1. The proliferation of New Religious Movements in North AmericaMax Weber once said that America is the daughter of reform, and that American capitalism is an avatar of Protestantism. There is unquestionably a close connection between the crisis of Catholicism from the sixteenth century and the colonization of America in later centuries since the first settlers on the Mayflower immigrated to the new continent. These settlers did not necessarily come out of the desire for adventure or enrichment, but rather to escape English religious oppression. Luther, Calvin and other Reformers offered individual religious and political autonomy, and America was the perfect place to apply it.Calling an American an atheist is almost a contradiction of terms, because not believing in God means ultimately not believing in America. According to the Gallup index, in 1986 the frequency of participation at religious services in various denominations was 49% in a population of over 250 million people. The American Dream is not just a hope for material prosperity, but rather it is a dream of happiness which implies the contribution of Gods providence. Former president Dwight D. Eisenhower said that the American government will not achieve anything if people did not put their hope in God. The average American strongly believes in God's providential plan for America, he encounters religious practices everywhere, and the American state itself, through its laws recognizes and even authorizes the preeminence of the divine power over the secular reality. Sometimes America itself is seen as a religion. In this line of thought, the First Amendment of the American Constitution guarantees the freedom of expression of religion: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of thereof.However, in order not to suffer the inconveniences that they had to go through in the United Kingdom, the Founding Fathers drafted the so-called wall of separation; a separating wall between religion and state. This is why, up to this day, the United States does not recognize any religion as a state religion, since it was British religious oppression that determined the Founding Fathers of the United States to find refuge in the colonies overseas. Half of the first colonies were founded by religious congregations; the Puritan Calvinists for example founded New-England, Quakers founded Pennsylvania and Catholics founded Maryland. The founding fathers declared in 1787: We are a religious nation whose institutions presuppose the existence of a Supreme Being. Therefore we guarantee the right of freedom of expression of religious piety according to the freedom of choice of everyone; we find just that everyone should express their religious conviction as he wishes and we do not encourage any attitude from the government of favoring a particular religious group over another.Even the authors of the Declaration of Independence clearly asserted their religious affiliation: thirty-six were Anglicans, thirteen Congregationalists, six Presbyterians, one Baptist, one Quaker, and one Roman Catholic.All this has generated a very favorable social context for multiplying various manifestations of religions, under the protection of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Moreover, in the spirit of respecting the four principles mentioned above, a large number of facilities have been created for religious cults, some of which are still in force to this day, such as tax exemptions, free transport to denominational schools, and a very efficient legal framework to stimulate legal religious sponsorship.It is probable that the founders of the American state had not intended to create such a situation. But the opposition to the negative English religious experience created a social and legal harmonious environment which was necessary for the free development of religious beliefs. They were also interested in stopping any attempts of the state to obstruct religion. Because of this context, the number of religions in America today is estimated to be between 3000 and 8000, and it is still growing because if someone wants to declare himself as being the Messiah and finds a few followers, he will receive equal treatment from the state as with any other religion.