Faith & Freedom in America

While the majority of people living in the American colonies at the time of the American Revolution were protestant Christians, people of other religious faiths also enlisted in the continental army and otherwise helped with the war effort. Catholics comprised just 1.6% of the population, but most were patriots. Some Jewish and Muslim Americans also fought with the Patriots.

The first organized Jewish migration to what became the United States began in 1654. A group of Sephardic Jews who had fled the Portuguese Inquisition arrived in New Amsterdam (now New York) in the autumn of that year. They quickly secured rights to own property and trade, and ended punitive taxes based on their religion. This provided Jews with more rights than religious minorities in the first English colonies and much of Europe at the time.

In 1649, Maryland passed the Act Concerning Religion, now known as the Toleration Act, which was intended to protect Catholic settlers from persecution from Anglican Protestants. The law protected free exercise of religion for Trinitarian Christians, but it also imposed harsh penalties (even death) for certain religious offences. There are several other contenders for the title of the first law establishing religious freedom. Roger Williams established Rhode Island in 1636 as a refuge from religious persecution, a principle codified in the colony’s royal charter of 1663. In 1682, Pennsylvania passed the Act of Freedom of Conscience, providing broader protections for religious practice. Religious toleration in the English colonies always included exceptions. Atheism was not yet considered to be a valid orientation toward religion, and minority religions like Native American religious practices, Catholicism, and Judaism were marginalized.

Chinese immigrants brought their Buddhist faith to America during the California Gold Rush. By 1853, the first Buddhist temple had been established in San Francisco. Amid discrimination, exclusion, and anti-immigrant sentiments, the California Supreme Court nevertheless upheld the immigrants’ right to practice their Buddhist faith in Eldridge v. See Yup Company.

America’s first gurdwara opened in 1911 in northern California. While the gurdwara was primarily a house of worship for Sikhs, the community’s leadership decided to open the doors to Hindus and Muslims as well. Both communities were too small to build their own houses of worship, and the Stockton gurdwara became a religious and community center for Indian immigrants from all three religions for decades. The gurdwara remains a meeting space for the community today.

The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, had a presence in the American colonies prior to the revolution. Anglican clergy were ordained in England and prayed for the king as the head of the church. In the wake of the Declaration of Independence, congregations across the new United States rejected praying for the king of England. Seeking to maintain their religious beliefs without betraying their nation, Anglicans in America formed the Episcopal Church in 1789.

It is thought that upwards of 30% of enslaved Africans held captive in the American south were Muslims. Many preserved their religious traditions such as praying in Arabic and abstaining from pork and alcohol whenever possible despite their enslavement. The oldest recorded Blues music bears a striking resemblance to the Islamic call to prayer, and many musicologists now believe that The Blues has its roots in the music, instruments, and techniques of enslaved African Muslims. While many enslaved people converted to Christianity because of force or convenience, the Islamic influence on Black American culture lives on through The Blues

In 1790, President Washington travelled to Rhode Island, where he met with leaders of several religious groups, including a fledgling Jewish congregation. Moses Seixas, one of the officials of the congregation, presented an impassioned letter to the President praising the government’s commitment to religious and civil freedom. Washington, moved by the congregation’s letter, responded with his now famous “Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, Rhode Island,” which articulates America’s early commitments to pluralism, the idea that diverse ethnic, racial, religious, and social groups who maintain and develop their traditional culture can coexist in a shared society.

Quakers, also known as Friends, began immigrating to the colonies in 1656 to escape persecution in Europe. In 1681, King Charles granted William Penn, a Quaker, a charter for the land that became Pennsylvania. Penn advertised the new colony as a place where settlers would be guaranteed religious freedom. Traditionally, Quakers were pacifists and did not believe in violence, regardless of the cause. Many Quakers participated in the revolution through embargoes on British goods and other nonviolent action. A different group, known as the Free Quakers, chose to participate in the war despite the doctrine of nonviolence and were expelled from the broader Quaker community as a result.

At sundown on December 9, 1805, President Jefferson hosted the first iftar at the White House when Tunisia’s Muslim envoy to the United States visited the country during Ramadan. President George W. Bush made the White House iftar an annual celebration during his eight years in office, a practice his successors have continued.

Diversity is the presence of people with different identities. Pluralism describes the active engagement of those diverse identities toward a positive end. Diana Eck of Harvard’s Pluralism Project says, “Pluralism isn’t just the fact of diversity, but how we respond to it.” In a pluralistic society, people can hold on to their diverse identities and still participate in a common community.