Baptists in the United States

There are about 33 million self-professed Baptists in the United States, making them the second largest religious grouping in the US, following the 79 million Roman Catholics. About 16 million Baptists belong to congregations affiliated with Southern Baptist Convention, the largest such confederation of Baptists. More than 40% of all Baptists worldwide reside in the United States. The largest denomination among African Americans is the National Baptist Convention, with 7.5 million members, along with the smaller but more liberal Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), with over 2000 churches and a total membership of 2.5 million.

There are numerous smaller bodies, some recently organized and others with long histories, such as the Calvinistic Baptists, General Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Old Regulars, Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists, and independents.

Baptist congregations are self-regulating and autonomous. This autonomy makes identifying a specific creed difficult, and the particular set of religious beliefs of Baptists can vary widely. Hallmarks of Baptist adherence include an emphasis on the importance of the local congregation in the governance of church affairs; a minimalist ritual with the exception of a strong emphasis on adult baptism; a service centered on biblical readings, a long sermon based on biblical passages, and the singing of hymns; and a belief in the inerrancy of the Bible in theory but much diversity across congregations in terms of what that inerrancy encompasses.

Baptist Christians played a major role in seventeenth-century English history, and many Baptists migrated to the English colonies in that century. Baptist theological reflection informed how the colonists understood their presence in the New World, especially in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations through the preaching of Roger Williams and others.

Baptists appeared in the American Colonies in the early 17th century among settlers from England. Theologically all Baptists insisted that baptism was the key ritual and should not be administered to children too young to understand the meaning. However some were Arminian holding that God's saving Grace is available to everyone, and others followed Calvinist orthodoxy, which said Grace was available only to the predestined "elect".

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