Emotionalism in the American Religion

Emotionalism in the American religion

The cane ridge experience marked the beginning of the evolution of the church. Hundreds of people gathered at Cane Ridge, Kentucky for days or even weeks. Preachers would expound on the word of God, and hymns of praise would be sung, conversions would be celebrated by the community, and everybody present would leave with a sense of renewal of faith and hope restored to those who had lost it. This marked the growth of the Methodist Church in America (Bridgers, 2006). In context with the dawn of the American religion, the emotionalism associated with it is of major concern to scholars. In comparison with the beginning of the American religion, the emotionalism associated has been changing over time, making it different from what was the case earlier.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, America was beginning to experience economic succession. The economic succession caused a decline in Christianity among the people. This made James Smith; a Methodist feared that the Universalists joining with the Deists brought a major setback to Christianity. A fiery preacher, John McGready came to administer three small Presbyterian Churches. His vivid explanation of heaven and earth shook the apathy in his congregation. When the red river church started to plans its annual communion service in 1800, it decided to invite the local Methodist and Presbyterian churches to take part. This turned the usually quiet Presbyterian service emotional and ecstatic. Although weary of the emotionalism, the Presbyterians and Methodists started planning a larger communion service the following summer at Cane Ridge.

Emotionalism is the situation where one is guided by feeling rather than truth. Traditionally, religion has been associated with emotionalism; where feelings and emotions many times trump logic and reasoning. From an autobiography by Barton stone several 'activities', which described emotionalism, were described. Falling down was one of the most common feature where subjects of the exercise would fall like a log on the floor and appear as though dead. Jerking was also experienced, in which the subjects would jerk in all directions so quickly that the features of their faces would be distorted. Not only the sinners got affected by this exercise; saints were also subject to it. Dancing was particularly associated with the jerks as the subjects danced during the sermon. As they jerked suddenly, some people would make grunts which sounded like barks. Loud hearty laughter could also be heard irrespective of class, sinfulness or among the saints making it indescribable. Associated with them, running and singing exercises were common. Though it is logically difficult to explain these activities, the emotional mind could directly attribute the things with the operation of the Holy Spirit (Whitehead, 2007).

Two basic reasons were associated with the great degree of emotionalism at the Cane Ridge experience. The first one is the nature of conversion, where sinners prayed long and hard to make it to salvation of their lives. The second reason was associated with the huge, floating population in which the preachers pressed for immediate decisions. This made them emphasize and play the emotions of their congregation. This was described as a sequence of despair, hope, guilt and assurance into days or hours. These reasons made the resulting conversion occur in the outburst of shouting, weeping, falling, running jumping, jerking and barking (Whitehead, 2007).

Emotionalism is mainly common among the black worshippers as theologians try explaining this phenomenon; they claim that the black community read the bible as a " magical formulary for African Americans" in other words it was a book of ritual prescriptions for re-envisioning and thereby transforming history and culture. According to Ferguson (2004), such revision cannot be separated from emotional and ecstatic responses, which are part of many African Americans. It is difficult to understand why emotionalism is a problem for Myrdal; however, the problem resides to the fact that persistence of emotionalism among the blacks suggest that blacks are not progressing. Mainly, the progressed sort after was the development of ideal symbolized by rationalization; and therefore, non-demonstrative worship forms. This developmental retardation evoked for many whites the specter of regulated nonheteronormativity. The whites often associated the religious emotionalism of the African Americans to the animal nature, and even to their excessive sexuality.

Behind the Myrdal's anxiety about emotionalism within the African American religious practices are an anxiety about how African American religion is insufficiently rationalized, and how that irrationality cannot be a source of regulatory agency. According to the whites, the emotionalism of the African Americans contradicted traits they held in esteem. It also placed the blacks outside the properties of rational citizens. The African American disorganized families heightened the anxiety of the Myrdal about the allegations of undomesticated quality of African American sexuality. According to them, disorganization of families constituted of whether the family was