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an established national religion would have imposed.

The early colonists experimented with a local government featuring an established religion. Under the guidance of John Winthrop, the Puritans were able to modify the charter of the trading company that was financing their settlement in the Massachusetts Bay area. Its government became theocratic, with only selected members of the church able to vote and rule. This was later relaxed somewhat, but was still restrictive. At first this anti-democratic model was successful, and Massachusetts Bay expanded their rule over much of New England. But dissatisfaction mounted, members were banished and sometimes executed, and alternate forms of government established themselves, particularly in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Freedom and religious governance had already proved they don't mix well.

Over a hundred and fifty years passed between the 1620s and 1630s when the Pilgrims and Puritans settled in the New England colonies and 1787 when the constitutional convention was held. During that time the religious fervor ebbed, burst forth again in the revivalist "Great Awakening" of the 1730s and 1740s, and then ebbed yet again. England had undergone a series of civil wars that overthrew the Church of England's tyranny over that country's religious practices in 1651, so the persecutions that had driven those of strong religious convictions to emigrate had ended. Arriving immigrants had a mixture of other motivations.

Religions other than Christianity made their appearance. In 1658 a Jewish community settled in Rhode Island. Somewhat over a hundred years later, in 1763, they had constructed the first synagogue in America, predating even the 1776 Declaration of Independence. Named the Touro Synagogue, it is now a national historic site. George Washington visited this synagogue in Newport in 1790 as part of a good will tour of the thirteen states of the new nation. In reply to an address by the Jewish congregation there, George Washington sent a written reply. A portion of this message reads: "The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights ... May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants."

In the years since, many other religions have taken root in the United States of America, nourished by the freedom and liberty that this first modern democracy provided. Approximately three-fourths of United States citizens are either Protestant or Roman Catholic, according to an estimate by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's "The World Factbook". Another 2% are Mormon. Christianity is clearly the predominant religion in "the home of the free." But each religion, no matter how many adherents it has gained, enjoys the same status under the law. Each is free to compete in the marketplace of ideas with all other religions and opinions about religion. They are all, in the eyes of the government, equal.

Learn more about this author, Charles Hughes.
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