What if there was a Third Great Awakening?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Borrowing from something that Glenn Beck discussed once (granted, most of you probably avoid him like the plague), he pointed out that the Great Awakening helped lead to the American Revolution, and that the Second Great Awakening helped lead to the Civil War and the end of slavery.  If there was a third Great Awakening, what might it lead to?  Discuss.

[Frodo]

We already had one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Great_Awakening

And we are currently seeing the beginning of the end of the Fourth Great Awakening.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Whether there has been a Fourth Awakening is disputed, and I'm one who doesn't think we've had one.  The first three awakenings both led to the creation of new sects and structures and caused the revitalization of the old ones.  The latter has certainly not been present, but rather there has been largely a cannibalization of the old by the new.  That isn't to say we haven't seen some profound changes in American religion, but it needs to be called by a different name than "Fourth Great Awakening" because it really hasn't been comparable the First, Second, or Third in scope or effect.

[afleitch]

Whether there has been a Fourth Awakening is disputed, and I'm one who doesn't think we've had one.  The first three awakenings both led to the creation of new sects and structures and caused the revitalization of the old ones.  The latter has certainly not been present, but rather there has been largely a cannibalization of the old by the new.  That isn't to say we haven't seen some profound changes in American religion, but it needs to be called by a different name than "Fourth Great Awakening" because it really hasn't been comparable the First, Second, or Third in scope or effect.

I think it is probably unlikely there has been a 'Fourth' or even a 'Third.' The First, and to some extent the Second took place at a time when religious affiliation was almost universal (or had to be to pursue public office or any number of positions in authority or power) and therefore had a measurable effect on churches, people, culture and polititcs in Western society (and by definition it's been focused on the effects in the West). However the decline in affiliation and belief in the West and the increase in secularisation in government suggests that any re-organisation of churches or their focus would not qualify as a 'Great Awakening' because it would have limited effect on anything but church structure and patterns of worship. The biggest 'faith' based change in the West is the steep growth in the 'Nones', particularly amongst the children of those who we are told, were apparently involved in the 'Fourth' awakening. The effects of that is having an effect on religion. The older sects and structures are now actively managing their own decline (the Anglicans for example) and the newer ones, despite what BRTD would have you believe, are not attarcting more to Christianity than are being lost. You cannot have a 'Great Awakening' if whole swathes of people are not religious, those who are hardly attend and religion has little influence in public political or civil life.

In the developing world on the otherhand...

[memphis]

Afleitch, you're a bit out of touch with the American political/religious reality. Here, politicians must constantly kiss the ring of religion and discuss how important their faith is to them. Obama has done all that and 1/3 of the public still insists that he's a Muslim.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Afleitch, you're a bit out of touch with the American political/religious reality. Here, politicians must constantly kiss the ring of religion and discuss how important their faith is to them. Obama has done all that and 1/3 of the public still insists that he's a Muslim.

That's because there are still millions of racists that need to justify their archaic social belief system by insisting that's there something "wrong" with Obama.  

To the point of another Great Awakening?  I can only hope that soon the secularists will have enough numbers to combat religious intrusion into governmental and legislative affairs.  Unfortunately, we tend to be passive by nature and only stand against the Religious Right and their ilk when they go for a particularly controversial topic.  The effect of this is that they have to be fought in off small battles (abortion in the 70s, gay marriage these days, etc.) rather than having a true "sweeping" opposition that could expose their fascistic nature and kick them out of the realm of political relevance for good.  

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

We haven't had a nationwide altering revival since the Pentecostal movement hit in the first decade of the 20th century. I personally think America is overdue. Don't get me wrong we've had revivals since but they didn't have the impact that the Awakenings or the Pentacostal movement's modern birth. I've met some of the principal leaders of what occured in Pensacola Florida back in the mid-90's. I do think a preview of what some may term the Third Great Awakening has happened. Yes. Are we in it full on? Not by a long shot. It's not going to look entirely like what has happened in the past due to the technology and stadiums we have today.