Religion United States

Among the pressing concerns of Americans in the first century of nationhood were day-to-day survival, political harmony, exploration of the continent, foreign policy, and - fixed deeply in the collective consciousness - hell and eternal damnation. The fear of fire and brimstone and the worm that never dies exerted a profound and lasting influence on Americans' ideas about themselves, their neighbors, and the rest of the world.

This comprehensive survey of Catholic history in what became the United States spans nearly 500 years, from the arrival of the first Spanish missionaries to the present. Distinguished historian Leslie Tentler explores lay religious practice and the impact of clergy on Catholic life and culture as she seeks to answer the question, What did it mean to be a "good Catholic" at particular times and in particular places?

Stranger U.S. is book four in the Stranger Bridgerland book series. Stranger U.S. continues the Stranger Bridgerland series with true, first-hand stories from around the United States. Bigfoot, UFOs, ghosts, cryptids, and much more.

The unchallenged premise in all legal arguments regarding Islam is that Islam is a "religion" as that term is used in the jurisprudence of the United States. This monograph takes a critical look at the premise and, upon well cited authorities, concludes that such a premise has no footing in the law of the United States. Though completely politically-incorrect, the conclusions reached in "Is Islam a Religion" cannot be avoided if full faith and allegiance to our secular constitutionalism is to be continued in the 21st Century.

Saturday night for the boys from Calcutta High started out with a dare on a dark country road...a dare that went farther than it should've gone. That old white church just moldering there in the long dark shadows of the trees, was it really as haunted as everyone made it out to be? Stories had circulated. Legends at school had now grown to stifling degrees. What's a try at the doors going to hurt? What about a look inside the sanctuary, just for the sake of satisfying one's curiosity? That can't hurt, can it? Surely not...

From the moment Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés first found and confronted them, the Aztecs have fascinated the world, and they continue to hold a unique place both culturally and in pop culture. Nearly 500 years after the Spanish conquered their mighty empire, the Aztecs are often remembered today for their major capital, Tenochtitlan, as well as being fierce conquerors of the Valley of Mexico who often engaged in human sacrifice rituals.

Central Massachusetts is a land of oddities and apparitions. Stories of the strange and paranormal have been passed down from generation to generation and only the local populace has any idea of just how vast and deep their superstitions run. It’s time to truly learn that the world around you is much more than you can touch, taste, smell, see, and hear...or at least that’s what a good story is supposed to do!

America's Favorite Holidays explores how five of America's culturally important holidays - Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving - came to be what they are today, seasonal and religious celebrations heavily influenced by modern popular culture.

Many people across the world believe in an ape-like humanoid creature who is covered with hair and walks on two legs. Those who claim to have seen this creature generally say that he has reddish-brown hair, is approximately seven to 10 feet tall, has a conical-shaped head, emits a powerfully obnoxious stench, and has enormous, human-like feet. In the United States, this creature is known as the Sasquatch or Bigfoot. He is attested to in Native American myths and legends that speak of giants, as well as in eyewitness accounts that predate the birth of the country.

The Chosen Wars tells the dramatic story of how Judaism redefined itself in America in the 18th and 19th centuries - the personalities that fought each other and shaped its evolution and, importantly, the force of the American dynamic that prevailed over an ancient religion. Determined to take their places as equals in the young nation, American Jews rejected identity as a separate nation and embraced a secular America. Judaism became an American religion.

Stranger West is book 3 in the Stranger Bridgerland series. Stranger West is a collection of first-hand accounts of the paranormal from the Western United States. Stories of ghosts, sasquatch, cryptids, and UFOs await you in this third book. Stranger West is part of the collection of stories author John Olsen has collected over 30 years of paranormal research.

In the fifteen masterful stories that make up this collection, Jai Chakrabarti crosses continents and cultures to explore what it means to cultivate a family today, across borders, religions, and race.

Back in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation took Europe by storm. The havoc wreaked saw the split of churches and the emergence of the Amish, led by Jakob Ammann. By the 18th century, a group of Amish had crossed the seas to the United States, where they made their home, and today the Amish are now one of the fastest-growing populations in the world.

The writing of history is always in terms of a framework, a philosophical and ultimately religious conceptual structure in the mind of the historian. To the orthodox Christian, the shabby incarnations of the reigning historiographies are both absurd and offensive. A Christian historiography and a Christian revisionism are thus for him moral imperatives. These essays are studies in Christian revisionism. There purpose is to call attention those aspects of American history that are currently neglected.

Noll demonstrates how supporters and opponents of slavery and segregation drew equally on the Bible to justify the morality of their positions. He shows how a common evangelical heritage supported Jim Crow discrimination and contributed powerfully to the black theology of liberation preached by Martin Luther King Jr.

Ex-British Army Soldier, John Carney, ran a close protection operation in Iraq for oil executives when he was asked by the family of a young Dutch woman to extract her from the collapsing Islamic State in Syria. Hearing first-hand of the shocking living hell of tricked naive young girls, many from the West, trapped, sexually abused and enslaved by ISIS, he knew only one thing - he had to get them out. Armed with AK-47s and 9mm Glocks, he launched a daring, dangerous and deadly operation to free as many as he could.

This book is a collection of 50 of the most terrifying places in the United States. I have researched hundreds of possible locations before picking the 50 that I deemed the most bone chilling. If you are scared easily or have problems sleeping at night, then this book is most definitely not for you.

Pilgrimage is a sacred tradition that has existed around the world for centuries. Every year, more than 100 million devotees from different cultures and faiths embark on journeys to such holy sites as Santiago de Compostela, Mecca, and Banaras. For some, making a pilgrimage is a spiritual act, while for others it is a secular experience of personal restoration. And yet there has never existed a tradition of pilgrimage within the US. Cultural geographer James E. Mills makes a compelling case for the creation of a network of American pilgrimage routes to heal societal divisions....

Scholars and popular authors regularly claim that Christianity, at least orthodox Christianity, has fostered oppression and intolerance. A common narrative is that liberty and equality have been advanced primarily when America's leaders embrace progressive manifestations of religion or reject faith altogether. This book demonstrates that Christianity is responsible for advancing liberty and equality for all citizens.

In this highly original approach to the history of the US, James Moore focuses on the extraordinary role that prayer has played in every area of American life, from the time of the first settlers to the present day and beyond.