The '''Disciples of Christ''' or formally, '''the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)''' is a mainline [[Mainline Protestant churches|Mainline Protestant denomination ]] in the United States. With roots back to the Stone-Campbell Movement in the early 19th century, it was organized in present form after the [[Churches of Christ]] split off around 1900. It is strongest in the lower Midwest and upper South. It is strongest in the lower Midwest and upper South. The most famous members were presidents [[James Garfield]], [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] and [[Ronald Reagan]]. Garfield was a minister and college president and Reagan was a graduate of [[Eureka College]], a Disciples school in Illinois.
==Reagan as Disciple==
Ronald Reagan took his religious values into the presidency. He was strongly influenced by Ben Hill Cleaver, the minister of the First Christian Church in Dixon, Illinois, during the 1920s, and by Reagan's mother, Nelle, an active member of the church. At many points the positions taken by the First Christian Church of Reagan's youth coincided with the words, if not the beliefs of the latter-day Reagan. These positions included faith in Providence, the association of America's mission with God's will, belief in progress, trust in the work ethic and admiration for those who achieved wealth, an uncomfortableness with literature and art that questioned the family or challenged notions of proper sexual behavior, the presumption that poverty is an individual problem best left to charity rather than the state, sensitivity to problems involving alcohol and drugs, and reticence to use government to protect civil rights for minorities. Reagan's experiences in the church and with the Cleavers provided early training in public speaking and offered a way of learning in which acting played a central part. Reagan's use of the jeremiad and his fusing of Judeo-Christianity and patriotism into a civil religion also have their roots in this early period. For her part, Nelle was a pillar of the church and the one who provided stability to the shaky Reagan family when the head was drunkard and a poor provider. She helped spark her son's interest in acting and believed the stage could be a force for noble purposes.<ref> Stephen Vaughn, "The Moral Inheritance of a President: Reagan and the Dixon Disciples of Christ." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1995 25(1): 109-127. 0360-4918 </Ref>