Religious affiliations of prime ministers of the Kingdom of Sierra

  

The religious affiliations of prime ministers of the Kingdom of Sierra have been the subject of interest and study by historians and scholars specializing in Sierran prime ministers. The majority of Sierran prime ministers have been affiliated with Christianity. There have been five non-Christian prime ministers in Sierran history: two Jewish prime ministers, a Buddhist, a deist, and an atheist.

The current prime minister of the Kingdom of Sierra, Cedric Harrison, is a Methodist.

Formal affiliation

The majority of Sierran prime ministers have had formal affiliations with a particular church or a religious body. Of those affiliated with a religious institution, the majority were associated with a Christian denomination, with the remaining non-Christian religious being Jewish. Only two prime ministers in Sierran history were not affiliated with any religious body during their premiership: Ulysses Perry (raised Catholic but became deist) and Kovrov Stoyanovich (was an atheist for most of his life). To date, most major Christian denominations have been represented including: Episcopalians/Anglicans, Baptists, Reformed/Presbyterians, Methodists, New Anglicans, Lutherans, Catholics, and Adventists. There have been no Anabaptist/Mennonites, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Pentecostal, Latter Day Saint, Unitarian, Quaker, or Bible Student/Jehovah's Witness prime ministers. Likewise, there have been no prime ministers affiliated with the Kingdom of Sierra's other major religions including Muslims, Canaanites, Kuranites, Hindus, Sikhs, Taoists, Confucianists, or Scientologists. In addition, the irreligious are underrepresented, with only one prime ministers, Stoyanovich, professing any irreligious views such as agnosticism, ignosticism, apatheism, ietsism, or antitheism. Chan is a Buddhist, which is traditionally a nontheistic religion.

Personal beliefs

Personal beliefs, beyond nominal religious affiliation, vary significantly among the prime ministers. Some were very open and expressive of their religious beliefs while others seldom or never discussed their religious beliefs at all. There were a number of prime ministers who, despite being formally affiliated or a member of a religious body, either expressed some dissenting or unorthodox beliefs that were contrary to the beliefs of their affiliated body. Numerous prime ministers also experienced changes or evolution in their belief systems and affiliations. A number of the prime ministers were, despite being officially a member of a particular religious body, attendants of other religious bodies or held a more syncretic relationship with religious bodies outside their professed affiliation.

Unitarianism and nontrinitarianism

None of the Christian prime ministers have been formally affiliated with any Unitarian or Nontrinitarian churches. However, three prime ministers have expressed Unitarian ideas or made statements that were suggestive of Unitarian sympathies during their lifetimes. Ulysses Perry, prior to becoming a deist, held Unitarian beliefs before completely abandoning belief in the Abrahamic God in favor of the impersonal God of deism. Robert Landon, the grandson of the late Isaiah Landon, while formally affiliated with the Trinitarian Disciples of Christ, expressed doubts whether Jesus himself was divine and the validity of the Trinity. Henry Faulkner, who was never formally part of any church but perennially attended a number of different churches throughout his life, wrote letters that contained references to Jesus as a "good, moral teacher" and were devoid of any theological connotations.

Irreligion and nontheism

While Prime Ministers Perry and Stoyanovich were publicly known to be irreligious and the latter a nontheist, there were a number of prime ministers who were nominally Christian but whose personal lives seemed to largely absent or scant of religious devotion or importance.

Frémont, who was Episcopalian, was said to have almost never attended church services, even during the most important Christian holidays such as Easter or Christmas. Much of the existing writings in Frémont's catalogue are noticeably absent of any religious content compared to his contemporaries.

Hiram Johnson, who was also Episcopalian, did not express any public displays of religiosity and was reportedly very private of his personal life. He did not engage in religious rhetoric during his speeches or writings, and did not participate in group prayers organized by members of his own Reformed Republican party.

Faulkner, who was never formally associated with any church during public office, was an unspecified Protestant for much of his life and only perennially attended church services at various denominations. Although he occasionally spoke of Christian values and themes in his speeches and writings, Faulkner was a largely secular man. He did not object to the raising of his children in the Episcopalian faith however and was given funerary rites at the Episcopalian church that his family attended to the most. His remains are also interred at an Episcopalian cemetery and his tombstone is marked with a Christian cross.

