Plurality of religious preference by state, 2001. The Pacific Northwest is the only part of the U.S. where the largest plurality of citizens report no religion.

Religious views are very much less commonly expressed in Northwest American politics than in the rest of the United States, and conservative Christians have considerably less political influence than in other regions^[10].

However, the region is certainly not without religion, and three of the four large international charities in the region are faith-based: Northwest Medical Teams International, World Concern, World Vision International, and Mercy Corps. The archetype of the Skid Road mission, a shelter offering soup and sermons to down-and-out workers and inebriates, was launched on the skid roads of Seattle and Vancouver, with the Salvation Army having deep roots in Vancouver's Gastown district, dating back to the era of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1880s) and attained prominence in the same centers during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Despite its low rate of church attendance, the region is also known as a magnet for unique Christian groups, ranging from the Doukhobors to the Mennonites of British Columbia, and countless religiously-based communal efforts by ethnic groups such as Finns, Norwegians, Danes and others. The Mennonite Central Committee Supportive Care Services is based in Abbotsford, BC.^[11] Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Disaster Service enjoy a heavy rate of enlistment and donations from the strong Mennonite community in BC's Fraser Valley. Also within the region there is a fairly strong representation of Orthodox churches (Greek, Russian, Serbian and others) as well as the Ukrainian Uniate Catholic church.

"American Buddhist with Thai Buddha", Living Enrichment Center, Wilsonville, Oregon, 1998.

Eastern religions (especially Buddhism and Taoism) have been adopted by an unusual number of people in the Pacific Northwest, and Tibetan Buddhism in particular has a strong local following^[12]. The Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association, claimed to be the largest organization of its kind in the world, was founded in Portland in 1993. Yogic teachings, Sufism, tribal and ancient beliefs and other philosophies are widely studied and appreciated. Because of immigration to Canada the Lower Mainland of British Columbia has a very large Sikh community and cultural presence as well as a major growth in Chinese Buddhist temples and congregations since the increase in immigration from Asia in the 1980s. There is a small Hindu population, a number of Parsee (Zoroastrians), and an emerging Muslim population from India, the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

People in the area also embrace alternative religions and spirituality, such as New Age spirituality and Neo-Paganism^[13]. Before its closure in 2004, Mary Manin Morrissey's "megachurch" called Living Enrichment Center, located in Wilsonville, Oregon, was one of the biggest New Thought churches in the entire world, with a congregation estimated at between two thousand and five thousand members. Morrissey's "Life Keys" religious program was broadcast to several major networks around the U.S. West Coast. Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God, lives in Ashland, Oregon, where he runs a retreat center. Gangaji, an internationally recognized spiritual teacher and disciple of Poonjaji, lives in Ashland, Oregon. Established in more recent times, the training school of the immortal (according to the organization) being Ramtha is headquartered in Yelm, Washington. The followers of the Guru Rajneesh, the sannyasins, established a center for their beliefs and lifestyle near Antelope, Oregon, which included an ashram complex as well as, for a while, an attempted takeover of the local economy. The Emissaries of the Divine Light are a notable presence in the region of 100 Mile House, BC. More controversially, the commune run by Brother Twelve in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia early in the 20th century. Oregon's Willamette Valley has a large population of Russian Old Believers. ^[14]

[

See also

• Cascadia
• Oregon Country
• Oregon boundary dispute
• Alaska Boundary Dispute
• History of the west coast of North America
• Chinook Jargon
• Atlantic Northeast, another region shared between Canada and the US
• Climate change in Washington
• Northwest Coast art
• Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast

[

References

[

External links

• Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest
• American Indians of the Pacific Northwest from the Library of Congress
• What is the Northwest? and a "Provocative description", articles from a commercial website
• The Cascadia Institute promotes consciousness of a bioregion extending along the coast from northern California up to northern British Coumbia and extending east into parts of Idaho and Alberta.

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