorous secrecy, such as the Kennedy Worshippers, who have
made the late U.S. president into a divinity, and the Two-by-Two's, a
network of nomadic evangelists.
Other Melton mentions:
-- All-One-God-Faith Inc. (based in Escondido, California) is simply a
soap company that spreads its eclectic doctrines through the labels of
its products.
-- The Church of the New Song, which has no formal headquarters,
recruits prison inmates and once claimed porterhouse steaks and Harvey's
Bristol Cream to be its communion elements.
-- The Embassy of Heaven (Stayton, Oregon) considers all earthly
governments illegitimate and takes the logical step of issuing its own
auto license plates.
-- The Worldwide Church of God (Pasadena, California) did something no
other new religion ever has, rapidly reverting to standard Christian
theology after the death of idiosyncratic founder Herbert W. Armstrong,
known for his "World Tomorrow" broadcasts and Plain Truth magazine.
Two points emerge to Melton from all his counting, tracking and
compiling.
The United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world --
especially since immigration laws loosened in 1965 -- though Europe as a
whole is comparable. Christianity is the biggest single element: 70
percent of Americans belong to "some brand of Christian church."
What's more distinct, Melton says, is that America "is certainly the
most religious country that has ever existed, in terms of voluntarily
taking part in religion. There's no country to equal us, to date." The
turning point was World War II when "the majority of the public became
church members for the first time."
He thinks diversity contributes to that.
"The Christian groups know they have to compete. It keeps them alive,
growing, and adapting, not resting on their laurels as groups in the
majority tend to do," he says.