The Church in America

The history and character of the Church in America is a fascinating topic.  It is to be expected that the American culture and political system being so different from that of the Europe from which most of its early settlers came, would be reflected in the Church as well.  The Church in Europe has a tremendous amount of historical baggage to carry on its shoulders; from the massacres of the Thirty Year's War to the disillusionment of the WWI generation.  The rise and fall of nations and dynasties became so intertwined with the aspirations of Church movements that the two could hardly be distinguished.
Yet when immigrants stepped off the boats at one of America's colonies (and later at one of the United States' cities), everything was different.  At first, the American colonies were a mixture of toleration (Rhode Island, Pennsylvania), dissident churches (Massachusetts' Puritans and Quakers), and transplanted state churches (Maryland, Virginia).  These fledgling institutions, whether they intended to offer religious liberty or not (most did not), were soon overwhelmed by the flood of newcomers representing every imaginable variation of Christianity that existed in Europe.  Even those who hoped to make a particular colony, or later the United States itself, into a bastion of one church over and above all others could see that their cause was hopeless.
The religious liberty that we take for granted as a part of the American character was not the ideal that most early settlers embraced (the Puritans of MA helped Rhode Island get started by driving out dissenters; something they were used to being on the receiving end of back in England, but did anyway when they had the chance), with a few exceptions such as William Penn, but it was an inevitable outcome of such diverse immigration.  It seems that God was intent upon nudging our American ancestors into choosing to respect each other's religious liberty whether that wanted to or not.
The interesting postscript to the American Christian experience is the contrast between the nearly empty state sponsored/endorsed churches of Europe and the still vibrant independent American Church.  It is no coincidence that deprived of the power and money that government control brings that Church in America has been strengthened by the voluntary support of its members.  Today Europe stands in desperate need of revival and the balance of Church growth in the world has shifted to the Third World; the question that remains is will America recapture its history of revival and collectively renew the Church here, or will we follow in Europe's footsteps and turn our churches into museums too.