Famous American Preachers

Cotton Mather is remembered as one of the most significant New England Puritans. However, he exhibited a curious mixture of science and traditions, as he promoted vaccination against smallpox, while supporting the Salem witch trials. He had penned works such as Curiosa Americana and was a Royal Society member.

Ted Haggard is an evangelical pastor who founded New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is also the founder of the Association of Life-Giving Churches. He is against same-sex marriages. In 2006, it was revealed that he had paid a male sex worker for sexual favors and also purchased some illegal drugs from him. 

The founder of the Focus on the Family, Dr. James Dobson is a qualified psychologist and has also had long stints with a children’s hospital and as a professor of pediatrics. Known for his popular radio program Family Talk, he has penned countless books, such as the bestseller Bringing Up Girls.

Catholic bishop Fulton J. Sheen was also a prominent radio and TV personality. Known for his stint on the NBC radio show The Catholic Hour, he also hosted the popular TV programs Life Is Worth Living and The Bishop Fulton Sheen Show. He also wrote extensively on communism, love, and peace.

Christian preacher Kenneth Erwin Hagin is widely remembered as the father of the modern faith movement. He had an almost-70-year stint with the Christian ministry. The founder of The Word of Faith movement, he popularized it through magazines, CDs, and books of the Faith Library Publications.

C. L. Franklin was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. Dubbed the man with the million-dollar voice, Franklin was renowned for preaching his sermons throughout the country. During the 1950s and 1960s, Franklin worked towards ending prejudicial practices against the black people in Detroit. He is also credited with encouraging his daughter Aretha Franklin to pursue music.

The founder of the hippie Christian cult named Children of God, or The Family International, religious leader David Berg, was also known as Father David. He was later accused of encouraging pedophilia and asking women to be “Hookers for Christ.” He also communicated with fellow cult members through codes.

Pema Chodron is an American Tibetan Buddhist and an ordained nun. Born as Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in New York, she began studying with Tibetan Buddhist Lama Chime Rinpoche as a young woman. She eventually became a fully ordained nun or bhikṣuṇī. She is the author of several dozen books and audiobooks. She is the principal teacher at Gampo Abbey. 

Joel Osteen is an American pastor, author, and televangelist. He is one of the most popular televangelists in the world, with his televised sermons being watched by millions of people every week in over 100 countries, including 10 million viewers in the US alone. In 2006, he was named in the 10 Most Fascinating People list published by Barbara Walters.

African-American religious leader George Baker, better known as Father Divine, founded Peace Mission, a movement that is now considered the basis of the civil rights movement. Father Divine claimed that divine intervention had caused the death of the judge who had sentenced him to prison for arranging meetings in Sayville.

Charles Grandison Finney, dubbed as the Father of Modern Revivalism, began his career with the Presbyterian Church, where his style of preaching fermented spirited revivals. Later, his dissatisfaction with Presbyterian theology led to formation of Broadway Tabernacle and he started promoting abolitionism and equal education for women and blacks. He spent his last years as minister of Oberlin’s First Congregational Church.

Congregational minister Henry Ward Beecher, the eighth child of Reverend Lyman Beecher, was a skilled orator and a prominent Protestant speaker. He was known for anti-slavery stance and his belief in God's love, One of his best works is the pamphlet Seven Lectures to Young Men.

William J. Seymour was an African-American holiness preacher. He is credited to have initiated the Azusa Street Revival, an influential event in the rise of the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements. He was a student of the early Pentecostal minister Charles Parham. He played a major role in the spread of Pentecostalism to various parts of America. 

Pastor and televangelist John Osteen is best remembered for his 16-year stint on the show John Osteen. He also established the Lakewood Church in Houston and penned countless books, such as Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith. His son Joel Osteen followed in his footsteps.

Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson is remembered for his long stint in Burma, where he established a church, founded schools, and baptised many people. He also translated the Bible into Burmese and worked on a Burmese-English dictionary. He was also one of the first from America to travel abroad for missionary activities.

