Pluralism

Beginning with Religion

In the United States, pluralism was originally understood in religious terms and implied an acceptance of the variety of Protestant denominations. Even though the population of the early states was not homogeneous, that diversity had little impact on notions of pluralism; those from beyond the dominant culture were considered to be inferior and were excluded from society. This meant that nascent concepts of pluralism were informed by the diversity within a mostly Protestant male-dominant culture of European descent. Early political arrangements reinforced the status quo regardless of legal rhetoric and served as the gatekeepers of the right to participate in public culture.

[Page 1052]Nonetheless, expanding religious diversity before and after the American Revolution—first and most noticeably within Protestantism, but later including Roman Catholicism and Judaism—led to increased demands for inclusion in the public sphere and the eventual transformation in the laws limiting participation. Religious diversity expanded dramatically during the two revival periods often identified as the Great Awakening (roughly the 1730s to the 1750s) and the Second Great Awakening (roughly the 1810s to the 1830s). The second revival period, in particular, coincided roughly with the presidency of Andrew Jackson and contributed significantly to the populist nature of U.S. religious diversity. Not surprisingly, this expansion represented a challenge to the dominant Protestant establishment that had been in place since before the American Revolution. The period only barely preceded a period of significant Roman Catholic immigration, and by the 1840s, although there were more Protestants than Catholics in the United States, the Roman Catholic Church had become the single largest religious denomination in the country.

The middle decades of the 19th century also marked a period of increased resistance to both diversity and pluralism on several fronts. Even before the Civil War, anti-immigration advocates sought to limit the ethnic definition of American to those of Anglo-Saxon descent and to increase restrictions on immigrants from other parts of the world. Initially, much of the energy was directed toward Irish immigrants, but by the end of the 19th century, the opposition would expand to include immigrants from Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe, resulting in a near cessation of immigration during the early years of the 20th century.

After the Civil War, segregation advocates fought to protect the privilege of Americans of European descent through “Jim Crow” laws such as gerrymandering and voting restrictions. Still others sought to protect the religious definition of American as Protestant, placing legal and then social restrictions on non-Protestants, particularly Catholics (who were kept out of elected office in some states into the 1890s) and Jews (who were barred from some hotels and other accommodations well into the 20th century).

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