Function of the president and religion in the American political system

Abstract

In the history of USA there have been 43 presidents including today's George Bush Jr. Of all these presidents, more then half came from three small protestant denominations Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Unitarians. If we point that these three religious denominations comprise less then 5% of the entire population, it becomes clear how much religion influences political life of this world superpower. If we are to add that Roman Catholics are the most numerous religious denomination in America and yet it had only one president. John Kennedy, then the conclusions of religion's impact on politics in America become even more significant.

U radu ce razmatra uticaj religije na izbor predsednika SAD, kao i uticaj religije na unutarpolitičke odnose i spoljnu politiku SAD. Autor ističe ga i pored ustavnog određenja SAD kao sekularne države, religija igra važnu ulogu što potvrđuje i činjenica da su svi američki predsednici (43) isticali da pripadaju nekom religijskom učenju u nastanku hrišćanstvu.