The origin of America’s “Bible Belt Evangelicals”

[darklordoftech]

Scotch-Irish? Cavaliers? Indentured servants? All of the above?

Were they as religious when they arrived in America, or did they become more religious over time?

[Epaminondas]

I think you'd be wrong to look for roots from the 1800s.

The current brand of fundamentalism is very recent: until the 70s, a gentler religion than today was an organic part of the US way of life.

The loonies started gaining in stature when the casual churchgoers slowly stopped attending.
Now that's all there is, it seems.

[DC Al Fine]

Scotch-Irish? Cavaliers? Indentured servants? All of the above?

Were they as religious when they arrived in America, or did they become more religious over time?

Evangelicalism is a home grown movement. Historians trace it's origins to a series of religious revivals that happened in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It actually was more of a Northern thing early on. The first documented American revival was in... Massachussets and Connecticut.

The religious atmosphere of colonial America was more free flowing than the old world. In those revivals, a sort of religious cocktail formed, taking influences from Calvinism, Pietism, qad a few other movements to form the basis of Evangelicalism as we'd know it today. From Calvinism, it received an emphasis on Bible Study,  and doctrinal precision. From Pietism it received it's sprirtual warmth, more emotional religious experiences and from both movements it received an emphasis on strict moral values.

I think you'd be wrong to look for roots from the 1800s.

The current brand of fundamentalism is very recent: until the 70s, a gentler religion than today was an organic part of the US way of life.

The loonies started gaining in stature when the casual churchgoers slowly stopped attending.
Now that's all there is, it seems.

William Jennings Bryan? Scopes Monkey Trial?, Prohibition? Evangelicals re-engaged with politics in the 1970's, but I wouldn't call that a new movement.

[Epaminondas]

William Jennings Bryan? Scopes Monkey Trial?, Prohibition? Evangelicals re-engaged with politics in the 1970's, but I wouldn't call that a new movement.

Yes, fire-and-brimstone preachers have always existed as a small group, as in every single Christian country in the world, even the most peaceful. I'm well placed to know that.

To me the question was about when Bible Belt evangelicalism acquired the outsize importance it has in the US today compared to the rest of the developed world.

In the 19th century, evangelicals were just a minority. Even in the wake of the 1925 Scopes Trial (prosecuted by WJB, so both your examples are the same), fundamentalists were still a minority which could be ignored by politicians running for federal office. Which is why WJB was crushed 3 times at the ballot box, incidentally.
Only after tricky Dick's terms in office did they begin wielding political power, as the Protestant Churches lost the less belligerent wings of the their communities.

[Wazza [INACTIVE]]

William Jennings Bryan? Scopes Monkey Trial?, Prohibition? Evangelicals re-engaged with politics in the 1970's, but I wouldn't call that a new movement.

Yes, fire-and-brimstone preachers have always existed as a small group, as in every single Christian country in the world, even the most peaceful. I'm well placed to know that.

To me the question was about when Bible Belt evangelicalism acquired the outsize importance it has in the US today compared to the rest of the developed world.

In the 19th century, evangelicals were just a minority. Even in the wake of the 1925 Scopes Trial (prosecuted by WJB, so both your examples are the same), fundamentalists were still a minority which could be ignored by politicians running for federal office. Which is why WJB was crushed 3 times at the ballot box, incidentally.
Only after tricky Dick's terms in office did they begin wielding political power, as the Protestant Churches lost the less belligerent wings of the their communities.

Wtf is this lol? Pretty sure there were far greater factors that resulted in WJB's losses such as.... his silverite and agrarian policies alienating voters in traditional North-eastern Democratic areas such as New York City, New Jersey, Maryland, etc. and the fact he was ran again against his first challenger as an incumbent and Teddy Roosevelt's VP.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

In the North, there were probably a lot of Evangelicals who voted for McKinley or Taft.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

William Jennings Bryan? Scopes Monkey Trial?, Prohibition? Evangelicals re-engaged with politics in the 1970's, but I wouldn't call that a new movement.

Yes, fire-and-brimstone preachers have always existed as a small group, as in every single Christian country in the world, even the most peaceful. I'm well placed to know that.

To me the question was about when Bible Belt evangelicalism acquired the outsize importance it has in the US today compared to the rest of the developed world.

In the 19th century, evangelicals were just a minority. Even in the wake of the 1925 Scopes Trial (prosecuted by WJB, so both your examples are the same), fundamentalists were still a minority which could be ignored by politicians running for federal office. Which is why WJB was crushed 3 times at the ballot box, incidentally.
Only after tricky Dick's terms in office did they begin wielding political power, as the Protestant Churches lost the less belligerent wings of the their communities.

Holy...f[inks]ing...sh!t.

This is akin to claiming that Carter's victory in Mississippi and Obama's defeat in it is proof the black vote notably declined in the 32 years in between.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Anyway the problem with this question is that it assumes that "Bible Belt Evangelicals" are a homogeneous group.

Are we talking about Pentecostals? Conservative Baptists? Non-denominational churches that blend elements of both? Conservative offshoots and branches of mainline denominations? Traditional Calvinists?

All of those have very different origins.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

BTW, William Jennings Bryan was a Presbyterian, and his denomination later merged into the liberal PCUSA.

If you find that surprising...then you're surprised that a church wasn't as liberal as it is now in 1925, so you're clearly a bit confused. And thus, assuming that churches were less socially conservative before the 70s because a greater portion of people belonged to churches that are liberal TODAY makes as much sense as expressing shock that FDR won West Virginia in landslide four times.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Anyway the problem with this question is that it assumes that "Bible Belt Evangelicals" are a homogeneous group.

Are we talking about Pentecostals? Conservative Baptists? Non-denominational churches that blend elements of both? Conservative offshoots and branches of mainline denominations? Traditional Calvinists?

All of those have very different origins.

Being part of a church that’s that hybrid of Pentecostal and Conservative Baptist I would have to say the origins would have to depend on the founding leadership of the individual church. My pastor is a grad of Liberty (a well known conservative Baptist bastion) and grew up in a very charismatic church in the same hometown as I did.

[Georg Ebner]

religious revivals that happened in the late 18th and early 19th centuries

The "First Great Awakening" happened already in the mid of the XVIIIth: 1735-42 J.Edwards in Northampton MA, G.Whitefield in northern cities.

[Kingpoleon]

I think you'd be wrong to look for roots from the 1800s. The current brand of fundamentalism is very recent: until the 70s, a gentler religion than today was an organic part of the US way of life. The loonies started gaining in stature when the casual churchgoers slowly stopped attending.
Now that's all there is, it seems.

When mainline churches were attacked by both the secular and the evangelical, it strengthened both, weakening America’s rich history of a kinder, gentler belief system.

[Kool-Aid]

Heresy