Religious diversity highest in U.S.

By Richard Ostling
Associated Press

J. Gordon Melton describes 2,630 U.S. and Canadian faith groups in his "Encyclopedia of American Religion." Associated Press Faith groups categorized The new edition of J. Gordon Melton's "Encyclopedia of American Religions" describes 2,630 U.S. and Canadian religious groups, categorized into 26 "families" of faith. These six families contain the largest numbers of distinct groups: Pentecostal: 325 Spiritualist, Psychic, New Age: 224 Buddhism, Shintoism, Japanese New Religions: 212 Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism: 170 Magick: 161 Eastern Liturgical (Orthodox): 147 — Associated Press

The Roman Catholic Church may be huge but it's only one among 116 Catholic denominations. Orthodox Christians have an even higher total, and Protestantism is notoriously splintered; its Pentecostal segment alone counts groups by the hundreds.

There's a denomination for practically everyone.

If the Episcopal Church won't do, worshippers can move leftward into the Metaphysical Episcopal Church or Free Episcopal Church, or rightward into dozens of breakaways like the Anglican Mission in America. Unitarianism seems too conventional? The denomination offers a subgroup of Unitarian Universalist Pagans.

Moving further from the mainstream, there's always the Church of God Anonymous, the Nudist Christian Church of the Blessed Virgin Jesus or the Only Fair Religion.

All are among 2,630 U.S. and Canadian faith groups described in the new edition of the indispensable "Encyclopedia of American Religion." Melton, a one-time United Methodist pastor, treats each entry with nonpartisan objectivity and — when necessary — a straight face.

The total includes ecumenical organizations, loosely knit movements and defunct faiths. But most are still-existing denominations with distinct flocks (Melton prefers to call them "primary religious groups").

Melton's task includes placing religions into 26 "families," then breaks those into subcategories. For instance, his "Psychic New Age" family includes Sun Myung Moon's Unification movement, Jim Jones' suicidal People's Temple and the Church of Scientology.

Among religions difficult to classify are the eight that practice drug use, 22 that believe in UFOs — including the Raelians at the center of the recent human cloning claims — and 12 mail-order religions that dispense instant clergy credentials or divinity degrees.

Melton's curiosity originated during his Alabama boyhood, when he attended a family reunion at a rural church. His mother warned, "Whatever you do, don't talk about religion" because some relatives were touchy Pentecostalists and Jehovah's Witnesses. By late high school, he had given up stamp collecting for sect collecting.

In the 44 years since, he has obsessively compiled data on more creeds than anyone knew existed.

He has deposited his trove of 70,000 books and 40 filing cabinets of materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he teaches part time. The campus is two blocks from his Institute for the Study of American Religion.

Melton, 60, is especially adept at tracking obscure, smaller groups. He's an expert on occultism and takes pride in discovering religions that practice rigorous secrecy, such as the Kennedy Worshippers, who have made the late U.S. president into a divinity, and the Two-by-Two's, a network of nomadic evangelists.

Two points emerge to Melton from all his counting, tracking and compiling. The United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world — especially since immigration laws loosened in 1965 — though Europe as a whole is comparable. Christianity is the biggest single element: 70 percent of Americans belong to "some brand of Christian church."

What's more distinct, Melton says, is that America "is certainly the most religious country that has ever existed, in terms of voluntarily taking part in religion."