Episode 22: Religious Faith in the New South

A New History of the American South

Dr Edward Ayers (2018)

Film Review

This lecture mainly concerns the birth of the evangelical “Holiness” movement (in both Black and White southern communities) and its gradual evolution into the evangelical and pentacostal movements.

Immediately after the Civil War, there were fewer churchgoers in the South than in the North, largely because the South was more rural and sparsely populated. In fact, fewer than one quarter of rural churches (mainly Baptist and Methodist denominations) had full time ministers. Many had to work outside jobs to support their families or served four or more churches simultaneously. In Southern cities, religious affiliations included Lutheran, Quaker, Jewish, Catholic and other denominations.

Different denominations frequently collaborated to organize yearly “revival” camp meetings to increase church membership. The Holiness movement arose among Methodist congregations in the late 1880s. It taught that a person could only achieve holiness or “sanctification” through a “second blessing” demonstrating direct connection with God. This usually manifested as fainting, “speaking in tongues” or other loss of voluntary control.

The Christian Union (founded in 1864) also significantly increased its membership during this time. Their doctrines included foot washing, total immersion baptism and preparation for the second coming of Christ. Under the leadership of A A Thomlinson, it took the name Church of God in 1907 and attracted over a million members in 13 countries.

In 1894, the Methodist General Conference banned “Holiness” ministers from preaching to Methodist congregations and forced them to form their own churches.

Black southerners founded their own Church of God, as well as the Church of the Living God, the Church of God in Christ and the Church of God Saints of Christ. The latter taught that Black people were descended from the lost tribes of Israel. The Church of the Living God taught that Jesus was a Black man. All were expelled from the Baptist Church in the 1890s.

Ayers believes the main driver of the evangelical/pentacostal movement was a rejection of rapid urbanization, industrialization and mass advertising occurring in the late 19th and early 20th century. The North had been undergoing industrialization and urbanization for more than 50 years, whereas the change occurred much more abruptly in the South after the Civil War. Throughout the US, a growing number of Americans rejected the deliberate temptation to acquire more material goods promoted by the advertising industry. Instead they looked to the new religions for guidance in simplifying their lives.

The film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/religious-faith-new-south

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