Every President's Religion

who's religious I'm Mr beat and apparently religion is on the decline of the United States so Gallup has been polling and measuring this since 1937 and as recently as 1999 when they asked Americans do you belong to a church a synagogue or a mosque 70 said yes but then you fast forward to 2021 just a little over two decades and they found that only 47 percent of Americans answered yes however it's still very difficult for a political candidate today to get elected if they are not religious in fact candidates often hype up how religious they are by making sure media Outlets know when they are going to church see look at me I'm going to church I'm a good boy the current U.S President Joe Biden identifies as a Roman Catholic making him only the second American president in history to be Catholic around 22 percent of Americans identify as Catholic I know a lot about Roman Catholicism I was raised Catholic I went to Catholic grade school most of my family is Hardcore Catholic but did you know there was once a time in this country when running for president as a Catholic was considered a liability it's true when Al Smith ran for President in 1928 he faced widespread anti-catholic sentiment against him which is at least partially why he lost that election even when John F Kennedy ran for president in 1960 there was still a lot of anti-catholic sentiment in the country to a point where Kennedy even gave a speech addressing his religious views I am not the Catholic candidate for president I am the Democratic parties candidate for president what happens also to be a Catholic I do not speak for my church on public matters and the church does not speak for me article 6 Clause 3 of the U.S Constitution says you can't be forced to take a religious test in order to hold a government position but obviously voters can be biased against or for candidates based on their religion in this video I'm going to look at the religion of every president in American history and some of them might just surprise you [Music] George Washington historians have long debated Washington's religious views because he rarely spoke of them officially he was Episcopalian he was originally baptized as an infant into the church of England but it was reorganized as the Episcopal church after the American Revolution while he did donate money to various churches his church attendance was inconsistent John Adams Adams was raised a congregationalist but as an adult he had major issues with calvinist beliefs like predestination eternity and hell and the Divinity of Jesus Christ so he left the religion of his Puritan ancestors becoming a Unitarian compared to Washington Adams was pretty clear about his religious beliefs and regularly attended church services Thomas Jefferson because of his lifelong crusade to separate church and state and his early campaigns to in-state supportive religion many doubted that he was religious at all in fact when Jeff Jefferson ran against John Adams for president and the quite nasty election of 1800 Adam's supporters accused Jefferson of being an atheist however Jefferson always took religion seriously he was raised an Episcopalian but similar to Adams later in life rejected the Divinity of Jesus Christ while Jefferson did believe in God and follow the teachings of Jesus his actual religious views were constantly evolving and somewhat all over the place he famously went through the New Testament and took out all the Miracles and Jesus Divinity stuff and just left in the teachings of Jesus today this is known as the Jefferson Bible which I actually own a copy of though there is no evidence that he ever referred to himself as such historians over the years have commonly referred to Jefferson as a Christian deist James Madison similar to Washington Madison tried to keep a much lower profile in regards to his religion officially he was also an Episcopalian but apparently many of his religious opinions were more in line with the deism of Jefferson or the Unitarianism of Adams James Monroe oh hey we got another Episcopalian but we know less about Monroe's religious beliefs than most other presidents he was very hush-hush about it and some speculate he was similar to Jefferson and Madison with deist leaning views John Quincy Adams like father like son Quincy Adams was a Unitarian like his father viafore mentioned John Adams he perhaps was even more liberally minded with his religion being more outspokenly critical of mainstream Christianity he was only one of two presidents not to take the oath of office swearing in by placing his hand on a Bible he chose instead to place his hand on the U.S Constitution ironically he later became president of the American Bible society Andrew Jackson Jackson may have not been well known as a religious man but he did attend church somewhat regularly throughout his life he identified as a presbyterian but similar to Jefferson was a big advocate for that wall between church and state Martin Van Buren Van Buren at least somewhat attended a Dutch Reformed Church in his hometown of Kinderhook New York apparently he sang loud and