The National Museum of the American People has support from a variety of national religious-related organizations. They include:
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church
- Church World Service
- National Association of Evangelicals
- HIAS (formerly Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
- Friends Committee on National Legislation
- National Council of Churches
- Council for Christian Colleges and Universities
- Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.
While many of these organizations focus on assisting refugees and asylum seekers coming to the United States to escape persecution, including religious persecution, they all have an interest in telling about the religious component inherent in the making of the American People.
In a 2017 Gallup survey, American religious affiliation was:
38% Protestant
21% Catholic
9% Non-denominational Christian
2% Mormon
2% Jewish
5% Other religions
20% None
4% Undesignated
The Museum’s story begins with the history of indigenous Americans and will discuss their spiritual practices which are largely tribal-based. After first contact with Europeans in the hemisphere from predominantly Catholic countries, the story of extensive missionary activity will be discussed.
After 1607, many of the first English settlers to cross the Atlantic settling in New England were fleeing religious persecution. In Pennsylvania, it’s leader William Penn, a Quaker, welcomed Germans who were practicing Lutherans and a variety of other sects as well. Pennsylvania became known as “an asylum for banished sects.” Virginia came under the provenance of the Church of England. In the 18th Century, Evangelism, Baptist and Methodist denominations gained strength and influential preachers spread across the land, especially in the South.
A number of significant denominations were founded in the Untied States including the Church of Latter Day Saints also known as Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Church of Christ, Scientist.
While Catholicism came with Spanish explorers, Maryland became the focus of the Catholic Church in the English colonies. Since then, most Catholics came to what is now the Untied States with the large scale immigrations from Ireland, Eastern Europe and Italy, and more became US citizens after the U.S. took over Mexican and Spanish lands.
Jews largely came in three cycles: Sephardic Jews who settled in five East Coast port cities in the 1600s, German Jews who came starting in the 1820s and Jews from Eastern European and Ottoman lands in the late 19th and early 20th Century.
With the First Amendment to the Constitution paving the way, the United States established a home for peoples of all religions. The story of the religions of the American people played a significant role in forging the nation and it will be told in the National Museum of the American People.
This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.
Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People