Dwight L. Moody was an American publisher and evangelist. He is credited with founding the Moody Church which went on to become the most well-known religious outreach of its kind. He gave up his lucrative shoe business to focus solely on revivalism. He played an important role in the Civil War, working with the United States Christian Commission of YMCA.

Known for his stance against alcoholism, publishing six time-honored sermons on it, Presbyterian minister Lyman Beecher also worked for women’s education. An active participant in theological controversies, adhering to the New School Presbyterian branch of schism, he was once tried for heresy. However, he is equally remembered for fathering thirteen children, seven of whom earned distinction in their chosen field.

Baptist preacher William Miller launched the movement Millerism, which propagated the idea of the advent of Christ. Millerism paved the way for groups such as the Seventh-day Adventists. He and his followers believed the Second Coming was to happen on October 22, 1844, but it never did.

Hal Lindsey is an evangelist and Christian writer. He graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary, following which he worked with Campus Crusade for Christ. He was also a Sunday school teacher. He has authored many books, including The Late, Great Planet Earth and Apocalypse Code. He serves on the executive board of Christian Voice and has hosted many Christian TV shows. 

Peter Marshall was a Scottish-American preacher who served as the pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. His life and career inspired a biography titled A Man Called Peter. Written by his widow, the book achieved popularity and was later made into a film of the same name. 

Harold Kushner is an American rabbi and author. He is best known for his 24-year tenure as the congregational rabbi of Temple Israel of Natick. Kushner is also renowned for writing several books including best-sellers, such as Living a Life That Matters: Resolving the Conflict Between Conscience and Success and When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

A prominent 1980s’ wrestling champion, Johnny Lee Clary later came to be known as Johnny Angel. He had been part of the Ku Klux Klan and had also appeared on shows such as Oprah, where he defended racism. He later renounced the Klan and became a Christian evangelist.

Kent Hovind is an American tax protester and evangelist. He is credited with establishing Creation Science Evangelism (CSE), which aims at propagating creationism. A controversial personality, Hovind was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2007 for failing to pay taxes, structuring cash transactions, and obstructing federal agents.

Initially a Quaker preacher, folk painter Edward Hicks is best remembered for his work The Peaceable Kingdom and its 100 versions. His interest in painting perhaps stemmed for his early years as a coach painter. He mostly depicted the landscapes of New York and Pennsylvania. His works also featured animals.

Bill Bright was an American evangelist. He is credited with founding an interdenominational Christian parachurch organization called Campus Crusade for Christ. In 1996, Bill Bright was honored with the $1.1 million Templeton Prize which he donated to support and popularize the spiritual benefits of prayer and fasting.

Charles Emmanuel Grace, also known as Sweet Daddy Grace, was born in Portuguese-occupied Cape Verde and later moved to the U.S., where he formed the United House of Prayer for All People. The African-American bishop had a peculiar sense of style, replete with flowing hair and painted fingernails.

American theological and philosophical writer Orestes Brownson had been through massive religious confusion in his early days, when he switched from Presbyterianism, to Universalism, to Unitarianism, before finally converting to Catholicism. His writings include The Convert and The American Republic. He also wrote extensively on Transcendentalism.

Psychic Gary Spivey from Montgomery County has gained fame as a spiritual healer. He not only claims to have predicted major disasters, but is also able to see dead people. He has appeared on shows such as Entertainment Tonight, regularly appears on the radio, and has also co-written a book.

George A. Smith was one of the first leaders of the Latter Day Saint movement which was founded by Joseph Smith. He played an important role in Zion's Camp, which aimed at helping members of the church in Missouri. George A. Smith also played a key role in the events leading up to the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857.

Barton W. Stone was an evangelist who played an important role during the Second Great Awakening in the US. He is credited with forming the Christian Church, which worked towards restoring primitive Christianity. Today, many church groups including Churches of Christ have historical connection to Stone's efforts. Atlantic Christian College in North Carolina was renamed Barton College in his honor.

Apart from being a Christian author, Steve Brown is also a radio broadcaster and a seminary professor. After being a pastor for over two decades, he launched the radio broadcast Key Life. Of his numerous books, two of the notable ones are Scandalous Freedom and What Was I Thinking?