proud during Services William Henry Harrison yet another Episcopalian little is known about Harrison's spiritual life however apparently he was a member of the committee that helped run the Christ Episcopal Church in Cincinnati Ohio for a while John Tyler also Episcopalian although he did not have strict loyalty to the Episcopal Church also it's not clear that he ever went to church much Tyler rarely brought up religion but did voice strong support to religious tolerance and separation of church and state similar to Jackson and Jefferson James Polk here's a bit of a weird one Hulk came from a presbyterian upbringing but was never officially baptized as one since the local Presbyterian minister in rural North Carolina refused to baptize him why did he refuse to baptize him apparently since Polk's dad was a deist the minister refused to baptize James unless his dad accepted presbyterianism which he did not do still into adulthood Polk and his wife Sarah regularly attended Presbyterian church services when Polk was 38 he supposedly had a conversion experience at a Methodist camp meeting and for the rest of his life considered himself Methodist um while still attending Presbyterian Services only on his deathbed did he get baptized as a Methodist Zachary Taylor wasn't that religious but officially he identified as perhaps mainly because his wife Margaret's was a devout Episcopalian I like to imagine Margaret's dragging Zachary out of bed and forcing him to join her in church services every Sunday morning Millard Fillmore like John Adams and John Quincy Adams before him Fillmore was a Unitarian and a bit of a progressive on the issue of the role of religion in society like Tyler Jackson and Jefferson before him he was vocal about a strict separation of church and state saying once quote I am tolerant of all Creeds yet if any sect suffered itself to be used for political objects I would meet it by political opposition religion and politics should not be mingled unquote once in a debate with political rival William Seward he disagreed with Seward about public tax money arguing that it should never be used to fund religious Schools Franklin Pierce oh look another Episcopal million for most of his life however this was not the case Pierce was certainly not religious as a younger man known more for being a bit of a party animal however after he married Jane Appleton a devoutly religious congregationalist whose father was a minister he started to go to church with her they both suffered so many tragedies in their lives such as the death of their children and their religion was one constant thing they turned to to cope only after Pierce was out of office did he become baptized as a member of the Episcopal Church James Buchanan Buchanan was raised a presbyterian but actually attended and supported several different Christian denominations throughout his life after his presidency he returned to the Presbyterian Church Abraham Lincoln there has been lots of speculation about Lincoln's True Religion in reality it seems Lincoln never officially had any religion his parents raised him in the Baptist Faith with a sort of evangelicalism and calvinist mix but Lincoln was never really into all that too much the older he got the more he brought up God during one of the darkest moments of the American Civil War he once said quote the will of God prevails in great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God both may be and one must be wrong God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time I am almost ready to say this is probably true that God Wills this contest and wills that it shall not end yet by his mere quiet power on the minds of the now contestants he could have either saved or destroyed the union without a human contest yet the contest began and having begun he could give the final Victory to either side any day yet the contest proceeds unquote some argued he was a presbyterian because supposedly he he and his wife Mary went to some Presbyterian Services others have argued he was a deist like Thomas Jefferson some even call him an atheist although there is little evidence for that the bottom line is there is no concrete evidence that the Beloved Lincoln ever had any religion whatsoever Andrew Johnson Johnson identified as a Christian but never had any formal affiliation with any church Johnson wasn't big on the dogma of the Bible so he never really felt comfortable at any church he would join his wife Eliza at Methodist Services sometimes but stopped going after its involvement in his impeachment hearings he also liked to attend Roman Catholic Services saying quote there were no high-priced views and no reserved seats no old woman with a Calico dress and poke Bonnet sitting up high and being as welcome as the richest unquote oh and Johnson's opponents love to call him an Infidel for never belong belonging to any Church Ulysses Grant Grant wasn't a big fan of organized religion and got in trouble at West Point for not attending religious Services however later on he did join his wife Julia at Methodist Services he is often categorized as Methodist although