The Churching of America, 1776-2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy

by Roger Finke

Cotton Mather's observation in 1691 that "there are far more Godly Women in the World than there are Godly Men" (in Cott, 1977, p. 127). One barrier to the churching of colonial America, and especially the frontier areas, was the lack of women.