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The focus of this category is on faith, religion, and spirituality in Michigan.

According to the Pew Research Center, Michigan residents are near the middle of states, as far as the percentage of the population who view themselves as being highly religious, with 53% of respondents indicating that they were. The most religious states were Alabama and Mississippi, with 77%, while the least religious states were Massachusetts and New Hampshire, at 33%.

Also according to Pew, the religious composition of adults in Michigan is overwhelmingly Christian, with roughly 70% of respondents identifying as such. Of all respondents, 25% identified as Evangelical Protestant, 18% as Mainline Protestant, 18% as Roman Catholic, and 8% as Historically Black Protestant, with Mormons, Orthodox Christian, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Other Christians weighing in around 1% each.

Of these, Roman Catholicism is the predominant denomination, as the Protestants are spread out between several denominations, such as the United Methodist Church, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Christian Reformed Church in North America, Reformed Church in America, and several others.

Approximately 5% of respondents embraced non-Christian faiths, including Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu. The balance identified either as an atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular. Although Muslims make up just over one percent of the state's entire population, Michigan has the largest Muslim population in the United States, particularly in the southeastern portion of the Lower Peninsula.

Roughly half of the respondents in Michigan said that religion was very important in their lives, while another 27% said that religion was somewhat important, 11% percent chose not too important, and religion was not at all important to another 11% of the population.

However, only 33% of Michigan respondents said that they participated in religious services at least once a week. Nearly 50% of adults in Michigan said that they seldom or never read scripture, while only 32% read scripture at least once a week. Only 36% believed that there are clear standards for what is right or wrong, while 62% believed in situational ethics.

A full 73% of Michiganders believe in heaven, but only 60% of them believe in hell.

As the region that was to become Michigan was inhabited by various Native American tribes for centuries before the Europeans came, we can assume that various Native American religions predominated during this period. The first Europeans to settle the region were the French, who brought Catholicism.

The Roman Catholic Church was the only organized religion until the 1800s, and St. Anne's Parish in Detroit is the second-oldest Catholic parish in the country. A Methodist society was formed near Detroit in 1810. After the War of 1812, new settlers coming to the area from the east included Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Episcopalians, and Quakers, while the original French Catholics were bolstered by Catholic immigrants from various parts of Europe, German and Scandinavian immigrants brought Lutheranism, Dutch settlers formed the Reformed Church in America, and the first Jewish congregations were organized by German Jews in Detroit, with others arriving eastern Europe by the end of the 1800s. Both the Orthodox Christian Church and the Islamic religions were introduced by immigrants from the Near East during the 1900s.

Although faith, religion, and spirituality are the focus of topics in this category, local churches and other places of worship will be listed in the Cities & Town category representing their geographic location, while this category will include statewide religious institutions or topics relating to religion in Michigan.

 

 

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