his baptism is kind of messed up a Methodist Minister apparently sprinkled water on Grant while he was deep asleep and literally on his deathbed and then proudly announced it to the public hey that sounds kind of familiar Rutherford Hayes Hayes regularly read the Bible and identified as a Christian but he didn't really have allegiance to one particular denomination his wife Lucy was a Methodist and he regularly attended church services with her he also went to Methodist schools growing up however he came from a presbyterian family he once said quote the religion of the Bible is the best in the world I see the infinite value of religion Let It Be always encouraged a world of superstition and Folly have grown up around its forms and ceremonies but the truth in it is one of the deep sentiments in human nature unquote James Garfield Google the preacher president and James Garfield's name pops right up through his twenties he preached and held Revival meetings although he was never formally a minister within any church he converted to the Disciples of Christ at a camp meeting in 1850 at the age of 18. later that Church split up and Garfield stayed with the Churches of Christ Branch as president he was another outspoken proponent of the separation of church and state at his inaugural address he specifically called out the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints saying they were trying to start a theocracy in Utah territory and that it was wrong Chester Arthur not much is known about Arthur's religious life other than the fact that his dad was a Baptist Minister apparently Arthur was a rebel though and rejected his father's religion for most of his life he likely was not that religious at all although he did regularly attend St John's Episcopal Church in Washington D.C so I guess we got another Episcopalian before we look at Grover Cleveland's religious beliefs this video is sponsored by one day University wait what you haven't heard of one day University well it's awesome dude let me tell you it brings more than 200 top-rated professors from universities across the country together to present incredible live streamed talks every weekday afternoon universities like Yale Stanford Harvard UCLA Michigan Columbia and many more each live talk is an hour and followed by a live q a with the professor members of One Day University also get access to a library of more than 500 past recorded talks available on demand one of the most popular of these talks is called the Presidential Library Books That Shaped Washington Jefferson Lincoln FDR and more by Professor Joseph lutzy of Bard College so check it memberships are just 8.95 a month or 89 a year but you can join today and try one month for free by going into my website onedayu.com mrbeat that's onedayu.com Mr beats thank you to one day university for sponsoring this video okay Grover it's your turn Grover Cleveland Cleveland was a presbyterian his entire life in fact his dad was a presbyterian Minister and Cleveland often attended multiple services in his dad's church every Sunday also going to Sunday school perhaps this is why as an adult he did not attend church as much but he remained loyal to the Presbyterian church for the rest of his life even when he questioned his faith after the death of his daughter Ruth Benjamin Harrison Harrison was also a presbyterian he was devout attending church services pretty much every Sunday for his entire life he even taught Sunday school and was a leader at the First Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis for around 40 years he prayed like all the time and regularly brought up his faith in speeches as a politician William McKinley probably one of the most devoutly religious presidents McKinley was in a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Canton Ohio for much of his life as a kid he originally wanted to grow up to be a Methodist Minister his loyalty to Christianity perhaps made him less sympathetic to other religions after the occupation of the Philippines after victory in the Spanish-American War McKinley supposedly said he wanted to quote civilize and christianize the Filipinos although this claim has been disputed Theodore Roosevelt Teddy was a member of the Reformed Church but did attend Episcopal Churches when there was no Reformed Church nearby as a child he attended Presbyterian churches with his mom before joining the Reformed Church as a teenager as far as we can tell he attended church services quite regularly William Howard Taft well Taft once said quote I am a Unitarian I believe in God I do not believe in the Divinity of Christ and there are many other of the postulates of the Orthodox Creed to which I cannot subscribe I am not however a scoffer at religion but on the contrary recognize in the fullest manner the elevating influence that it has had and always will have in the history of mankind unquote even though he regularly attended All Souls Church in Washington DC critics accused him of being an atheist when he ran for president in 1908 before becoming president of the United States he did turn down an offer to be president