Setting the Stage

For much of the semester we have examined the hold evangelical religion held on the South throughout the nineteenth century, and into the early decades of the twentieth. In our last class period, we saw what took place when this evangelicalism began to go to seed. It had become so co-opted by the culture of the South that it was unable to offer any significant critique of the existing social structure, and betrayed the mill workers and the poor whites who represented the backbone of the region, and the region's churches.

In this class period, our focus shifts to look at some of the forces that helped to undermine and crack the evangelical consensus that had reigned in the South for close to one hundred years. This change did not take place overnight, but it did proceed rather quickly. In 1865, most Southerners would have insisted that a person could not be decent in morals and manners, if she were not a church member. Nor would membership in just any church do. In the South, being a Christian and being evangelical were synonymous. But the homogeneity that characterized the region's religious life could not be sustained, and by the end of the century it had begun to unravel.

The Impact of Immigration

One key development in this process was the immigration of Northerners and Catholics into the region. Up until 1900, religious minorities did not exist in significant numbers in the South. This was true for Jews and for Roman Catholics. Pockets of Jews were present in port cities such as Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile, while Catholic strength was largely limited to Texas, and to the Irish and German immigrants that settled in the river towns of Missouri and Kentucky, where they established pockets of Catholic strength. Even where they were numerous, however, the attraction of this form of Christianity to any but birthright Catholics was nil. Many considered this no Christianity at all, and went beyond that to consider it a menace to all things noble.

The Second Klan took the lead in targeting Catholics because they could be made into an emotional wedge issue that could--in turn--be used to stir opposition to the Northerners who were beginning to move South and settle. Fearful that these new settlers threatened the region's way of life, the Klan painted them as aliens, and gave them equal billing in its hate propaganda with African-Americans. Since many of these Catholic newcomers were immigrants, it was hoped that an inhospitable reception would help to discourage future settlement in the region.

The truly interesting thing about all this, however, was that much of the Klan's attack on Catholicism happened soon after these new immigrants had come into view, but well before they were within range. Even as the first waves of immigrants were settling in the North, a great fear was emerging that they would begin to move South. Working together, the Klan and Southern Baptists warned the region against a foreign take-over. They pointed to the changes that were taking place in the North as a result of the immigration of millions of Catholics since 1880, and warned in almost apocalyptic terms of what might happen in the South should these "Papists" descend upon the region. Their concerns proved, however, to be misplaced. Few Irish or German Catholics were willing to move to the region even when some deep South states tried to lure industrial workers around 1905.

In like fashion, immigrant Jews were also made to feel unwelcome. There is reason to believe that such incidents as the Leo Frank case in Atlanta were widely disseminated in the media in an effort to send a message to stop immigration. But it did not. Immigration not only continued, it brought an increasing diversity of denominations to the region. One of the most significant of these newcomers were Lutherans. While there had been earlier Lutheran settlements in the South, this new influx of settlers in the valleys of Virginia, and in the piedmont counties of South and North Carolina did much to leaven the religious life of the region.

The Impact of Affluence and the Rise of the Holiness Movement

A second contributing factor to the break-up of the Evangelical consensus in the South was the increasing affluence of the main-line denominations. As the material prosperity of the region grew, many denominations began to abandon the lower classes as we saw last time. The result was an alternative form of religion that came to be known as the "holiness movement." Its influence was most prominent among Methodists and Baptists.

There were many who objected to the increasing sophistication and complexity of their local congregations. As the region grew increasingly prosperous in the late nineteenth century, its churches could build ever larger buildings and equip them with such expensive accouterments as organs. But the hidden price of this prosperity was that church life began to lose touch with the needs and tastes of many in the lower classes.

Yeoman farmers and mill workers were easy targets for the jeremiads of the holiness preachers who proclaimed that the church was growing corrupt and worldly. Their sermons resonated in the South because they employed a very similar argument to that used by the proponents of the Religion of the Lost Cause when they attacked the materialism of the North, or those Southerners who sought to use Northern capital to develop the region's economic resources and to create a New South. Rejecting the "worldliness"and ostentation of the increasingly prosperous mainline churches, these holiness evangelists became modern prophets proclaiming the need to restore the original holiness of the faith.