Moishe Rosen was an American minister who founded a non-profit organization called Jews for Jesus. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the organization focuses on evangelism to the Jews around the world. Moishe Rosen served as the executive director of the organization before stepping down from his position in 1996. He remained a member of the board until his death.

Born into slavery, Allen Allensworth successfully disguised himself in a uniform and marched to freedom, along with the Union soldiers during the Civil War. He later served the U.S. Navy and eventually became a Baptist preacher. The first Black American lieutenant colonel, he also formed the town Allensworth.

Listed by Time Magazine as one of "Seven Stars of the Pulpit", Peter John Gomes was a much respected preacher and theologian. Also Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard Divinity School and Pusey Minister at Harvard's Memorial Church, he authored two bestselling books and published ten volumes of sermons. A celibate gay, he also worked for acceptance of homosexuality.

John Humphrey Noyes was an American preacher, religious philosopher, and utopian socialist. He was the founder of the Putney, Oneida, and Wallingford Communities. He decided to devote his life to religion at a young age and studied at the Yale Theological Seminary. He was also involved in political activism and helped organize an anti-slavery society in the United States. 

Civil rights leader and Baptist minister Benjamin Hooks was also a jurist and had served the NAACP as its executive director. He had studied law at the Chicago-based DePaul University College of Law since no law school in Tennessee, his home state, allowed Blacks back then.

Thomas Hooker was an English colonial leader. Hooker is credited with founding the Colony of Connecticut and is hence referred to as the Father of Connecticut. Thomas Hooker, who played a major role in the development of colonial New England, was one of the founders of the state of Connecticut as well as the city of Hartford.   

Carl McIntire was an American evangelist best remembered for his efforts that eventually led to the formation of the Bible Presbyterian Church where he also served as a minister. He is also credited with founding the American Council of Christian Churches as well as the International Council of Christian Churches, serving as a long-time president of the latter.

Edward Robinson was a biblical scholar best remembered for his work Biblical Researches in Palestine. Regarded as the first major work in Biblical Archaeology and Biblical Geography, his work earned him the titles, Founder of Modern Palestinology and Father of Biblical Geography. He is also remembered for translating scriptural works.

Isaac Backus was a Baptist minister who played an important role during the American Revolution. He is best remembered for campaigning against New England's state-established churches. Influenced by the works of George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, Backus became a preacher. His work titled Government and Liberty Described and Ecclesiastical Tyranny Exposed is considered a historically important article.

William Ellery Channing was an American preacher. One of the most important Unitarian preachers in the early-19th century, Channing was also one of Unitarianism's most prominent theologians. Remembered for his impassioned and articulate public speeches and sermons, Channing had a major influence on the New England Transcendentalists. In 1903, he was honored with a statue at the Boston Public Garden.  

William Richards was a politician and missionary whose work on a formal land title system gave rise to the Great Mahele in 1848. He also helped popularize a liberal constitutional monarchy in the Kingdom of Hawaii. He also served as a translator to King Kamehameha III and later helped translate much of the Bible into Hawaiian. 

Peter Cartwright was an American Methodist, preacher, and revivalist. A Methodist missionary, Cartwright helped start the Second Great Awakening in America; he is credited with baptizing twelve thousand converts. Peter Cartwright was also a writer and his autobiography made him popular throughout the country. 

Patriarch of the LDS Church for 32 years, Eldred G. Smith was the oldest Mormon Church authority when he died at 106. In his lifetime, he had given over 18,000 blessings. Initially an engineer, he worked with clocks. He was also the oldest man from Utah when he died.

Born to an Irish immigrant father and his African-American slave wife, James Augustine Healy was the first Black Roman Catholic bishop of the U.S. However, he identified as White Irish, owing to his mixed race. Although he voiced his support for Native Americans, he never specifically spoke on African-American issues.

Sheldon Jackson was a Presbyterian minister, political leader, and missionary. He is credited with establishing over 100 churches and missions throughout the Western United States. Jackson is also remembered for his efforts to subdue Native American languages. The Sheldon Jackson College in Alaska was named in his honor.