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ReligionArticle VI, paragraph 3 of the U.S. Constitution stipulates, “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”The article implicitly precludes any questions on the religious affiliation or beliefs of a president, a fact that many claim, were purposely engineered by the Founding Fathers to accommodate the Unitarian and Deist beliefs among several of them, a few whom would later become president of the country. This is further reinforced with the introduction of The 14th Amendment, adopted on July 9, 1868, which states: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."There is no denying that the religious affiliations of several former presidents are suspect. Twelve in particular have been mired in controversy for the longest of time. •John Adams •Chester Arthur •Ulysses S. Grant •William Henry Harrison •Rutherford B. Hayes •Thomas Jefferson •Andrew Johnson •Abraham Lincoln •James Madison •James Monroe •Zachary Taylor •John Tyler There is also the disagreement behind the classification of 21 former presidents as Episcopalian. The closest church to the White House, at one time, was the St. John’s Church, of the Episcopalian denomination. Located a stone throws’ away from the White House, the church was reputed to be highly selective of its members, and admission were seen as a status symbol, prompting many to claim affiliation. Case in point was on the assertion that Martin Van Buren and John Tyler were Episcopalians, when there was evidence that van Buren was a practicing Dutch Reformist/Protestant in New York while Tyler’s only surviving quote on religion was in defense of Catholics! Former President Eisenhower’s affiliation is also another cloudy area, as there is strong evidence he was a Jehovah Witness instead of Presbyterian. However, for the purpose of brevity, we’ve compiled a list that presents the majority view of the religious affiliations of our presidents. List of Presidential Religious Affiliation by Denomination Baptist Warren Harding, Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton Catholic John F. Kennedy Congregationalist Calvin Coolidge, Barack Obama (United Church of Christ) Disciple of Christ James Garfield, Lyndon Johnson Dutch Reformed Martin van Buren and Theodore Roosevelt Episcopalian James Madison, James Monroe, William Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Chester Arthur, Franklin Roosevelt, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush Methodist Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley and George W. Bush Presbyterian Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan Quaker Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon Unitarian John Adams, John Quincy Adams, William Howard Taft and Millard Filmore Unconfirmed George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson How do the candidates stand? |
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