Stoyanovich's irreligiosity was the subject of significant concern and controversy among Sierran voters, especially Royalists. Speculation over Stoyanovich's alleged atheism nearly jeopardized Stoyanovich's leadership bid to become leader of the Royalists, until he declared that he was "nominally a spiritual man" without further specifying his religious views. It was publicly known that Stoyanovich was raised Orthodox and came from a Jewish background, and also received Catholic education growing up. However, the accounts and testimonies of Stoyanovich's friends and colleagues contributed to rumors over Stoyanovich's faith. After Stoyanovich was impeached and removed from office, he receded into general disgrace. In the years following his forced retirement from politics, Stoyanovich later admitted on the record that he had been an atheist for much of his adult life. He became more open about his nonbelief as his public image was rehabilitated during the 1980s and was later honored and recognized by the Sierran Secular and Humanist Association. Towards the end of Stoyanovich's life, he began attending church services at a local Seventh-day Adventist Church after one of his grandchildren converted to the denomination. Stoyanovich, who had become increasingly private in his final years, never issued any public statements regarding his faith or reasons to become a regular churchgoer. The local pastor also confirmed that Stoyanovich never expressed interest in becoming baptized although Stoyanovich sometimes joined Bible study groups at the church. There are conflicting reports that Stoyanovich, on his deathbed, converted to Adventism, by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and his children. A dubious account of Stoyanovich's final days retells Stoyanovich "intensely reading" passages from both the Holy Bible and Ellen G. White's Steps to Christ and asking for repentance. Stoyanovich's own children contend that although Stoyanovich did indeed have such reading material with him at the time of his death, they dispute the claim that he sought repentance or any other clear indication that he had a change of faith. A former Seventh-day Adventist treasurer who worked at Stoyanovich's church stated that there were no records that showed Stoyanovich tithed to the Church.

There are some indications that Lyon, who was Catholic, had lapsed during his political career. Lyon, who championed religious tolerance and peace, especially in the highly sectarian Styxie, had largely stopped attending weekly Mass services once he had become an MP. In his post-premiership, Lyon became a Freemason and joined the United Grand Lodge of Sierra, which was against the Church's policy on the fraternity. The Catholic Church – Avignon, of which Lyon had switched allegiances to following the Second Western Schism, renewed the Catholic Church's longstanding papal ban against Freemasonry and maintained the policy of threatening to excommunicate any Catholics who became part of a Freemason lodge. Despite the controversy, Lyon was still able to receive communion at his local parish and later given a Catholic-serviced funeral upon his death. He had remained a Freemason for the remainder of his life and was never excommunicated by the Church.

Maggie Chan is a Buddhist, where Buddhism has traditionally been described and categorized as a nontheistic religion as the religion does not have or teach of a creator god.

