Module 2 - Grade: 92 PDF

Preview

Summary

Second of four essays required for course, must be at least 1500 words or five pages (whichever is first), received an A- on this essay....

Description

1

REL-R133 Module Two Essay Throughout Module Two, I was able to acquire extensive knowledge regarding the creation of various religious denominations and other educational organizations in America after the creation of the First Amendment. There were many social structures that became available to all, regardless of race or gender, such as the Frontier meetings. These meetings encouraged diversity and unity. Furthermore, the social structures enabled people to stand up for what they believed was right by partaking in groups such as the Stone-Campbellites or American Antislavery Society. Overall, establishing religious freedom in the nation allowed for many individuals to express their religious beliefs using Evangelicalism, while simultaneously establishing their denominations in a democracy. During this period, the English colonists considered themselves to be superior than the Native Americans and the African Americans. However, they didn’t colonize over the Natives like they did with the Africans because they “reluctantly recognized that they relied on the tribal wisdom of the Natives in terms of knowing the land” (Lippy, p.63). The English also couldn’t convert the Natives as they “lacked the resources for missionary work as most of the resources went into building institutions that would ensure the colony’s survival” (Lippy, p.63). Meanwhile, the English were reluctant to convert African slaves, as the English feared that the slaves would attempt to escape slavery. However, Francis Le Jau of the Anglican ministry argued that “slave converts must make a public statement that they wouldn’t use their Christian baptism as an occasion to demand their freedom” (Lippy, p.64). After becoming Christians, African Americans still practiced their tribal rites by celebrating “birth and burial”, while also conducting

2

divination and conjure as “both continued to inform African American life…allowing slaves to gain some sense of identity” (Lippy, p.64). This quote shows that although they converted to Christianity, they would incorporate Evangelicalism into the religion by also practicing tribal religious beliefs. In “Conjure” by Albert Raboteau, Raboteau discusses how conjure was really “a system of belief” (Raboteau, p.9) that made individuals like C.C. Jones believe that “superstitions brought in from Africa could be used to turn slaves against their masters” (Raboteau, p.9). The relationship between conjure and slave Christianity was “in conflict with Christian beliefs about the Providence of God” (Raboteau, p.12). This statement indicates that the Africans were not as “religiously free” as they should’ve been with the First Amendment in place due to the suspicions by their masters. In order for them to practice conjure and Christianity without it being considered as “exhibitions of exuberant behavior or custom” (Lippy, p.64), African slaves would practice it in “invisible institutions” with other black evangelicals as a call for freedom. After the 1787 segregation episode at the Methodist Church, there were many African evangelicals expressing their beliefs in their own separate “Mother” Bethel African Methodist Church without restrictions from white congregations. After the court decision in 1816, which allowed Africans to control its congregational affairs, more denominations were created in states like New York, Boston, etc. This displays that after separating themselves, African evangelicals became very religiously free and independent to express their beliefs without regard to white congregations. While the African Americans created their own form of Christianity, the English colonists were limited in their choices to eliminate the increasing diversity. This presents an interesting finding, as faith plays a large role in religions within a democracy.

3

Moreover, the Frontier camp meetings allowed for many individuals that came into the area to be “provided a renewed interest in religion that would…in turn bring civility to the frontier” (Lippy, p.76). These meetings would permit all individuals, regardless of race or gender, to experience the “ecstatic religious experience” (Lippy, p.76). In the memoir by Peter Cartwright, he discusses how he went from being a “successful young gambler” to a religious member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He mentions that “if the church were to turn [him] out, [he] would knock at the door till taken in again” (Cartwright, p.7). Cartwright describes his experience during the frontier revival, as he saw “more than a hundred sinners fall like dead men under one powerful sermon, and I had seen and heard more than five hundred Christians all shouting aloud the high praises of God at once” (Cartwright, p.9). This quote exemplifies that through the Frontier revivals, Christians of various religious cultures and beliefs can prosper or be destroyed with one sermon. Furthermore, Cartwright discusses how the running, jumping, and barking exercise, resulted in the subdued to, “fall at meetings and sometimes at home, and lay apparently powerless and motionless for days, sometimes for a week at a time, without food or drink; and when they came to, they professed to have seen heaven and hell, to have seen God, angels, the devil and the damned” (Cartwright, p.10). This portrays an expression of diversity from each preacher of varying denominations, and their combination of doctrines and practices allowed for the camp meetings to be an “extraordinarily religious phenomenon and a kind of popular entertainment” (Lippy, p.77). Essentially, the social structures granted diversity from several different denominations to unify the varying denominations, which combined the activities such as the jerking or barking exercises. For example, everyone would eat the same type of food at the Supper, there was no sort of racial prejudice there as all were allowed and demographics would never be taken into

