Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
States & Territories

Texas

South

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San Antonio's five Spanish colonial missions, including the Alamo, built between 1718 and 1731 to convert the local Coahuiltecan peoples, form the largest concentration of intact Spanish mission architecture in the country and are collectively a UNESCO World Heritage site. Texas's German and Czech immigrant communities in the Hill Country built distinctive painted Lutheran and Catholic churches still standing in towns like Fredericksburg and West. The state's sheer size and rapid growth have since made it home to some of the country's largest megachurches, including Lakewood Church in Houston, alongside a large and historic Tejano Catholic population.

Facts
Identity
Jurisdiction Status
U.S. state 1
Religion
Leading Religious Affiliation
Evangelical Protestant 2
Texas: Evangelical Protestant is 27% of adults, ahead of Nothing in particular at 18%. Margin of error plus or minus 2.5 points. Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/state/texas/
Law and State
Establishment Status
No Establishment 1
Texas has had no established church under United States or Republic of Texas governance since independence from Mexico in 1836, despite the Catholic establishment maintained earlier under Spanish and Mexican rule.
Geography
Census Region
South 1
Origins
Origin of the Name
From the Caddo word tejas or teysha, friends or allies, used by the Caddo to describe allied peoples and adopted by Spanish explorers. 1
Learn More
Mexican Law Ended the Mission System a Century After It Began

San Antonio's five Spanish colonial missions, including what became known as the Alamo, were built between 1718 and 1731 specifically to convert the local Coahuiltecan peoples, and their original religious purpose did not survive Mexican independence. Secularization began as early as 1793, when San Antonio de Valero, the mission that later became the Alamo, was the first to be formally secularized under a Spanish crown order, its remaining religious functions ended and its lands opened to distribution among settlers. The rest of the San Antonio missions followed more gradually, and the process concluded under the newly independent Mexican government, which by 1824 had transferred the missions' remaining lands, buildings and assets fully into secular parish and private hands, ending, roughly a century after Father Antonio Olivares founded the first of them, the evangelizing purpose the whole mission system had originally existed to serve. The buildings survived that transition and today form the largest concentration of intact Spanish mission architecture in the country, a UNESCO World Heritage site whose current religious use, several remain active Catholic parishes, postdates the mission era that built them by more than a century.

Texas's German and Czech immigrant communities built distinctive painted Lutheran and Catholic churches still standing in Hill Country towns like Fredericksburg, and the state's rapid growth has since produced some of the country's largest megachurches, including Lakewood Church in Houston. Evangelical Protestant identification leads at twenty seven percent of adults, per Pew's 2023-24 study.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

This source names Texas directly: "premiere at the Irving Arts Center in Texas, shot across Nigeria and the United States."

This source names Texas directly: "during an overnight train journey to Texas."

Source A. W. Tozer (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Texas directly: "11, 2022, at the Irving Arts Center in Texas, followed by a Lagos premiere on November 15, 2024."

This source names Texas directly: "Vincent's Cathedral in Bedford, Texas, when a draft constitution and canons were ratified at the new church's founding conference; for its formation by theological traditionalists who had left the..."

Source Anglican Church in North America (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Texas directly: "the Hills Monastery in Blanco County, Texas, between April 1998 and February 1999, when he was 16 and 17."

This source names Texas directly: "at the Mount Carmel Center near Waco, Texas, and describing the small remnant community that continued at the rebuilt property under pastor Charles Pace in the years afterward."

Source Branch Davidians (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Texas directly: "Massachusetts, Virginia and Texas, organized several sessions there, among them a multi faith panel on Cao Dai's practices of self realization held together with Jewish, Unity Church and Sufi..."

This source names Texas directly: "1993 wire service report in which Texas child welfare officials stated that a 1992 investigation of complaints about the treatment of children at David Koresh's Branch Davidian settlement had not..."

This source names Texas directly: "the Hills Monastery in Blanco County, Texas, a monastery affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) from 1991 until ROCOR severed ties amid the allegations in 1999."

This source names Texas directly: "in session, meeting in Dallas, Texas, voted to approve the Statement of Fundamental Beliefs, a document of twenty seven separate articles."

This source names Texas directly: "2015 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas."

This source names Texas directly: "Days, held 5 March 2025 at the Texas State Capitol in Austin and 6 March 2025 at Rice University in Houston, describing State Representative Salman Bhojani's hosting of the Texas Zoroastrian..."

This source names Texas directly: "Norman Cigar's 1995 study, published by Texas A&M University Press, arguing that the mass killing of Bosnian Muslims was the planned outcome of a deliberate Serbian policy of ethnic cleansing rather..."

This source names Texas directly: "Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas before his expulsion, initially refused to record the song as blasphemous; the argument with producer Sam Phillips that followed was captured on tape between..."

