From wilderness camp revivals, today Nashville has a diverse range of worship services conducted in over seven hundred churches. A fairly common expression around here is "There's a church on every corner". Nashville does have the highest quota of churches per capita of any United States city.

65% of people in Davidson County describe themselves as religiously affiliated (the national average is 55%). 20% state that they are Southern Baptists, 9.5% are National Baptists, 8% are Church of Christ, 7.2% are United Methodist, and 4.2% are Roman Catholic. There are also Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Buddhist, Presbyterian, Adventist, Mormon, Hindu, Quaker, Baha'i, nondenominational and other religions represented here. An enjoyable experience for me was going to the "Cowboy Church" which has an abundance of spiritual and gospel country western singing. As neighbors living together, the prevailing feeling is a tolerance of all faiths and beliefs.

In 1820, Holy Rosary Cathedral, the first Catholic church in Tennessee, was built by Irish Catholic workers then building a bridge over the Cumberland River. It was replaced by a brick structure in 1830. The site was sold to the state in 1857, and the bricks from the cathedral were used for the construction of the Church of the Assumption. State Capitol grounds, northeast slope.

Six African American churches stood in the center of Nashville's prosperous black business district before the Capitol Hill Redevelopment Program. First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill (1848); Gay Street Christian Church (1859); Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church (1887); St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (1898); St. John A.M.E. Church (1863); and Spruce St. Baptist Church (1848) were all in the James Robertson Pkwy and Charlotte Pike area.

The architecture and age of Nashville's churches, mosques, synagogues and temples is varied and interesting. The Downtown Presbyterian Church was designed by William Strickland, architect of the U.S. Capitol and Tennessee's Capitol. It is a rare display of Egyptian Revival architecture, and served as a Union Hospital during the Civil War. West End United Methodist Church dates their humble beginnings to a Civil War barracks.

Nashville has religious schools, colleges, and church administrative offices including Southern Baptist Convention. United Methodist Publishing House is one of the largest of its type in the world, but LifeWay Christian Resources, formerly Baptist Sunday School Board claims the title of champion in publishing religious materials. Thomas Nelson Publishers, located in Nashville, is the biggest religious publisher of Bibles in the nation. St. Mary's Bookstore provides religious books, statues, and supplies to individuals and churches.

Singing from songbooks and hymnals in Southern churches was the beginning of our present gospel music. Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville were one of the earliest groups to gain fame in Nashville.

The Upper Room Chapel Museum features an 8' by 17' wood carving of "The Last Supper" created by Italian sculptor Ernest Pellegrini in 1953. The chapel focuses on art of religious subjects from 1300 - 1990, manuscripts, books, English porcelains, seasonal displays of nativity scenes and Ukrainian eggs. 1908 Grand Avenue


When many people think of Tennessee in a religious context, the Monkey Trials generally surface in conversations. In the 1920s, staunch Primitive Baptists were alarmed that school textbooks were teaching Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution to our children. Many believed that anything other than the biblical story of creation would lead to moral decline, and so was born Tennessee’s Anti-Evolution Act.

Today the laws of the land require that we keep church and state separate. Religion is private while schools are public. By Court Decision, PRAYERS are outlawed in government learning institutions. My personal feelings about this issue arise from a sadness that so many children are receiving little to no religious information and values unless their parents are rich enough for parochial schools or extremely diligent in their weekend worship. Is it a coincidence that guns show up in schools across the country? And that violence is on the upswing? With so much diversity in our country, it is not possible to please everybody without offending some. So more personal liberties are lost for the majority. And then we all say "God bless America!"

In my opinion, being kind and helping others should be a major part of any religion. Nashville has it's share of community organizations for that purpose, including:

Buddies of Nashville
Salvation Army
Hands On Nashville
Homeless Shelters



NASHVILLE

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