5fish
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I have been reading churches and our Civil War and it seems there a correlation between our National Churches breaking up over slavery and Nation falling into Civil War. It seems our nations major church congregations were fighting their own Civil War over slavery 20 years before our nations Civil War. By the mid-1840's most national Congregation had broken into Northern and Southern branches and had little to nothing to do with the other.
Here is a link to the short aritcle:
https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/broken-churches-broken-nation
1)
Baptists
Steps to Division
1839: Foreign Missions Board declares neutrality on slavery.
1840: The new American Baptist anti-Slavery Convention denounces slaveholding; Baptists in South threaten to stop giving to Baptist agencies.
1845: Home Missions Board refuses to appoint a Georgia slaveholder as missionary.
1845: Alabama Baptists ask Foreign Missions Board whether a slaveholder could be appointed as missionary; northern-controlled board answers no; southerners form new, separate Southern Baptist Convention.
North
Key leader: Francis Wayland, president of Brown University.
Key stands: Refusal to appoint slaveholders as missionaries; dislike of slavery; desire for strict congregational independence.
South
Key leaders: William B. Johnson, first president of the Convention. I.T. Tichenor, later leader of Home Mission Board.
Key stands: Freedom to carry on missionary work without regard to slavery issue; freedom “to promote slavery”; desire for centralized connections among churches.
2)
Presbyterians
Steps to Division
1837: “Old School” and “New School” Presbyterians split over theological issues. This precedes, and encourages, later full North—South division. Predicts one leader: “The Potomac will be dyed with blood.”
1857: Southern members (15,000) of New School become unhappy with increasing anti-slavery views and leave. Ultimately they join Old School, South.
1861: When war breaks out, the Old School splits along northern and southern lines. By 1870, divisions between Old School and New School are healed, but deep geographical divide will last for more than 100 years.
New School (strongest in North)
Key leaders: Lyman Beecher; Nathaniel W. Taylor; Henry Boynton Smith.
Key stands: Moderate interpretation of Calvinistic theology; openness to Charles Finney’s new revival techniques; openness to interdenominational alliances; inclination toward abolition.
Old School (strongest in South)
Key leaders: Archibald Alexander; Charles Hodge; Benjamin Morgan Palmer; James Henley Thornwell.
Key stands: Traditional Calvinistic theology; opposition to voluntary societies (that promote, for example, temperance and abolition) because these weaken local church; opposition to abolition.
3)
Methodists
Steps to Division
1836: anti-slavery activists present legislation at General Conference; slavery agreed to be evil but “modern abolitionism” flatly rejected.
1840: anti-slavery delegation fails to make slaveholding a discipline issue.
1843: 22 abolitionist ministers and 6,000 members leave and form new denomination—Wesleyan Methodist Church.
1844: Fierce debate at General Conference over southern bishop James O. Andrew, who owns slaves. Resolution declares he must step from post. Angered Southern delegates work out plan for peaceful separation; the following year they form Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
North
Key leader: Orange Scott, abolitionist minister from New England, first president of Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Key stands: Slaveholding a matter for church discipline; abolition.
South
Key leader: James O. Andrew, slave-owning bishop from Georgia. (He acquired slaves through marriage and renounced rights to them, but state law prohibited his freeing slaves). Later bishop in Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Key stands: Slaveholding acceptable for church leaders; opposition to abolition.
These church divisions were the pre-cursor to our nation Civil war. Think about it our churches could not even resolve the issue of slavery among themselves. How could our nation?
Here is a link to the short aritcle:
https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/broken-churches-broken-nation
1)
Baptists
Steps to Division
1839: Foreign Missions Board declares neutrality on slavery.
1840: The new American Baptist anti-Slavery Convention denounces slaveholding; Baptists in South threaten to stop giving to Baptist agencies.
1845: Home Missions Board refuses to appoint a Georgia slaveholder as missionary.
1845: Alabama Baptists ask Foreign Missions Board whether a slaveholder could be appointed as missionary; northern-controlled board answers no; southerners form new, separate Southern Baptist Convention.
North
Key leader: Francis Wayland, president of Brown University.
Key stands: Refusal to appoint slaveholders as missionaries; dislike of slavery; desire for strict congregational independence.
South
Key leaders: William B. Johnson, first president of the Convention. I.T. Tichenor, later leader of Home Mission Board.
Key stands: Freedom to carry on missionary work without regard to slavery issue; freedom “to promote slavery”; desire for centralized connections among churches.
2)
Presbyterians
Steps to Division
1837: “Old School” and “New School” Presbyterians split over theological issues. This precedes, and encourages, later full North—South division. Predicts one leader: “The Potomac will be dyed with blood.”
1857: Southern members (15,000) of New School become unhappy with increasing anti-slavery views and leave. Ultimately they join Old School, South.
1861: When war breaks out, the Old School splits along northern and southern lines. By 1870, divisions between Old School and New School are healed, but deep geographical divide will last for more than 100 years.
New School (strongest in North)
Key leaders: Lyman Beecher; Nathaniel W. Taylor; Henry Boynton Smith.
Key stands: Moderate interpretation of Calvinistic theology; openness to Charles Finney’s new revival techniques; openness to interdenominational alliances; inclination toward abolition.
Old School (strongest in South)
Key leaders: Archibald Alexander; Charles Hodge; Benjamin Morgan Palmer; James Henley Thornwell.
Key stands: Traditional Calvinistic theology; opposition to voluntary societies (that promote, for example, temperance and abolition) because these weaken local church; opposition to abolition.
3)
Methodists
Steps to Division
1836: anti-slavery activists present legislation at General Conference; slavery agreed to be evil but “modern abolitionism” flatly rejected.
1840: anti-slavery delegation fails to make slaveholding a discipline issue.
1843: 22 abolitionist ministers and 6,000 members leave and form new denomination—Wesleyan Methodist Church.
1844: Fierce debate at General Conference over southern bishop James O. Andrew, who owns slaves. Resolution declares he must step from post. Angered Southern delegates work out plan for peaceful separation; the following year they form Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
North
Key leader: Orange Scott, abolitionist minister from New England, first president of Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Key stands: Slaveholding a matter for church discipline; abolition.
South
Key leader: James O. Andrew, slave-owning bishop from Georgia. (He acquired slaves through marriage and renounced rights to them, but state law prohibited his freeing slaves). Later bishop in Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Key stands: Slaveholding acceptable for church leaders; opposition to abolition.
These church divisions were the pre-cursor to our nation Civil war. Think about it our churches could not even resolve the issue of slavery among themselves. How could our nation?