A Church Divided
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A Church Divided Richard Allen and others like him took a negative experience of racism and created their own churches where they could go to worship god in how they saw fit. “…other black members of the congregation were forced by white church trustees from the front rows of the gallery and directed to seating farther back”(144). They were all from the Protestant faith but had broken into Methodist, Episcopal and Baptist denominations. I imagine that separating further from the whites gave them freedom but it also segregated them more, which most likely didn’t help the white/black situation at the time. “Other Christians found white control of denominational life so overbearing that they created, as Richard Allen did, new African American denominations”(147). What I find so unsettling is that the Christian faith is meant to be accepting of people and bring them together but around this time frame it did the opposite. Even our nation was founded on “All men are created equal”. African Americans or other groups (mainly women) felt they weren’t accepted in white churches yet that isn’t what the Christian faith is all about. It seems every Church has they’re own interpretation of what they read from the bible and then they use certain verses or parts to fit there own ideas or agendas –this is also true today as well. Also another example of the Christian faith being pulled in a million directions was Joseph Smith the creator of the Book of Mormon, which happened almost by accident, “…greatly disturbed by the religious controversies that swirled about him.” “In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself, what is to be done? Who of all these parties be right? Or are they all wrong together?” (174). It was out of these questions that The Book of Mormon was created. It was meant to solve issues that the
Transcript of A Church Divided
A Church Divided
Richard Allen and others like him took a negative experience of racism and created their own churches where they could go to worship god in how they saw fit. “…other black members of the congregation were forced by white church trustees from the front rows of the gallery and directed to seating farther back”(144).They were all from the Protestant faith but had broken into Methodist, Episcopal and Baptist denominations. I imagine that separating further from the whites gave them freedom but it also segregated them more, which most likely didn’t help the white/black situation at the time.
“Other Christians found white control of denominational life so overbearing that they created, as Richard Allen did, new African American denominations”(147).
What I find so unsettling is that the Christian faith is meant to be accepting of people and bring them together but around this time frame it did the opposite. Even our nation was founded on “All men are created equal”. African Americans or other groups (mainly women) felt they weren’t accepted in white churches yet that isn’t what the Christian faith is all about. It seems every Church has they’re own interpretation of what they read from the bible and then they use certain verses or parts to fit there own ideas or agendas –this is also true today as well.
Also another example of the Christian faith being pulled in a million directions was Joseph Smith the creator of the Book of Mormon, which happened almost by accident, “…greatly disturbed by the religious controversies that swirled about him.” “In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself, what is to be done? Who of all these parties be right? Or are they all wrong together?” (174). It was out of these questions that The Book of Mormon was created. It was meant to solve issues that the Christian faith (or issues questions people were having about the Christian faith) was having at the time but it would of course also be disputed.
Christians were not only divided within their faith they were also divided on the issue of slavery. “During the first third of the century, many in the South were quite as critical of slavery as was anyone in the North;”(182). What had changed was the economy in the South and the profitability of cotton.
After the Civil War church’s that didn’t have much of an issue with slavery seemed to go about their business for some of the other churches that were divided they would never be the same, “By 1869, the Methodist Richmond Christian Advocate was declaring, “We consider reunion neither possible nor desirable.” (197).
Great title by the way. I have to agree that there happen to be religions out there that seem to have “the answer” or have a priest or minister who seems to have the
“ultimate answer”. People are gullible now but I think a lot of people were even more gullible back then. That Nation was new so I can kind of see how that happened.
I also wrote upon the divide the nation had with the Christian faith and also divide opinion of slavery as well. I think it would’ve been tough to be an early colonist and try to form your own opinion of what would’ve been right and what would’ve been wrong. Along with also trying to just survive. Nice summary.