The appeal of the holiness movement, however, was not confined to poor whites. African-Americans in the South were also drawn to it. The result was literally dozens of black Pentecostal denominations. What attracted African-Americans to the holiness tradition in such numbers? For many years, it was widely assumed as Charles Lippy has put it, that the appeal of this movement (for both blacks and whites) was "the sense of power and fulfillment of which they were deprived in the empirical realm. Experiencing the gifts of the Spirit or reaping the benefits of holiness, according to the deprivation theory functioned as a compensation for the security as well as the power denied persons in their lives within American society." More recent scholarship has called this into question, however, and posits that the appeal of holiness teachings should be attributed to the sensitivity of its adherents to "the rhythm and pulse of nature." Seeing the world as embued with power, the believer in holiness is certain that this power can be harnessed through faith. Such an understanding would be broadly compatible with African-American spirituality.

At first, the holiness movement was little more than an ill-defined effort to restore the pristine faith that had existed before the church had succumbed to the temptations of material prosperity. But in fairly short order, a number of groups arose that sought to address the craving for holiness, and give it an institutional expression. Around 1900, these groups began to break with the mainline denominations and form their own independent groupings. Among them were the Church of God of Cleveland, Tennessee, The Pentecostal Holiness Church, the Church of God in Christ, and the Assemblies of God.

The holiness movement was national in scope, but it proved significant in that it was the first since the Second Great Awakening to have a major impact on religion in the South. The vast majority of the persons joining these groups came out of the Methodist Church. As a result Methodists were among the holiness movement's most vocal critics.

The holiness impulse was toward "entire sanctification," or moral and spiritual perfection. The possession of one's life by the Holy Spirit was deemed a real possibility, and a spiritual attainment to which every Christian should aspire. It was to be accompanied by the renunciation of all evil and immoral practices--most particularly--drinking, smoking, cursing, dancing, gambling, and playing cards. In addition, many advocates of holiness came to believe that one of "the fruits" of this "second blessing" was the ability to speak in tongues, and to undertake physical healing by the laying on of hands.

Those who dared practice holiness, however, were not welcomed with open arms in the South. Since these teachings were so contrary to the prevailing evangelical consensus, they were frowned upon, and made light of, or worse. Many holiness groups, both black and white were either expelled or withdrew from fellowship with their Methodist and Southern Baptist co-religionists.

The Impact of the Social Gospel

A third cause for the decline in an Evangelical consensus in the South was the influence of what was known as the Social Gospel. The father of the Social Gospel was a Northern Baptist named Walter Rauschenbush who argued that the Church must address itself to social issues in order to be relevant in the new world that was dawning. The local proponent of this new Gospel was Edgar Gardner Murphy. While few individuals were willing to be identified with it, it nonetheless took root in major denominations where it helped foster efforts on behalf of prohibition, child labor laws, workman's wages, education for blacks, and better working conditions for women.

This ran counter, however, to the old idea that the church had no say in social matters. This notion had allowed the Church to avoid speaking out on issues like slavery or segregation. As the mainline denominations lost this inhibition, they also began to loose the patronage of the faithful.

The Big Shift

Immigration, affluence, the rise of the holiness movement, and the impact of the Social Gospel each helped weaken the reigning evangelical consensus, but by the decade of the 20's, the remarkable hegemony of evangelicalism was still strong. It shaped the mind-set of the Southern people, both white and black, male and female, and helped foster a latter day version of Christendom.

But a big shift occurred in 20's and 30's, although it went largely unnoticed at the time. On the surface little had changed. There were a few signs that modern society was beginning to arrive. The South that had been--a rural, village society--began to give way to a more urban culture. Communication and transportation improved, opening new vistas to what had been a closed region. Thanks to increasingly sophisticated technology people were gradually able to see and hear about other options to the way of life they had come to accept as a given. Nor was the South immune to an increasing bureaucratization that led in turn to large scale cooperative efforts in industry and government. Churches in the region--as they did throughout the nation--followed the society in adopting this model of organization with the result being a lessened focus on the individual.

The First Key Event

A key event was the 1925 trial of John Scopes. The new technology allowed for the communication of the news from Dayton, Tennessee to the whole world of a young biology teacher being tried for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. All kinds of people could follow the debate, and would be exposed--in turn--to ideas that few of them had any previous exposure to. H.L. Mencken of The Baltimore Sun covered the trial. William Jennings Bryan--a two time presidential candidate and the man who would come to be known as the George Custer of Fundamentalism argued the prosecution, while Clarence Darrow of Chicago--one of the great trial lawyer of the age contended for the defense.

During this trial, the South's public affairs became both it's own and the nation's. Amid high drama--as large crowds gathered, and vendors sold hot dogs, drinks, and copies of Darwin in brown paper wrappers from under their counters--Southern culture was brought face to face with the modern era by a religious question. Many outside the region brushed the trial off as a sign of the South's benightedness, while Southern conservatives viewed it as a show of their determination to resist the acids of modernity that threatened to erode the region's purity.

