Unlike most nations, where a single religion dominates every aspect of public and private life, America boasts more than 2,000 faith traditions vying for members and respect.
It's a political experiment that intrigues many foreigners, including 17 Fulbright scholars from countries such as Bangladesh and Brazil, Cameroon, the Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Slovakia and Spain, who have come here to see U.S. religious diversity firsthand.
They arrived in Utah on Saturday.
It seems an odd place to study diversity, given the fact that this state has a dominant religious majority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, much like many of their home countries.
But Wade Clark Roof explains the logic.
"Utah is a small religious empire amid a pluralistic country," says Roof, who directs the summer workshop on American Religious Pluralism and Public Presence.
The six-week course, held at the University of California at Santa Barbara and funded by the Fulbright American Studies Institute of the U.S. State Department, provides in-depth exploration of American religion, its history and sociology, gender, regional, race and ethnic patterns, the growing presence of Latinos and Muslims, faith-based initiatives and domestic patterns.
During last summer's workshop, Indiana historian Jan Shipps, who has made a lifelong study of Mormonism, was invited to address the Fulbright scholars in Indianapolis. Though she was speaking mostly about American religion in general, the participants seemed especially intrigued with Mormonism. In their later evaluations of the workshop, many said they wanted to know more about the Utah-based church.
"Organizers made a mistake not to introduce the scholars to America's most indigenous faith," says Shipps, who offered to lead the foreign scholars on a tour of Utah.
Many other groups have had a similar reason to come here.
Russian leaders involved in shaping religion policy in their country were in Salt Lake City and Provo this past week examining religious freedom issues, through the U.S. Congress-sponsored Open World Program.
At Brigham Young University Law School, they attended intensive workshops on church-state issues such as education and religious exemptions. They also met with state officials in various branches of government, visited the LDS Humanitarian Services and Welfare Square and reviewed church-state relations in Utah at the state Capitol.
On Aug. 3, Lutheran delegates from Madagascar, Norway, Indonesia and other countries will visit Utah for a three-day immersion in LDS culture and theology as part of the Lutheran World Federation's 10th Assembly.
Local Mormons and Lutherans will offer presentations and discussions on the impact of the LDS Church throughout the world. Bishop Allan Bjornberg of the Lutheran Rocky Mountain Synod will preach at Zion Lutheran Church to local members and international guests.
For the Fulbright scholars, this weekend will include tours of LDS sites such as Temple Square, the Conference Center and the Family History Library, This Is the Place Monument and the Missionary Training Center in Provo. They will go to dinner with several LDS general authorities, hear a lecture on the development of Mormon identity and have a chance to stock up on Mormon books.
But they will also visit other Utah churches such as Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Madeleine or the First United Methodist Church, all in downtown Salt Lake City.
The program also offers all-expense-paid trips to the West Coast, Midwest, the South and Washington, D.C.
The very idea of religious pluralism is baffling for many of these participants, especially Muslims, Roof says.
"They look around and don't see anything like it in their countries," he says. "To them, religion is not a choice or preference. It is supposed to be something bigger and deeper."