By Lisa Millett
J. Gordon Melton of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, Calif., has collected information about more than 2,500 religions throughout the U.S and Canada.
Melton''s fascination of collecting religions began when he was a senior in high school. He read the book 'Small Sects in America' that discussed different religious groups.
'By the time I finished college, I discovered that I had twice as many religions as were in the book I read,' Melton said. 'It was kind of at that point that I decided this was serious material and a little more than just a hobby. I stopped collecting stamps and started collecting religions.'
Melton''s seventh edition of 'The Encyclopedia of American Religion' published last December. The first publication of the encyclopedia came out in 1979.
Melton travels all over the world finding new religions. He gathers new information about religions through his road travels, friends, people who send him information, the Internet and a network of scholars who also collect information about religions, Melton said.
'I read telephone books,' he said. 'Believe or not, I go to different cities, and I get the yellow pages and look through the church and religion pages, and I find new groups that way.'
The smallest religion Melton ever found was called The Truth, Melton said. The founder was the only member of the group.
'He wrote me a few years ago and said, ''I''ve been at it for a decade and I never got a convert, so I''m giving it up, and I''ve joined a local group,''' Melton said.
Usually one person is not considered a religion, but this case was different because the religious ideas were very interesting, Melton said.
Some minimum standards are required in order for a group to be classified as a religion. Usually the minimum requirements are a group of 5,000 people, two different locations of the same religion or the ideas from the group are important and affect society, he said.
The largest religion Melton found in America is the Roman Catholic Church, which is twice as big as the nearest rival, Melton said.
Melton first began researching information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he came to Salt Lake City in 1985. He visited different people and groups to learn about the LDS church, Melton said. He has compiled a large LDS collection and tries to visit Salt Lake City once a year to attend conferences and visit his many friends, he said.
Melton also travels around the world to find religions that have migrated to the U.S, and he plans on visiting Lithuania, Italy and Mainland China this summer.
A few years ago, Melton published a book called 'Religions of the World' that contains information about the largest groups chosen from 1,000 religions from more than 300 countries outside of the U.S.
'I''ve continued to collect religions,' Melton said. 'I''ve found about 20 that aren''t in the encyclopedia. New groups are being continually found as old groups are dying out.'
'The Encyclopedia of American Religion' is sold on Amazon.com and Galegroup.com.