at Yale which at the time was affiliated with the congregationalist church the reason because congregationalists believed in the Divinity of Jesus Christ of course Woodrow Wilson speaking of being a president of a university Wilson was he served as president of Princeton University which was at the time affiliated with the Presbyterian Church he was was its first president who was not previously a minister however his dad and uncle were Presbyterian ministers he also was a ruling Elder of the Second Presbyterian church in Princeton before that Warren Harding holy crap is this finally our First Baptist I think it is Harding once said quote it is my conviction that the fundamental trouble with the people of the United States is that they have gotten too far away from the almighty God unquote and while that makes Harding sound like a cranky old man he wasn't big on which religion you choose in fact some say he even leaned atheist at times in his life his mom was a Methodist but yeah for most of his life he identified as a Baptist he did attend church services regularly Calvin Coolidge Coolidge was a congregationalist the only president ever officially so and only became one after he became president typical of Coolidge he never spoke much about his religious beliefs Herbert Hoover and now we got our first Quaker Hoover was born into a devout Quaker family in Iowa his family had been Quakers going back Generations and his ancestors came to North America searching for Religious Freedom he traveled a lot for his work but whenever he was back home he regularly attended Quaker meetings as an adult as I mentioned at the beginning of this video he ran against Al Smith who controversially was a Catholic in the election of 1928 give credit to Hoover who did not attack Smith for his religion and in fact defended religious freedom in general Franklin Roosevelt hope FDR was another Episcopalian as a Young Man Roosevelt participated in missionary work and later in life held leadership roles in his church however he rarely attended church while he rarely spoke of his own religious beliefs he did appeal to Christianity in several of his speeches Harry Truman Truman was a Baptist but kept his religious beliefs private which actually apparently upset some Baptist leaders Truman often referred to the United States as a quote Christian Nation but also consistently stress the importance of religious freedom he once said quote Jews mohammedans Buddhists and confucians worship the same God as the Christians say they do he is all seeing all hearing and all-knowing nothing not even the sparrow or the smallest bug escapes his notice unquote as presidents he framed the Cold War as a battle of morals between those who followed God aka the United States and its allies and those who turned their backs on God aka the Soviet Union and its allies that all said the older he got the more Truman seemed to lose his faith Dwight Eisenhower although he had no formal Church affiliation until he was President Eisenhower was a fairly religious dude he actually was the first president baptized while in office becoming baptized as a presbyterian on February 1st 1953 3 just 12 days after he was first inaugurated a big reason why the two words under God was added to the Pledge of Allegiance and a big reason why In God We Trust became the motto of the United States is because of him and he embraced the government connecting itself with theism at a time when many Americans feared what they perceived to be an atheist Soviet Union as the dominant threat that's the Cold War for you John F Kennedy as I mentioned at the beginning of this video JFK was our country's first Roman Catholic President he was pretty loyal to the Catholic Church attending Mass every Sunday Lyndon Johnson Johnson had Christian influence from various denominations growing up but ultimately he joined the Disciples of Christ Church much of their influence guided his support for sweeping civil rights legislation and social welfare programs during the 1960s Richard Nixon this might surprise some folks but Nixon was a Quaker growing up his family was devout attending an Evangelical Quaker Meeting House every Sunday in Middle School Nixon played piano for Sunday school services and also sang in the church choir as an adult Nixon dropped his beliefs of many of the Miracles and Divinity stuff of the Bible but he regularly attended a Presbyterian Church while President Gerald Ford Ford was another lifelong Episcopalian while in Congress he regularly attended Bible study meetings with his colleagues in the House of Representatives although he rarely brought up his religious beliefs and speeches he did consider himself a religious Man Jimmy Carter it's well known that Carter wears his religious beliefs on his sleeve as a passionate what some would call born again Christian evangelicals voted for him in the millions when he ran for president mostly based on these religious beliefs oh yeah he was a Baptist for most of his life he has taught Sunday school and only retired from it last year Ronald Reagan even though he didn't go to church much Reagan also