Religion in America During the 1830′s
The 1830s was the time when evangelicalism underwent a significant change. A great number of middle class people became slave-owners as a result of the economic boom. As the number of wealthy converts who came to the churches increased the evangelicals grew from small sects to large denominations. Thus from being biracial institutions, they made a radical turn in their policy as they pronounce slaveholding a necessary practice. As a result, the most passionate members of the churches – blacks and women were excluded from them and their biracial structure ended. However, the approaching Civil War did not leave the numerous translators without a job as they had to translate a lot of pamphlets and enlistment leaflets, some of which were to be sent abroad. Boston was one such city, and because it was an important port, a number of articles were going to be sent abroad, but first they had to be translated by the Boston Translation. And whereas the slaveholding practices and the hierarchical republic were still supported by the white evangelicals, their black counterparts hoped the war would bring liberation for their enslaved brothers and sisters.
During the period of reconstruction that followed the Civil War blacks left the biracial churches in order to found their own denominations, which later became the largest institutions under black control. Meanwhile white denominations were also having a turbulent time as Christians adopted some of the reforms suggested by the Social Gospel Movement, which insisted that the congregations should transform society. Another feature of the period following the Civil War was the racial intolerance that worsened since white Christians could not change social practice only by relying on their faith, while black Christians’ only antidote to racist ideology was the doctrine of Christian equality. Among the most prominent features of American Christianity we can note its populist nature, its aspiration towards innovation, and its incessant creativity. Among the whites and blacks some fundamentalist churches were established and for most of them the lowest levels of the society were where they began. The Assemblies of God, the Seventh-Day Adventist and the Church of Christ are the most notable examples, and the beginning of the 20th century saw them as undergoing a rapid growth. If the wanted to grow they had to establish important contacts with churches from another countries, which was difficult because of the language barrier, but in Los Angeles the services of the Los Angeles Translation Services were used.
As tensions between traditional values and rebellion worsened in the period during the Great Depression of the 1930s while those churches continued to thrive, some new movements were established and the most dynamically changing of them since the Great Revival were the Pentecostal and the Holiness movements. They insisted on accepting members from different races and equality, which was a policy similar to that of the early evangelical movements. This would of course require relying on experienced translators who would make sure all the relevant contacts got to the right place. Thus the churches in Milwaukee, for instance, used the services of the Houston Translator who were overwhelmed with assignments by the churches. Dwarfed by the mainstream denominations, the smaller churches had to find a means to survive and saving their spiritual and creative energies was one of them. Extending their influence in most spheres of life and multiplying their fortune were some of the features characteristic of the major denominations, as the 20th century was marked by a great number of changes in all spheres.
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