Good evening again, Robert! Robert Goodman wrote to Bill Anderson...
> I think a fuller elucidation would be instructive here, as it illustrates > the intertwining of religious-cultural, secular-cultural, and political > trends in British North America. The term "Great Awakening" refers to two > American religious trends and periods, although maybe I'm conflating the > name of the earlier with the later one, which may have been called the > Reawakening or New Awakening or something like that; however, the two are > connected. One thing that is obviously left out of a lot of history is the over emphasis upon Calvinism on various parts of the early colonial period. Much of that was, as already stated, isolated in what is now the New England States, Massachusetts. Other colonies did embrace other religious dogmas with a lot more tolerance, such as Pennsylvania and even in the Carolinas. New York's origin was first from the Netherlands, which was at that time a strict Calvinist society. Johnathan Edwards was a strict hyper Calvinist. It is admittedly true that the early strict Calvinist tradition shunned Christmas, as Calvinism shunned just about every other long-time held church tradition unless it was clearly prescribed from Biblical text. The reason I bring this up is because there are at least two major religious dogmas that were also present, although as in New England, the Calvinists seemed to find a way to largely suppress their influence in colonial America, and Bill Anderson attempted to do the same thing for about 80 years or so after the American Revolution. Lutherans began migrating into America during the colonial period, and Lutheran tradition differs markedly from the Calvinists. They first settled in the middle colonies, but after the revolution they tended to drift into the U.S. mid-West, particularly Minnesota, the Dakotas, Missouri and elsewhere prior to statehood. In fact, both currently Washington and Idaho have a giant Lutheran presence even in very small communities that predated statehood. The other major dogma that had a commanding, although orchestratedly restricted presence in America is obviously the Roman Catholic Church. The RC came into north America largely at first through the French and Spanish colonial acquisitions. The reason I mention both of these large groups is because they largely kept a very low profile. I am not sure if that was at first due to the predominance of strict Calvinism in the halls of power, or more likely perhaps to maintain a cultural identity being swallowed up by a predominately British presence that was a mixture between radical Calvinism and the more pragmatic Anglican tradition. However, and this still holds today, the two largest Christian groups in America today that still maintain their own schools are the Roman Catholics and Lutherans. Of the Lutheran groups, the Missouri Synod is the second largest private school network outside of the Roman Catholic Church in America today. For a long time, the Dutch Reformed Churches in America taught english in their schools, but conducted their worship services in Dutch. The Lutherans also in some cases followed the same course, and German was customarily the language in many Missouri Synod churches up until the early 1940s with the rise of the Third Reich in Germany, and a shifting of language in worship was markedly toward english, probably to show that the Lutherans were not sympathetic, or couldn't be trusted, as anti-American at a time when America were going to war. Those around here in my age group remember certainly in 1960 when John F. Kennedy's opponents raised the spectre that Kennedy was a Roman Catholic, and obviously might have higher allegiances other than the US Constitution in mind. The reason I am writing this is we've come a long way in the space of only a few short decades of time. We seem to believe that the Puritanical Calvinist tradition is all that early America had. That was never the case at all, particularly after the American Revolution when Anglicans weren't trusted, because they were a pro-British institution, and strict Calvinism in America was in sharp decline. Certainly Christmas was enthusiastically celebrated by both Roman Catholic and Lutheran communities throughout the colonies, although this fact is largely ignored by dwelling upon the prevailing Calvinism that held a demanding presence in various territories at least until around the early period of the 18th century. As we move smartly along into the early 21st century, maybe we need to take another look at America's early roots. Fact is, a lot of America's religious roots have been largely ignored, and part of that fact stems from influences at the time that seems to stress the strict Calvinism of that early period, but only in terms of a few territories. As I just mentioned, some of that same sentiment was still present in American politics as late as the 1960s and beyond certainly. Maybe even today. Contrary to what Bill wrote earlier, I have to disagree that Christmas was largely shunned or even forbidden in practice in America during both the colonial period and in the time after independence. Christmas was energetically celebrated I am sure by Roman Catholic and Lutheran communities in America, many of which spoke different languages other than english. Some were in German, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, French, and in many of such cases, these cultural norms even found their expression in their own parochial schools, their worship services, and their way of everyday life. I seriously doubt very much in pre-independence times, that the Anglicans had any aversion to Christmas either, judging from church history in England during this time period, I seriously doubt it. You know what? I'm not so sure American history is really all that bad when people have such choices to make and voluntarily choose to make them without hindrance by government. America has always been a pluralistic society -- nothing has changed a great deal today either, except perhaps a few other cultures and religious groups maybe present today than were here decades earlier. Even the radical hyper Calvinists were eventually displaced in Massachusetts by the absorption of Roman Catholic Irish pouring in and eventually upsetting both the religious and political landscape of the State! The City of New York is probably a tremendous example of a displacement and radical change from what began as a Calvinist Dutch outpost to a major melting pot of cultural and religious diversity today. So, we can be sure that the 21st century will bring tremendous challenges to liberty in America. Where will the 'voice of liberty' come from unless we continue to do the best we can and strongly suggest that everyone, regardless of religious persuasion, cultural orientation, or skin color, ought to be free and have ownership over themselves, their families and their private property! In my judgement anyway, that is our challenge in the 21st Century in America. I hope we are capable of rising to the occasion and not surrendering anything in terms of our fundamental rights of self-ownership, and hopefully suggest there is a better way than tyranny... a self governing of ourselves without coercion or threat. Maybe we need to learn something from our past too! Maybe voluntary associations, such as the Dutch, German, Swedish, Norwegians, and others made in the education of their own children, and their culture, wasn't really so terribly bad after all! Maybe in fact, that ought to still be our message today in the 21st Century as we move into another year! Seasons greetings everyone! Happy New Year! Frank _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