4

consideration. That being said, there were many movements in this period that were able to express their religious beliefs in society such as the “Holiness Movement” by Phoebe Palmer. To further elaborate, the “Holiness Movement” by Palmer focused on a “second blessing” to confirm that the soul was one with God’s will and the holiness infused daily life would consist of a new spirit. In Palmer’s essay, she discussed how occupying a second blessing made her have a “newly-inspired spirit that could scarcely conceive of a higher ambition” that allowed for her to have “redemption and spotless love and peace.” This movement shows that with Evangelicalism in this current period, there was a variety of individuals that had a variety of ways to express their personal experience-based beliefs towards God. Furthermore, the different denominations shared a vision for a larger society. A society where “one that presumed there was a common moral base more important than the differences” (Lippy, p.86). This illustrates that Evangelicals and individuals of other faiths, believed that a moral society must exist, regardless of method chosen for worship. This belief allowed for many more religious movements to be conducted that would believe in “a vision of some kind of ideal community or ideal life,” as the movements would bring diversity but also strident opposition (Lippy, p.92). For example, Joseph Smith, father of the Mormons, believed that Christianity must be restored after experiencing religious visions from God. According to Smith’s memory of the visions, it started when “a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air told me that when I got those plates of which he had spoken about —I should not show them to anyone.” This vision allowed Smith to gather his followers as “they attempted to live in a communitarian fashion, sharing goods and property” (Lippy, p.95). Religious freedom had permitted the establishment of various utopian societies that’d portray “heaven on earth”.

5

Meanwhile, other individuals like Mary Baker Eddy used science to aid their religious beliefs. Eddy believed that “the physical world is unreal…God, the Eternal Mind empowers individuals to cast aside wrong thinking and illusions of sickness through harnessing their own mental energy.” She believed that individuals who believed they were sick was due to the spirit of the mind making them believe that. In her explanation of true religion in Christian Science, she explains that Jesus was the one who united with the Eternal Spirit that caused the sickness in the mind. Furthermore, she explains that traditional medicines won’t help, as healing can only be achieved by spiritual means alone. Evangelicalism in this period allowed people like Eddy to use personal experiences towards aiding their religious beliefs.

During this period, the dominant faith in America was Protestant Christianity. However, the Protestants didn’t accept the immigration of European Catholics in a heavily Protestant nation. Essentially, there was a conflict of belief, which led to frequent outbursts of hostility by creating “genres of literature that would state Catholic Nuns produced illegitimate children and would slaughter them after baptizing them” (Lippy, p.114). In Lyman Beechers A Plea for the West, Beecher believed that Catholics would create a base of power in the Midwest that would allow them to overthrow the American government and transform the nation into a Catholic state. Religious freedom was so vast throughout the nation that Orthodox Christianity was spreading towards Russia. Russian Orthodoxy was originally founded in America by Alaskan natives who brought it to Russia. This statement leads to an interesting conclusion, as Evangelicalism had become so widespread that religious beliefs spanned from the Western world to the Eastern world.

6

In conclusion, the granted religious freedom from the First Amendment permitted the creation of various religious denominations and other educational organizations. Key figures throughout this period consisted of: Phoebe Palmer, Joseph Smith, John Noyes, Mary Eddy, and Lyman Beecher who all practiced Evangelicalism using their own religious beliefs. These beliefs include second blessings, utopian societies, science, and restoration. Also, religious freedom allowed for dominant faiths such as the Protestants to have to learn how to adapt to diversity coming from European Catholics that carried separate religious beliefs and viewpoints....