But the Scopes Trial also showed something else. It demonstrated that Southern culture could no longer stop the flow of alien ideas into its citadels, and in truth the concept of something being alien was no longer meaningful. Communications were such that people could disseminate any set of ideas and programs, pro- or anti-evolution, and there was little anyone could do to stop them. With the advent of radio and mailed literature, suddenly the churches could no longer dominate the flow of information as they had in the days when the sermon was the principle means for communicating information.

A Second Key Event

A second Key Event--one that was strongly linked to the first--was the advent to the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy in the 1920's. More Northern than Southern, fundamentalism--nonetheless--had a significant impact on the South. In time, the region would become the last citadel for fundamentalist views. But more importantly, it would serve to fracture the denominations and reveal their seamy sides costing them much in the way of public confidence.

Where the Fundamentalist movement had its greatest impact in the South was over the issue of teaching evolution. The signs of the potential volatility of this issue were present as early as the 1870's, but it hit with full force in the 1920's. What had taken place in Dayton, Tennessee was played out across the South, creating heroes on each side: those who were defenders of scientific research, and those who were willing to defend the plain teachings of scripture against this most virulent of heresies.

Church colleges were often caught in the middle. Most fought to follow the truth wherever it might lead. Some sought to find a balance between accountability to the truth and to the sponsoring denomination. Still others refused to engage the issue at all, and sought to stick to the old truths. Bob Jones College--founded in 1927 at the height of this controversy--was one such school.

Evolution stirred much emotion in South, because--for many--it not only called into question the truthfulness and integrity of the Biblical accounts of Creation, by inference it undermined the truthfulness and integrity of the Scriptures as a whole. This was threatening to the South, because the Bible had become an essential element in the principle defense of slavery and segregation. When it was called into question in this way, it served to undermine a principle building block, if not the cornerstone, for Southern culture.

As a result, the South did not surrender it's defensive positions--where the Scriptures were concerned--easily. Mainline denominations tried to finesse the issue by functioning more and more like a large business concern which has as its principle focus meeting the needs of the middle class. Fringe groups, like the fundamentalists used this apparent equivocation on the part of the mainline denominations to paint themselves as the true defenders of scripture, and to describe their rivals as "having sold out the faith."

But all of this was an exercise in pathos. Each was fighting over pieces of the old order. Both mainline denominations and the fundamentalists were struggling for control and dominance because in the new world no one was now in full control.

There were, however, dissenters who raised their voices against the direction the culture was moving during the period. Perhaps the most famous book in Southern history--I'll Take My Stand--was published in 1930 by twelve Southern intellectuals (an oxymoron to some) who endeavored to say that the South was becoming too much like the rest of the world. They pleaded for the South to avoid going the way of the rest of the Western World, to avoid urbanization, an industrialized economy, "a rationalistic, post-mythic imagination," and large scale bureaucracies. To these Agrarians, as they came to be known, the churches were the culprits responsible for all of this.. They had adopted the methods of the culture without ever stopping to ask if they had sold their birthright for a bowel of porridge.

The Fundamentalists were a prime example. They were very rationalistic, and determined to prove the Bible as being scientifically true. They had failed to see that Genesis does not ask the question about how the world was created, but why it was created and who made it. The Fundamentalists had somehow lost their ability to sense the power of myth to speak the truth,and had failed to take note of the inadequacy of language to convey a truth as big as God.

The Third Key Event

A third key event was the outbreak of World War II. This war unified the nation, and signed the death warrant of the South as a separate region. It mixed young men from the region with those from the rest of the nation, and exposed them to the broader world. From that moment on, many of them would never be the same again. Where the region and its people had once seen the South as a distinctive entity, now the cultures began to blend. The Solid South was breaking up both politically and culturally.

The Fourth Key Event

Fourth, and perhaps the most important key event in breaking the evangelical consensus, was the Civil Rights Revolution. It brought to an end a separate South, and it integrated more than just the buses, rest-rooms, and water fountains. It served to integrate the South back into the nation. The military barracks and crew quarters in World War II had proven to be no respecter of persons. And in 1954, this philosophy shaped the Supreme Court's ruling against segregation. The South, as we shall see next time, would fight a delaying action, but the die was cast.

Black churches were in vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement, while White churches were at the rear of bus on this issue. Many fought the efforts to desegregate. And it was to these persons that Martin Luther King, Jr. preached as we shall see next time when we read his Letter from the Birmingham Jail.