How Many USA Presidents Have Been Professing Christians?
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, February 16, 2026 (Donate)
Brief History Of Presidents Day
Today is Presidents Day! In our modern culture, that usually
means no school, post-offices and banks are closed but many businesses offer
all sorts of deals to draw people in their local shop!
Portrait of General Washington by Charles Willson Peale; 1776; Public Domain
Presidents Day is a single federal holiday that combined
two different holidays from a few years ago. I remember the days when we had
George Washington’s birthday (February 22) and Abraham’s Lincoln’s (February
12) birthday off from school!
Officials essentially merged these two US holidays (due in
part to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act) because they are both February
birthday separated by 10 days on our calendar and now we have a combined
celebration called Presidents Day.
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln by George P. A. Healy in 1887; Public Domain
If you can tell by the name of the act, Presidents Day
always falls on a Monday to give a long weekend—Presidents Day is always
the third Monday of February.
Professing Christians?
So how many Presidents were professing Christians? I’ve
actually dealt with this elsewhere.
And so…why reinvent the wheel. I’m previously quoted as writing:
“Hosts of Presidents openly
acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Most attended trinitarian
churches. The three who were openly non-Trinitarian are Thomas Jefferson, John
Adams (unitarian), and John Quincy Adams (unitarian).
Below is the list of US Presidents
who were members of Trinitarian churches. A Trinitarian church is one that
affirms the biblical doctrine of the Trinity: one God in three persons—the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This includes Baptist, Methodist,
Presbyterian, Anglican or Episcopal, Lutheran, Congregationalist (before the
Unitarian split), Reformed, Dutch Reformed, Disciples of Christ, Roman
Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and similar historic Christian bodies.
Again, only three US Presidents
were clearly members of non-Trinitarian churches: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams,
and John Quincy Adams. Jefferson rejected the Trinity and never joined a church
after adulthood. John Adams and John Quincy Adams both joined the Unitarian
churches that had been emerging in New England that denied the Trinity and
demoted Jesus Christ’s deity.
All other Presidents were members
of Trinitarian Christian churches.
Anglican / Episcopal
(Trinitarian)
· George
Washington
· James
Madison
· James
Monroe
· William
Henry Harrison
· John
Tyler
· Zachary
Taylor
· Franklin
Pierce
· Chester
A. Arthur
· Franklin
D. Roosevelt
· George
H. W. Bush
· George
W. Bush (later Methodist)
Presbyterian (Trinitarian)
· Andrew
Jackson
· James
Polk
· James
Buchanan
· Grover
Cleveland
· Benjamin
Harrison
· Woodrow
Wilson
· Dwight
D. Eisenhower (affiliated with Presbyterianism)
· Donald
Trump (could also be listed as Reformed, Marble Collegiate Church)
Methodist (Trinitarian)
· Ulysses
S. Grant
· William
McKinley
· William
Howard Taft
· Harry
S. Truman
· George
W. Bush
Baptist (Trinitarian)
· Warren
Harding
· Harry
Truman (dual affiliation)
· Jimmy
Carter
· Bill
Clinton
Congregationalist (historically
Trinitarian until late 18th century)
· Calvin
Coolidge (still Trinitarian in his era)
· Herbert
Hoover
Reformed / Dutch Reformed
(Trinitarian)
· Martin
Van Buren
· Theodore
Roosevelt
Disciples of Christ
(Trinitarian)
· James
Garfield
· Lyndon
B. Johnson
· Ronald
Reagan (baptized Disciples of Christ)
Quaker (orthodox at the time =
Trinitarian enough for historical classification)
· Herbert
Hoover
· Richard
Nixon
Roman Catholic (Trinitarian,
non-Protestant)
· John
F. Kennedy
· Joe
Biden
Other Trinitarian or broadly
orthodox Protestant
· Abraham
Lincoln (not a member of any church but attended Trinitarian congregations;
often counted but technically not a members
· Barack
Obama (member of United Church of Christ during its Trinitarian period)
How deep were the conviction of
these Presidents? As mentioned, some were very open about their faith. Others,
might leave you wondering based on their actions—which often speak louder than
words. Well, sometimes, their words revealed their allegiance wasn’t always
with the Bible.
This is especially the case in more
recent times. There has been a secularization of many in this country and
without exception, this reaches those elected. So, one may have good reasons
for questioning certain Presidents as to their true convictions.
After all, it is good, from a
historical perspective, to be a Christian during election season and one’s
elected tenure but other religious flavors may cloud one’s judgment when making
official decrees and laws.
One of the tests of sincere
Christian faith since the 1970s has been the issue of abortion. Abortion is
murder of the pre-born. If an elected official supports it, then it is hard to
believe that that person really holds to the biblical faith which commands us
not to murder but to protect innocent lives. Although, I’m sure there are
plenty of other ways that Christians recognize the faithful versus those “going
through the motions”.
The total “official” number of
Presidents in Trinitarian churches is 44 out of 47. Of course that comes with
caveats. Nevertheless, we will all stand before God in judgment and our true
thoughts will be revealed.”[1]
I hope this I has been a helpful discussion on the faith of
presidents in the USA.
Bodie Hodge, Ken
Ham's son in law, has been an apologist since 1998 helping out in various
churches and running an apologetics website. He spent 21 years working at Answers
in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding
news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight
Council.
Bodie
launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal
website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken
on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
Mr. Hodge earned a
Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale (SIUC). Then he taught at SIUC for a couple of years as a
Visiting Instructor teaching all levels of undergraduate engineering and
running a materials lab and a CAD lab. He did research on advanced ceramic
materials to develop a new method of production of titanium diboride with a
grant from Lockheed Martin. He worked as a Test Engineer for Caterpillar,
Inc., prior to entering full-time ministry.
His love of science
was coupled with a love of history, philosophy, and theology. For about one
year of his life, Bodie was editing and updating a theological, historical, and
scientific dictionary/encyclopedia for AI use and training. Mr. Hodge has over
25 years of experience in writing, speaking and researching in these fields.
[1]
Bodie Hodge, Historical Christians Confirmations, Biblical Authority
Ministries, December 1, 2025, https://www.biblicalauthorityministries.org/2025/12/historical-christian-confirmations.html.
