Evangelical Controversy

During the 16th century, Protestantism emerged as a new sect of Christianity. This process was not calm or peaceful in the slightest. Protestant leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin fiercely attacked and denied traditional Catholic beliefs, causing much controversy and debate upon religion. Many regions of Europe as a whole were converted to Protestantism, and many more Protestants emerged in areas where Catholicism remained the state religion. The Catholic faith became less and less appealing to people as the abuses of the clergy were now publicly addressed by reformers and a new, personal approach to religion was offered in Protestantism. In addition, rulers favored Protestantism as a state religion because it meant that no power

The Fundamentalist-Modernist dispute was a religious dispute that occurred in the 1920s and 1930s within the confines of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America that ended up creating separation in most of the American Christian movements also. In fact, convinced that the literal truth of the Bible formed the basis of Christian belief, fundamentalists initiated a campaign to eradicate Protestant denominations of modernism and to fight the new individual freedoms that seemed to contradict traditional morality (Foner 788). What is more, the press portrayed fundamentalism as a movement of backwoods bigots. Yet, it was a national phenomenon. Fundamentalism continued to be an important strain of 1920s politics and culture (Foner

Evangelicalism came out of various movements that came in the Protestant church the second Great Awakening” of the 1820s-1840s, resulted in the “Christianization” of young America and the dominance of evangelicalism over the American religious climate ”.The Second Great Awakening marked a fundamental transition in American religious life. Many early American religious groups in the CALVINIST tradition had emphasized the deep depravity of human beings and believed they could only be saved through the grace of God. The new evangelical movement, however, placed greater emphasis on humans' ability to change their situation for the better. By stressing that individuals could assert their "FREE WILL" in choosing to be saved and by suggesting that

“Conservative evangelicals who had returned to the Democratic Party in 1976 now defected back to the Republican Party, solidifying a trend in the making.” The Religious Right had effectively crystallized a general trend in the electorate. After the election of 1980, the Religious Right became “synonymous with the GOP in popular imagination” and socially conservative values became synonymous with the conservative movement. Despite the dissolution of the organizations that comprised the Religious Right later in the 1980s, its influence on conservatism in America had solidified and, until this day, has remained a decisive factor in both local and national

The rise of religion in American politics also contributed to the growth of conservatism. The most prominent was a coalition of conservative, evangelical Christians

Religious groups in the twenties had a strong influence on the political sphere of the

The protestant Christianity was divided into two parts in America. They were Mainline and Evangelical. The Mainline were the liberal mainstream and the Evangelical were the conservative evangelical. The Evangelical was the most powerful Religious force in American society during the 20s of the last century. The status of the protestant evangelical as the mainstream had greatly declined once. This change was caused by the impact of the modernization

Many people see American religious behavior or movements as similar and even identical-looking (at some times) to each other. This understanding is, however, simply inaccurate as best. Religious stirrings have spread throughout history in various different ways and channels. It is evident that the first European settlers in America developed colonies that prized religion very dearly. Many new colonists had even formed their colonists due to persecution in other countries where they could not practice what they were strongly convicted of. Once free to worship in the way they wished, religion, in many colonies, became strict and ritualistic. Many believed in one single faith, such as Puritanism or Separatism, and would not allow any heretical or contrary behaviors to be pursued. The people who had resented religious oppression would not allow other people in minority to practice what they felt was true. On the other hand, the Second Great Awakening, which materialized during the late 1700s and early 1800s, was a stark contrast to the stringent values the Massachusetts colonies had nurtured. Free thinking and new ideologies arose and abounded in the early 19th century. These two religious movements were far from being alike, even though they both centered around Christianity. The differences arose in the various doctrines, denominations, and dogmas the people held to in those two situations. These differences are important to understand in order to truly appreciate our

The Ferment of Reform and Culture By Nneka Ezeanya and Jasmine Hollins Explain the women’s rights movement of the early 19th century. How were they treated, what were their issues and who were their leaders? What was the Second Great Awakening? Why and how did it start? What impact did it have on America?

The campaigns were like religious revivals, as they predominantly campaigned only near election time. The party was quite homogeneous as well, as it drew on evangelical Protestantism, but the Democrats were not, and more likely to accept cultural

David Gushee spoke about the 2016 Presidential Election and how religion has played a role in the current outcome of Donald Trump as the GOP nominee. White Evangelicals specifically have played a crucial role in this outcome. Gushee explained why Donald Trump appeals to Evangelicals in comparison to other elections. He also spoke about the other GOP candidates and why, from a religious perspective, they did or did not appeal to voters. Gushee did mention the Democratic Party, focusing on Bernie Sanders Jewish background and Martin O’Malley’s Catholic background. He very briefly touched on Hillary Clinton’s religious background.

In the beginning there were politics with their politicians and catholicism with its priests. The two most public of both of these groups were Huey Long and Father Coughlin. Long won political power and position after becoming a lawyer and politician by championing for the little guy against large businesses. Coughlin came to national presence after being the first preacher to successfully utilize the radio to bring attention to his church and faith that later took on a large political role. Both of these men lead campaigns that focused on large business, the extremely rich and the working poor and how to best make their lives better.

During the Reformation, there were a few strong people who saw problems with the way things had always been done. The churches had corrupt leaders who were not teaching in accordance with the Bible. They were making up whatever they wanted, and they had power to get away with this because they were also part of the government. There arose a movement to refute and stop this. Strong opposers took strong stands to point out the errors of what was going on, and to try to reform the religious system in power. This did not go over very well with the religious leaders, but after years of battling and debating, the protestant view of Christianity won the freedom to worship as they wished. In a similar way, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries,

According to Bill Hull, “While certain pockets of evangelicalism have grown, overall, the church is in a decline. Many congregations can attest to Hull’s assessment, in that, churches in America are indeed experiencing sharp declines in its numbers of baptisms and church attendance. Over

It was starting to look as if politics were beginning to become more secular. As it is well known, after Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson carried out the rest of Kennedy’s term, and then ran for reelection in 1964. Johnson, a left-leaning Democrat found himself up against Barry Goldwater from the right-minded Republican Party. Early on in the 20th century, many of Protestant denominations had adopted progressive, social reformist doctrines, that many people still value to this day. Despite being Protestant, Goldwater’s platform took a much more conservative approach. This ended up backfiring on him, however, as many Christian publications stated that they opposed Goldwater’s policies. He was further stigmatized by the religious publication The Christian Century as turning his patriotic rhetoric into “religious nationalism.” To make matters worse for Goldwater, in October of 1964, less than a month before the general election, 725 Episcopalian clergy and laymen from forty-one states signed a resolution accusing him of “a transparent exploitation of racialism.” Richard Nixon, a Republican and ex-Vice President at the time, claimed that these allegations were “the most vicious in political history.” As a result, Lyndon Johnson won the 1964 election in an unprecedented landslide victory, with Barry Goldwater only winning six states: his native Arizona, and five states in the heart of the Bible Belt (Kosmin 1993:174-5). While religious leaders in the end