List of prime ministers by religious affiliation

#	Name	Religion	Branch	Further branch	Specific denomination	Years in office	Notes
1	Frederick Bachelor Sr.	Christian	Protestant	Reformed	Reformed Presbyterian Church of Sierra	1858–1865
2	Richard Trist	Christian	Protestant	Lutheran	Lutheran Church–Styxie Synod	1865–1867, 1872–1874
3	Ulysses Perry	Christian/Deist	Catholic	Roman Catholic	Latin Church	1874, 1867–1872	Perry was raised Episcopalian but converted to Catholicism when his family emigrated to Alta California due to the Mexican religious requirements for obtaining citizenship. Later in life, prior to his political career, Perry rejected the idea of the divinity of Jesus and became a deist.
4	Issac Johnson	Christian	Protestant	Anglican	Episcopal Church in Sierra	1874
5	Maxwell Gibson	Christian	Protestant	Baptist	Southern Baptist	1874–1878
6	John C. Frémont	Christian	Protestant	Anglican	Episcopal Church in Sierra	1878–1881, 1882–1885
7	Nicholas Calhoun	Christian	Protestant	Baptist	Southern Baptist	1881–1882
8	Frederick Bachelor Jr.	Christian	Protestant	Reformed	Reformed Presbyterian Church of Sierra	1885–1892
9	Joseph Starling, 2nd Viscount of Brianwood	Christian	Protestant	New Anglican	Church of New England	1892–1901	Formerly a member of the Episcopal Church in Sierra before it split with the Church of New England. Lord Starling joined the latter.
10	Robert Landon	Christian	Protestant	Restorationist	Disciples of Christ	1901–1909
11	Henry Gage	Christian	Protestant	Methodist	Wesleyan Methodist Church	1909–1912
12	Tasker Lowndes Oddie	Christian	Protestant	Reformed	Presbyterian Church in the Kingdom of Sierra	1916–1919, 1921–1923
13	Hiram Johnson	Christian	Protestant	Anglican	Episcopal Church in Sierra	1919–1921, 1923–1924
14	Earle Coburn	Christian	Protestant	Methodist	Wesleyan Methodist Church	1924–1927
15	Poncio Salinas	Christian	Catholic	Latin Church	Avignonese Catholic	1927–1934, 1939–1946	Raised in the Roman Catholic faith, the Catholic Church split during Salinas' political career. Initially, Salinas maintained allegiance with the Church in Rome but due to political pressure during Great War I, he switched allegiance to the Church in Avignon.
16	Christopher Rioux	Christian	Catholic	Latin Church	Avignonese Catholic	1934–1939	Raised in the Roman Catholic faith, the Catholic Church split during Rioux's political career. Rioux became a Avignonese Catholic following the schism.
17	Charles Lyon	Christian	Catholic	Latin Church	Avignonese Catholic	1946–1947	Raised in the Roman Catholic faith, the Catholic Church split during Lyon's political career. Lyon became a Avignonese Catholic following the schism.
18	Franklin Tan	Christian	Protestant	Reformed	Reformed Presbyterian Church of Sierra	1947–1955
19	Henry Faulkner	Christian	Protestant	Unspecified Protestant	Methodist/Presbyterian/ Episcopalian	1955–1959	Faulkner was raised Methodist and married his wife at a Presbyterian church. He occasionally attended a local Episcopalian church later in life.
20	Alfred von Schliefen	Christian	Protestant	Lutheran	Lutheran Church–Styxie Synod	1959–1965
21	Earl Warren	Christian	Protestant	Unspecified Protestant	Largely Baptist	1965–1969	Warren was born to a Baptist minister and sent his children to Baptist Sunday Schools but was not a regular churchgoer.
22	Kovrov Stoyanovich	Irreligious	Atheist	N/A	N/A	1969–1970	Stoyanovich was born and raised to a non-practicing Jewish father and practicing Eastern Orthodox mother. He studied at a Catholic boarding school before privately becoming an atheist in his adulthood. During most of his time in public office, Stoyanovich did not have any formal affiliation with any church, although he occasionally invoked references to Christian values and God. He was subject to intense scrutiny and controversy over his alleged atheist beliefs, which he confirmed only after he was no longer prime minister. Later in life, he attended a Seventh-day Adventist Church but did not formally express any conversion. There are conflicting reports whether Stoyanovich made a deathbed conversion between the Adventist church and Stoyanovich's children.
23	Walter Zhou	Christian	Protestant	Methodist	Wesleyan Methodist Church	1970–1975
24	Kirk Siskind	Jewish	Rabbinic	Conservative	N/A	1975–1983
25	Mitchell Ford	Christian	Protestant	Baptist	Sierran Baptist Fellowship	1983–1986
26	Ted Brundy	Christian	Protestant	Baptist	Sierran Baptist Fellowship	1986–1992
27	Melinda Peters	Christian	Protestant	Reformed	Presbyterian Church in the Kingdom of Sierra	1992–2000
28	Matthew Braggs	Christian	Protestant	Baptist	Sierran Baptist Fellowship	2000–2004
29	Diana Jeong	Christian	Protestant	Methodist	Wesleyan Methodist Church	2004–2008
30	Steven Hong	Christian	Protestant	Methodist	United Methodist Church of Sierra	2008–2016
31	Preston Bolivar	Jewish	Rabbinic	Reform	N/A	2016
32	Daniel McComb	Christian	Protestant	Baptist	Southern Baptist	2016–2017
33	Leslie Steele	Christian	Protestant	Adventist	Seventh-day Adventist	2017
34	Nemesis Heartwell	Christian	Protestant	Unspecified Protestant	Largely Presbyterian	2017–2020
35	Susan Kwon	Christian	Protestant	Methodist	United Methodist Church of Sierra	2020–2022
36	Maggie Chan	Buddhist	Mahayana	Zen	Chan	2022–2024
37	Cedric Harrison	Methodist	Christian	Protestant	Methodist	Methodist Episcopal Church	2024–present

Affiliation totals

Religion	#	Branch	#	Further branch	#	Denomination	#
Christian	32	Protestant	29
				Adventist	1	Seventh-day Adventist	1
				Anglican	3	Episcopalian	3
				Baptist	6	Sierran	3
						Southern	3
				Lutheran			2
				Methodist	7	Methodist Episcopal	1
						United	3
						Wesleyan	3
				New Anglican	1	Church of New England	1
				Reformed	5	Presbyterian	5
				Restorationist	1	Disciples of Christ	1
				Unspecified			3
		Catholic	3	Latin Catholic	3	Avignon Roman	3
Jewish	2	Rabbinic	2	Conservative			1
				Reform			1
Buddhist	1	Mahayana	1	Zen	1	Chan	1
Irreligious	2	Atheist					1
		Deist					1
Total individuals							37

See also

• Religious affiliations of deputy prime ministers of the Kingdom of Sierra
• Religious affiliations of leaders of the United Commonwealth