Tag Archives: evangelical

Religious Faith in the New South

Posted on by
1

 

 

When God and Gender Mix: New Book Examines the Southern ...

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

Just to let people know I’m moving to Substack and Telegram after several readers informed me I’ve been censored from WordPress Reader feed. The link to my Substack account is https://stuartbramhall.substack.com/. The link to my Telegram channel is https://t.me/themostrevolutionaryact I’ll continue to publish on WordPress as long as I’m able, but if my blog suddenly disappears you’ll know where to find me.

The History of American Evangelicalism

Posted on by
1

Religious, Education, and Prison Reform (Discussion ...

The Skeptic’s Guide to American History

Episode 7 The Second Great Awakening: Enduring Impact

Mark Stoler PhD (2012)

Film Review

This fascinating video concerns another topic that is never taught in high school: the history of the US evangelical movement.

According to Stoler the First Major (evangelical) Awakening occurred in each of the 13 colonies prior to the US War of Independence. He believes this tendency to challenge established church authority possibly Influenced the US decision to break away from Britain.

The Second Major Awakening, he asserts, began during the late 1820s, and continues to the present.

During the 19th century, this anti-authoritarian tendency manifested politically in the election of self-made military hero Andrew Jackson. It manifested in the religious sphere through a widespread challenge of traditional religious beliefs. Whereas, the Puritans who had founded New England believed in original sin and predestination,* evangelicalism essentially democratized religion by making salvation available to everyone. Anyone willing to publicly confess their sins could be “born again.”

Although this was more likely to occur in revival camp meetings than in established churches, by the 1850s, evangelicalism had such a major impact on society that one out of every three Americans was attending church regularly.

Early evangelical Christians also worked for social reform, believing they could hasten Christ’s second coming by improving the world.

This emphasis on social reform also spilled over into secular movements, such as the Transcendental** movement; Horace Mann’s program to eradicate economic inequality via universal compulsory education; Dorothea Dix’s movement to improve the treatment of the mentally ill in insane asylum’s; a temperance movement aimed at reducing at an epidemic of alcoholism (which Stoler attributes to the massive dislocation caused by America’s industrial revolution); the antislavery movement; and the women’s suffrage movement.***

*Predestination is the doctrine that God has foreordained all things, especially that God has already elected certain souls to eternal salvation.

**Transcendentalism was a 19th century philosophical system based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of humanity, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience.

***Dedicated to winning women the right to vote, the US suffrage movement was founded in 1848 at Seneca Falls New York.

The film can be viewed free on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/second-great-awakening-enduring-impacts