One Nation Under Gods

When J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur praised the "strange religious medley" he observed in late 18th century America, he could hardly have imagined the full orchestral symphony of faiths that resounds in the U.S. two centuries later. The world has never seen a nation as religiously diverse as the U.S., which becomes ever more so each year under the impact of new immigrants. In addition to the various mainstream Judeo-Christian faiths that populated the original colonies, America now encompasses 700 to 800 "nonconventional" denominations, according to J. Gordon Melton, who monitors the proliferation for his Encyclopedia of American Religions. Half of them are imported variants of standard world religions, mostly Asian; the other half a creative and chaotic mix of U.S.-born creeds -- everything from Branch Davidians to New Agers. In the future, says sociologist Wade Clark Roof, "clearly the bounds of religious pluralism will push further and further out, and that's very American."

While adding exotic new creeds, the tide of immigration since the 1960s has also increased the variegation within Christianity. Millions of Hispanics have brought a florid, fervent Latin sensibility into U.S. Catholicism, challenging a church hierarchy dominated by the stolid sons and grandsons of Irish immigrants, who now are struggling to recruit Hispanic priests. The bishops also face Pentecostal or Baptist soul winners who successfully target Spanish- speaking neighborhoods. Meanwhile, Koreans have had a notable impact within - Protestantism with their evangelistic zeal and religious traditionalism.

Christianity still claims nearly nine-tenths of the populace, according to a City University of New York survey of 113,000 Americans. But talk of a "Christian" nation from the likes of Pat Buchanan and Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice is increasingly misplaced. More accurately, the country's traditional consensus faith is biblical monotheism, which comfortably includes Judaism. Now, however, there is a major new player. Islam, the third great monotheistic faith, is expanding through both immigration and the conversion of African Americans and is bidding to supplant Judaism as America's second largest faith. In 1978 the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington became the first major interfaith organization to include Muslims alongside the Catholics, Protestants and Jews. It has since admitted Mormons and Sikhs; Hindus will probably be next. Other prospects: Buddhists, Baha'is.

Mapping such widening diversity is a goal of Harvard University's Pluralism Project, run by religion professor Diana Eck. Students have located, among other things, seven Buddhist temples in Salt Lake City, two Sikh gurdwaras in Phoenix, Arizona, a Taoist temple in Denver, a Jain center in Blairstown, New Jersey, and five Oklahoma City mosques. The project estimates that nationwide there are 1,139 houses of worship for Muslims, 1,515 for Buddhists and 412 for Hindus.