Quote:How influential do you think the religious factor will be in the upcoming presidential election?
Far more influential than it ought to be, but likely less so than many liberals fear. I think that polls which suggest a great turn toward religion in the United States are likely worded in such a manner as to create an impression desired by those commissioning the poll. The author here writes to "A new Great Awakening," which refers to the evangelical movement of the early 18th century in England and America. In England, it produced a fairly permanent enthusiasm for social activism based upon evangelical principles; and, it produced Methodism. In America, it produced religious and civil strife. Franklin would have know this well, having lived through the era. The Congregationalists had a good grip on New England, and Congregationalism was the legally established religion in Massachusetts and Connecticutt. The itinerant "revivalist" preachers who fueled "The Great Awakening" were literally hunted down and jailed in those states, and the resultant political divide in Connecticutt was so strong that it formed the basis for the political struggle which arose at the time of the Stamp Act Crisis thirty years later. In Massachusetts, as in Connecticutt, the authorities of the established church used the power of the state to run off or jail revivalist preachers and to discipline their adherents--but the Congregational community in that colony was large enough and powerful enough to survive the experience without much damage--those who practiced religions outside the established church were sufficiently few as not to raise a cry of anguish over repression, and the Congregationalist of the "New Light" often simply went elsewhere. But in Connecticutt, it became a bitter and protracted struggle for political power, with the "Old Light" believers trimuphing, narrowly, and assuring a residue of bitterness to poison the colony's politics for generations.
The Presbyterians and the Baptists were similarly divided. So i doubt that this "New Great Awakening" is nearly so widely embraced as the author would wish to imply. It is entirely likely that the responses which
seem to confirm such a conclusion are actually the product of "Old Light" believers who resentfully assert that their belief is as genuine as the squeaky wheels the Republicans are currently attempting to grease.
The other lesson from pre-Revolutionary America is that there were many religiously devout people in America who were completely unaffected by the revivalist movement. In Pennsylvania, there were large numbers of German immigrants for whom Congregationalism, Presbyterianism and the Baptists had never had any appeal. There were alos many Scots-Irish Presbyterian settlers who had never been a part of the Presbyterian "mainstream" of the colonies, and who were not really affected. The intinerant evangelists were not preaching any doctrine substantially different from the Scots-Irish Presbyterian preachers they preferred, whose fervor had been kept at a high pitch by the unfortunate "troubles" of that sore-beset land.
Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas were largely Anglican, but the established church in those colonies had never attempted to throw its weight around--they simply had the same system of giving "livings" to Episcopalian ministers as existed in England. The advent of the Puritans and the civil wars in England had effectively created a division of "high church" and "low church," but without strife in America--the revivalism did not make big inroads in the southern colonies
where the majority of the American population then resided.
In fact, i am rather reminded of the at first vigorous, and later desparate attempts of adherents of popular relgions to extirpate christianity in the Roman Empire. I would suggest that the religiously minded American is done a disservice if automatically identified with the charismatic. I would suggest that the charismatics, the so-called "fundys" represent the rear guard of religious conviction which feels that it might be overwhelmed by new ideas--much as the Mithraic believers in ancient Rome likely felt about the christians. Finally, i would note that as people age, they revert to the convictions of their youth, clinging more stubbornly--and that the allegedly "greatest generation" now displays a devotion which was more noticeable by its absence during the days of their youth.
None of which means that i don't think the religiously fervent don't bear watching--they do. We will survive this in good order, of that i am sure. But we will only maintain the freedom of plurality through vigilance to protect our rights.
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