The following list is taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Presidential_religious_affiliations
List of Presidential religious affiliations (by religion)
- Warren Harding
- Harry Truman
- Jimmy Carter (Southern Baptist) (after serving as president, Carter broke with the SBC over its stand on the submission of women)
- Bill Clinton (Southern Baptist)
- Episcopal
- The first seven presidents listed below were all from Virginia. Until 1786, the Episcopal Church was the "state church" of Virginia. See above for more detail on each.
- George Washington
- Thomas Jefferson (sympathetic to Unitarianism and Deism)
- James Madison [also Deist]
- James Monroe [possibly Deist]
- William Henry Harrison
- John Tyler
- Zachary Taylor
- Franklin Pierce
- Chester A. Arthur
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Gerald Ford
- George H. W. Bush
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (later Presbyterian)
- James Polk (originally Presbyterian)
- Ulysses Grant (allegedly; his theology is unknown)
- William McKinley
- George W. Bush (originally Episcopal)
- Andrew Jackson
- James Polk (later Methodist)
- James Buchanan
- Grover Cleveland
- Benjamin Harrison
- Woodrow Wilson
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (originally Jehovah's Witnesses)
- No denominational affiliation
- Thomas Jefferson (sympathetic to Unitarianism)
- James Madison (fraternized Episcopal)
- James Monroe (disputed)
- John Tyler (also Episcopal)
- Abraham Lincoln (disputed)
- Unitarian
- Unitarian Universalism is the religion generally associated today with those whose ideology developed from deism.
- Disputed
- James Monroe
- Martin Van Buren
- William Henry Harrison
- John Tyler
- Zachary Taylor
- Abraham Lincoln
- Ulysses Grant
- Lyndon Johnson
I found this interesting also:
| Denomination | Number of Presidents | Percent of Presidents | Percent of Current U.S. Pop. | Ratio: % of Pres. to % of Pop. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episcopalian | 11 | 26.2% | 1.7% | 15.4 |
| Presbyterian | 10 | 23.8% | 2.8% | 5.1 |
| Methodist | 5 | 11.9% | 8.0% | 1.5 |
| Baptist | 4 | 9.5% | 18.0% | 0.5 |
| Unitarian | 4 | 9.5% | 0.2% | 47.5 |
| Disciples of Christ | 3 | 7.1% | 0.4% | 18.7 |
| Dutch Reformed | 2 | 4.8% | 0.1% | 48.0 |
| Quaker | 2 | 4.8% | 0.7% | 6.9 |
| Congregationalist | 2 | 2.4% | 0.6% | 4.0 |
| Catholic | 1 | 2.4% | 24.5% | 0.1 |
| Jehovah's Witness | 1 | 2.4% | 0.6% | 6.0 |
| TOTAL | 42 | 100% | 57.0% |
Keep in mind that in the table above, the % of the U.S. population for religious groups are current figures. Religious groups have had much different proportions at various time in U.S. history.
One of the most over-represented religious groups among U.S. presidents is Unitarianism. Despite merging with Universalism in the 1960s, the combined proportion of Unitarian Universalists in the U.S. population is just 0.2% of the population (one in every 500 Americans). Yet there have been 4 Unitarian presidents.
Another over-represented religious group among U.S. presidents is Dutch Reformed, by virtue of having two U.S. presidents, yet having only a small number of people left in the country who identify themselves as Reformed. The contemporary heir to the Dutch Reformed churches is the "Reformed Church in America," which has about 300,000 members in the U.S. and Canada. (Alternatively, one might count only a single president as Dutch Reformed, if Theodore Roosevelt is counted as an Episcopalian -- sources differ on this subject. Even just one Dutch Reformed president would constitute statistical over-representation.)
After that, Disciples of Christ, Episcopalians, and Quakers have also had representation in the White House far outstripping their proportion of the U.S. population.
On the other end of the scale, the most under-represented religious group is Catholicism, which has had only one U.S. president (John F. Kennedy), despite making up 25% of the current U.S. population. Also under-represented are Baptists, whose proportion of the U.S. population (18%) is twice their proportion of U.S. presidents (9.5%).
Major religious groups in the U.S. which have never had a U.S. president include: Lutherans (about 5% of the U.S. population); Jews (about 2% of the U.S. population); Latter-day Saints (2%); Pentecostals (about 1.8 %); Muslims (approx. 1 to 1.5%); Eastern Orthodox (approx. 0.5%); and Churches of Christ (1%).The above was taken from: http://www.adherents.com/adh_presidents.html
It is amazing to me that we have elected two Quaker presidents, (Many Quakers feel their faith does not fit within traditional Christian categories of Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, but is an expression of another way of experiencing God.), a Jehovah's Witness as president, (Jehovah's Witnesses are politically neutral. They feel that their allegiance belongs to God's Kingdom, which is viewed as an actual government. Thus they refrain from saluting the flag of any country or singing nationalistic songs. They believe that such an act would be tantamount to worshipping an idol. Members are expected to obey all laws, including the paying of taxes, of the country in which they reside, so long as these do not violate what they view as God's law. The political neutrality of Jehovah's Witnesses is also expressed by their refusal to participate in military service, even when such is of a compulsory nature, and by their detachment from secular politics. Since 1999, Jehovah's Witnesses are discouraged, but no longer prohibited, from voting in elections. Excerp taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses), two Dutch Reformed presidents, several with no affiliation, and several that changed their religious affiliation, and we STILL have the issue with Mitt Romney running for president as a "Mormon". Obviously, we just have far to much time on our hands today. ;-) IMHO
