About this episode

The episode explores the historical landscape of American religion in 1776, highlighting its diversity and the patterns of religious acceptance and oppression throughout history.

Earlier this year, Pew Research published the results of a study on religious diversity around the world. While the U.S. didn’t even break the top 10 for most religiously diverse when all nations studied were taken into account, it ranked #1 in religious diversity out of the most populous countries. The United States certainly has a Christian tilt and a sizable population of nones. But, go to any major U.S. city and you’ll spot kippahs, hijabs, turbans, and houses of worship for every major belief system on the planet. Despite the American ability to live alongside people who believe vastly different things than us, the U.S. has a horrid past with religious oppression—think of the KKK’s treatment of Jewish people or the wipeout of indigenous people and their forced conversion to Christianity or the attacks on Muslims and Sikhs directly following 9/11. And while many prejudices take decades to extract the mainstream, a quick study of our history reveals that there is a clear pattern of America’s ability to eventually accept religious differences. Over a century ago, the Catholics pouring in from, first, Ireland and, later, Italy, were near the bottom of the social hierarchy…

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Pew Research, Supreme Court

Places: United States, Ireland, Italy

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