had lots of Evangelical support he was raised as a member of the Disciples of Christ Church but later became a presbyterian after he was nearly assassinated Reagan found himself becoming much more religious in 1982 he announced his support for a constitutional amendment to allow voluntary School prayer although that never passed George H.W bush bush senior is the last President to identify as an Episcopalian unlike Reagan and Carter he didn't bring up his religious beliefs much at all but religion was definitely an important part of his life Bill Clinton Clinton is the last President to identify as a Baptist he has regularly attended church services throughout his life however he has often attended Methodist church services as well as his wife Hillary is a Methodist George W bush as President Bush Jr definitely brought up religion a lot more than his dad did when he was president like Carter he has consistently worn his religious beliefs on his sleeve W Bush was raised Episcopalian while also attending Presbyterian services from time to time but he became a Methodist upon marrying his wife Laura in 1977. Laura had been baptized a Methodist as a child similar to Truman and Reagan before him Bush more openly connected Christianity to governments especially after 9 11. however even though the 9 11 attackers were Muslims Bush responded to increasing islamophobia by saying quote the face of Terror is not the true faith of Islam that is not what Islam is all about Islam is peace unquote Barack Obama mama oh he was a Muslim just kidding and if you ever believe that I just I don't know dude anyway yeah he is a Christian although he was raised in a secular household he has gone to non-denominational Protestant churches since his twenties but also Episcopalian Baptist and Methodist Services famously he used to go to the Trinity United Church of Christ but stopped going there when he ran for president due to the church's Pastor Jeremiah writes saying controversial things in the past Donald Trump trump is also a Christian but also considers himself non-denominational he does have ties to the reformed marble Collegiate Church in New York City where he married his first wife Ivana in Lakeside Presbyterian Church in West Palm Beach Florida there is little evidence that Trump is that religious although as president he brought up Christian values and beliefs regularly Joe Biden as I said at the beginning of the video Biden is Roman Catholic and apparently is the first president since Jimmy Carter to actually go to church services every week in conclusion the vast majority of American presidents identified as Christians with the Episcopal church and the Presbyterian Church being the two most common denominations this is no surprise as Christianity has always been the biggest religion in the United States only two presidents Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson didn't officially have a religion add the two Catholic presidents to that JFK and Biden and only four presidents were not Protestant no president has ever been a Muslim a Hindu a Buddhist or a Jew none have also ever openly admitted to being an atheist one thing is undeniable however voters do care what a presidential candidate's religion is according to Pew Research Center one in five American adults say it is quote very important for the president to have strong religious beliefs so future presidential candidates I hope you chose the right religion [Music] so when will the United States have its first Muslim president or Jewish president or atheist presidents or pastafarian president let me know in the comments below and here is my monthly shout out to all my patreon supporters who donate at least 10 bucks or more a month to my channel starting with my biggest donors Matt Standish Al Casper Sean connett Nick Everett Kristin Hyland Dr Paul J Lilly Alicia Solberg Andrew B Austin cirros will Scruggs Andrew Snyder CJ cavey John Johnson Zachary F Parker Brian Layton Grant Hughes Elon Capone jar jar binks420 Justin Emerson Richards kit Walker flabby Joel Serrano Lozada Lee 40a naderade Robert Reichel South Side Mitch Thomas oppenheim Victor Martinez cheeky worth novenski Jack L Jacob burn bomb Samuel stritz Kyle fassbinder Adam Christians Cal Stevens Laughlin McGregor Raquel Jones Sally Thompson the Geo scholar Steven Scott Gail Gerard and C bedrin if I mispronounce any names I'm so sorry please please correct me if you can thank you all to my patreon supporters and thank you for watching

Channel: Mr. Beat

Views: 1,965,120

Keywords: Who was the most religious President?, Every President's Religion, president religions, most religious president in us history, most religious president, the religion of every American President, did trump go to church, catholic presidents, atheist presidents, abraham lincoln atheist, founding fathers religious beliefs, george washington religious beliefs, barack obama religious beliefs, donald trump religious beliefs, teddy roosevelt religious beliefs, religious test president

Id: BMS_w3FlHrk

Length: 29min 14sec (1754 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2021