This source names Texas directly: "published by the University of Texas Press, is the standard scholarly translation and study of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin, presenting the manuscript as a structured chronicle organized..."

This source names Texas directly: "as the largest Cao Dai worship site in Texas."

This source names Texas directly: "A federal lawsuit filed in Texas on 12 June 2000 by attorney Windle Turley sought $400 million on behalf of former students, naming ISKCON, fifteen affiliated corporations, seventeen governing body..."

Source ISKCON Abuse Cases Settled for USD 9.5 MillionThe Pluralism Project

This source names Texas directly: "A $400 million federal lawsuit filed in Texas in June 2000 named ISKCON, affiliated corporations, governing body members, and the estate of founder A.C."

Source ISKCON Abuse Cases Settled for USD 9.5 MillionThe Pluralism Project

This source names Texas directly: "Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, from which he was expelled after playing a boogie woogie rendition of the hymn My God Is Real, and quoting his exchange with producer Sam Phillips during the..."

This source names Texas directly: "on 31 October 1916, aboard a train in Texas, leaving no named successor."

This source names Texas directly: "the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas maintains ties today."

Source Kenekuk, the Kickapoo Prophet (Herring)Joseph B. Herring

This source names Texas directly: "name adds International), Houston, Texas, classified Religion-Related/Protestant."

This source names Texas directly: "Massachusetts, Virginia and Texas, and lists the sessions they organized, including a multi faith panel on Cao Dai's practices of self realization held together with Jewish, Unity Church and Sufi..."

This source names Texas directly: "national form in 1908 at Pilot Point, Texas, from the merger of several holiness bodies, among them a Los Angeles congregation Phineas F."

Source Praise and Worship: The Nazarene Hymnal (Internet Archive)Church of the Nazarene (Nazarene Publishing House)

This source names Texas directly: "Headquartered in Irving, Texas, the company owns and operates radio stations across dozens of markets in Christian teaching and talk, conservative news and talk, and contemporary Christian music..."

This source names Texas directly: "in 2003, headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas with chapters across the United States."

Source Vision and Mission (Sewa International Official Page)Sewa International Inc.

This source names Texas directly: "Inc (EIN 20-0638718, Sugar Land, Texas)."

Source Sewa International Inc. IRS Form 990 (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer)Sewa International Inc. (filed with the US Internal Revenue Service, reproduced by ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer)

This source names Texas directly: "coast, published by the University of Texas Press in 2006."

This source names Texas directly: "The Texas House of Representatives' own resolution, House Resolution 404 of the 89th Legislature, recognizing 5 March 2025 as Zoroastrian Day at the State Capitol, sponsored by Representative Salman..."

This source names Texas directly: "at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, voted by secret ballot on whether division executive committees could decide for themselves whether to ordain women to the gospel ministry within their own..."

This source names Texas directly: "Published by the University of Texas Press in 1991, it is the single most detailed surviving account of pre-Hispanic Andean religion in an indigenous language, and it documents Pariacaca, a mountain..."

This source names Texas directly: "Drafted largely during an overnight train journey to Texas, it calls readers toward holiness, contemplative prayer, reverence, self-denial and a conscious, felt awareness of the presence of God..."

Source A. W. Tozer (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Texas directly: "On 5 March 2025, the Texas House of Representatives adopted House Resolution 404, recognizing 5 March 2025 as Zoroastrian Day at the State Capitol in Austin."

This source names Texas directly: "at the Uniting Conference in Dallas, Texas, and voted to merge into a single denomination."

Source Formation of The United Methodist Church (umc.org)The United Methodist Church

This source names Texas directly: "Vincent's Cathedral in Bedford, Texas, a coalition of theological traditionalists ratified a constitution and canons founding the Anglican Church in North America."

Source Anglican Church in North America (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Texas directly: "record for Trinity Broadcasting of Texas Inc (EIN 74-1945661), showing its fiscal year ended 31 December 2023 Form 990 filing reporting total revenue of about 105.3 million dollars, total expenses..."

This source names Texas directly: "restructured Trinity Broadcasting of Texas Inc in 2019, that Trinity Broadcasting of Texas reported total revenue of about 933.3 million dollars for that year, and that the organization received a..."

This source names Texas directly: "headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas with chapters across the United States."

Source Vision and Mission (Sewa International Official Page)Sewa International Inc.

This source names Texas directly: "Conference Session, San Antonio, Texas, 2 to 11 July 2015, at which delegates revised Fundamental Belief 23 to change the word "partners" to "a man and a woman," explaining that "the meaning of the..."

Principal Tradition Of

Evangelicalism, Denominations

Plurality religious identification among the state's adults per the source's survey.

Spread Events Here

Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source
2. Pew Research Center: 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study
Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source
A Religious History of the American People
Sydney E. Ahlstrom, Yale University Press, 1972View the Source
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