Religious affiliations of Presidents of the United States body. Protestants predominate, with Episcopalians and Presbyterians being the most prevalent. There have been four Nontrinitarian presidents, and a single Roman Catholic president (John F. Kennedy). No president thus far has been openly an atheist. However, it has been acknowledged that two US Presidents—Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Johnson—had no religious affiliation. Most presidents have been formal members of a particular church or religious body, and a specific affiliation can be assigned to every president from James A. Garfield on. For many earlier presidents, however, formal church membership was forestalled until they left office; and in several cases a president never
Former Presidents Act Former Presidents Act The Former Presidents Act (known also as FPA; 3 U.S.C. § 102) is a 1958 U.S. federal law that provides several lifetime benefits to former presidents of the United States who have not been . Before 1958, the U.S. federal government provided no pension or other retirement benefits to former United States presidents. Andrew Carnegie offered to endow a US$25,000 annual pension for former Chief Executives in 1912, but congressmen questioned the propriety of such a private pension. That prompted legislation to provide benefits to former presidents. When the Former Presidents Act took effect, there were two