The Reality

Last weekend in D.C., Robert Putnam commented that America might be in the midst of a new Great Awakening – a conservative Great Awakening – whose end is uncertain. But, he hinted, it will most likely end badly.

My Jesuit University‘s core curriculum demanded Religion credits so luckily I secured a spot in “Religious Movements and American Politics.” Re-reading my notes was horrifying – what a lazy student I was. Thankfully I kept my the photocopies of my textbooks:

The First Great Awakening (1720-1760) resulted in missionary work among the Native Americans – a slight shift from the policy of wholesale slaughter. It also led to the founding of new educational institutions. It encouraged a democratic spirit in religion.

By the end of the 18th century, many educated Americans no longer professed traditional Christian beliefs. In reaction to the secularism of the age, and certain political leaders (ahem, I’m talking to you Jefferson, you too Franklin) a religious revival spread westward in the first half of the 19th century.

The Second Great Awakening (1830-1865) gave rise to “tent meetings” – huge revivals that took on a ‘State Fair’ feel. They gave great comfort to the loneliness of living on the frontier.

The social impact of this was twofold, one, on the right it was co-opted and manufactured into a pseudo-religious expansionist movement before the civil war dubbed Manifest Destiny which sought divine abeyance for genocide.

But primarily the Second Great Awakening helped America to become a more diverse nation in the early to mid-19th century, as the growing differences within American Protestantism reflected and contributed to this immigrant-fueled diversity. Eventually, the Abolitionist Movement took strength from the growing religiosity and morality of the populace – especially Americans in Appalachia – whose ultimate result was the end of slavery.

The Third Great Awakening (1886 – 1908) is associated with the Haymarket riot and student missionary movements. It was characterized by agrarian protest and labor violence. Gilded Age plutocracy came under harsh attack from trust-blasting muckrakers, Billy Sunday-style evangelicals, “new woman” feminists and itinerant liberal teachers.

This Third Great Awakening began and fueled the Progressive movement, which died when Taft succeeded Theodore Roosevelt in the White House. We had a good run there though.

Some argue there was a Fourth Great Awakening in the late 1960s early 1970s. One would have to stretch the definition for this, as the hippy counterculture anti-Vietnam, civil rights activists rarely spoke in Religious terms. This was primarily a political awakening. [Though Rev. King’s civil rights preachifying did straddle the line.]

If we assume that the Fourth Great Awakening is legitimate, its makeup is certainly very diverse. Due to increased contact with other cultures in the 20th century, the supposed Fourth Great Awakening looked beyond Christianity for inspiration, and some of the groups which grew or were created during this time were New Age, Wiccan, and Neo-Pagan.

Eastern Philosophy, such as Buddhism and Hinduism also influenced these groups although in a form so modified by Western thought as to be almost unrecognizable by their native practitioners. For the general populace however, Beatles-style Zen Buddhism didn’t sell as well as its companion soundtrack, “Revolver.”

Christianity also saw a great deal of change during this period, particularly new forms of Evangelical Christianity which emphasized a nearly Madison Ave. storefront pitch of a “Personal Relationship with Jesus” and formed into a number of newly styled “non-denominational” mega-churches and Corporate structure emulating “community faith centers.”

Perhaps in backlash to the hippy part of the Fourth Great Awakening, came the rise of nontraditional churches with conservative theology such as evangelical megachurches and a growth of parachurch organizations.

It is this backlash to the hippies which has had the more lasting political effect since the culture schism of 1969. I propose that it is this backlash to the Fourth Great Awakening which actually is the Fourth Great Awakening.

This Awakening’s conservative religio-political movement has elected our current President twice.

There is no precedent in America for a wholly conservative Great Awakening. The last time it happened in even slightly similar circumstances was Tudor England.

The Roundheads (Puritans) got into power after the execution of Charles I in 1649; they closed theatres and tried to impose a godly pattern of behavior on the ‘unruly poor.’ Oliver Cromwell led them.

As time passed this regime became increasingly dependent upon the army and became in effect a military dictatorship. Frustration with the puritanical excesses of the Protectorate and its military backers led to its collapse. Charles’s son, Charles II, returned to restore the monarchy and a climate of liberal toleration in 1660.

The English grew utterly exhausted of the religious bigotry of the Civil War and never truly turned again to religion.

While I’m not suggesting that the neocons will reign for twenty years and outlaw women actors, it is important to take note of historical trends.

The lesson is clear: conservative religio-political movements that are revolutionary in nature do not a healthy commonwealth make.

But I think and hope Putnam is wrong about the endtimes. A large percentage of the religious conservative base that props up Bush is no more than a cult of personality. And therefore lucky for us, his Administration can’t get anything right. It’s becoming common knowledge that Bush will go down as the worst two-term President ever and possible.

I think young religous people who have bought into the cult of personality around these failures will lose heart in politics not because like the English, they get tired of bloodshed or bigotry – no, they love bigotry, they’ll tire of failure. They don’t believe in failures – afterall, in the new corporate Republican understanding of Christianity, Jesus was a winner. As their politician puppets are revealed to be corrupt losers, they’ll dump them for good.

Nothing good can really come around the cross until the Nazi-cum-Grand Inquisitor-cum-Pope Ratzinger, he who killed Liberation Theology, is himself dead. Can you guess the other Religion class I enjoyed?