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follow-up. Evangelical religion. Pre-reading task
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FOLLOW-UP
1. Do Belarusian people have any conspicuous signs that show their devotion to God?
2. Does religion pervade our political life?
3. Would you like to have religious classes at school?. Explain why? What are positive and negative sides of this education?
EVANGELICAL RELIGION
PRE-READING TASK
1. What is characteristic of Evangelical religion?
2. Are there Evangelical groups in Belarus?
3. Why do you think people are always in search of new ways of expressing their attitude to god?
4. Do you know countries where Catholicism is very strong?
While some New England clergymen embraced the rational side of Puritanism, others turned toward the emotional or spiritual side. These ministers welcomed the " Second Awakening" of the early 19th century. They preached the message of man’s sinfulness and Christ's redeeming grace. Evangelical religion, a conservative kind of Protestantism which relies on the authority of the Bible, spread rapidly.
Evangelical preachers spoke simply and directly about the Christ of the New Testament Gospels who died to save mankind. The religious enthusiasm which this preaching aroused often led to the forming of associations, or groups, to carry on the work of reforming morals or spreading the gospel. These groups were often interdenominational; all Protestants were welcome to join them.
Some groups were formed to fight sin; others were formed to spread God's word around the world. Missionaries were sent to Africa, the Far East and to the American Indians in the western United States. Religious tracts, or books, were printed. Some of these groups, such as the American Bible Society, exist today.
Evangelical religion was fervent throughout America and especially on the frontier. Methodist and Baptist preachers competed with each other to win the settlers' souls for Christ.
The Methodists, beginning as an evangelical society of the Church of England, became established as an American church in 1784, sending traveling preachers, or circuit riders, into the Appalachian mountains and beyond. The Baptists, like the Methodists, used " lay" preachers (unordained, dedicated, laymen, who did not have the benefits of formal seminary educations) who preached to small frontier congregations on Sunday. The Baptists believed in adult baptism by immersion, symbolizing a mature and responsible conversion experience. Traveling evangelists preached at camp meetings, revival gatherings which became a regular part of life in the American West.
Settlers would ride many miles to hear a famous revival preacher or evangelist. They would camp for days in the open fields, hearing sermons, and staying up, sometimes all night, to pray, sing hymns and talk with each other. " Conversions, " or religious experiences of God's grace and remorse for sin, were often very dramatic, in some cases, people wept, fainted and danced about as if in a trance.
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The Methodists and Baptists grew rapidly in numbers. As both denominations matured their pastoral leadership was assumed by ordained pastors with formal seminary educations. They are still the chief denominations in the southern United States. They have many members in other parts of the country as well.
Evangelical religion won over black slaves as well as their white masters. On some plantations, or large farms, black preachers held their own services. In the North, free blacks organized two different African Methodist Episcopal Churches early in the 19th century.
Most religious people were slow to condemn slavery, though from the earliest days the Quakers opposed it and risked their lives helping black slaves to freedom. By the 1850s, however, northern ministers of many denominations were preaching that slavery was a national sin.
In the South, however, many clergymen defended slavery and even owned slaves. They said that both the Old and New Testaments treated slavery as a normal part of society. The slavery question and the Civil War caused a splitting of the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian denominations which lasted into the 20th century.
Northern victory in the Civil War (1861-1865) meant freedom for the slaves. In the war-damaged South, most of the freed slaves became poor farmers, working land they did not own for a share of the crop. Segregation, or racial separation, became a way of life.
Many whites were just as poor as blacks. Black and white alike sought comfort in a conservative, evangelical form of religion. The South became a stronghold of " old time religion. " In 1925, a biology teacher, John Scopes, was convicted under a Tennessee state law which forbade teaching the theory of evolution in a public school. Scopes' conviction was overturned on a legal technicality. But a number of other states in the South passed laws against teaching Darwin's theory. Even today, teaching the theory of evolution to the exclusion of religious teachings is controversial in parts of the United States.
After the Civil War, northern factories grew rapidly. American Protestants did not give up trying to help the poor or convert non-Christians. But they spent a major part of their moral energy for the next 50 years on the temperance movement—an attempt to make all alcoholic drink illegal. Finally they succeeded, and for over ten years (1920-1933) it was illegal to buy beer, wine or liquor in the United States.
But America was changing. By the late 19th century, a kind of Protestant consensus, or agreement, about God's place in American life and government had developed. The arrival of large numbers of Catholic and Jewish immigrants challenged that consensus.
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