By Micah Rodriguez

Many of the original colonists had come to America to escape the chains of religious persecution. The biggest of these was the persecution of many different religions at different times in Europe, mainly England. But the basic Idea of the colonies was to establish a region in which there no forced religion but many religions can worship freely. In Europe countries had established one religion you could be and if you did not worship that way you would have been imprisoned, tortured, or even killed.

One of the most well known religious movements in American History, the First Great Awakening was most definitely influential.One of the most effective priests/ pastor’s was Jonathan Edwards who delivered his sermon Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God( which revealed not a kind gently significant being but an Wrathful all powerful God). Most importantly though, the first great awakening took place in the 1730’s and 1740’s it shifted the teachings of the bible to “fire and brimstone” sermons, and influenced the people to stick to their morals in order to be rewarded by God. So all in all the Great Awakening caused people to believe that they could go to heaven if they did enough good otherwise they would suffer the wrath of an angry God.

The Second Great Awakening took place in the 1800’s it was a long period in which Church attendance rose dramatically and the protestant religion became a popular way to live. Religion had now shifted to Salvation and that a person did have important decisions they could make in life that affected their afterlife. The most effective leader was Charles Grandison Finney, who preached against Deism and Calvinists in the burned over district (tons of revivals/ confessions of sins).

The Second Great Awakening not only sparked new believers in protestantism but it also sparked new religions. In 1830 Joseph Smith claimed to have received golden plates from an Angel and they translated into the book of mormon. This led to the beginnings of the mormon religion that still goes on today. At the time this fresh religion was opposed and the mormons were persecuted because it was questionable, and so began the movement of the mormons from east America to colorado in which is still today the state most populous in the mormon culture

Religion affected the world just as the world affected religion Religion affected the world just as the world affected religion. The theory of Gospel wealth came up around the time of Andrew Carnegie who agreed with the theory. The Idea was that God had rewarded those who had proven morally responsible. In other words, if you worked hard for God then he would make sure you became wealthy. But it also meant if you were poor you must have been lazy. This created attention to the fact that social reforms would be pointless because the poor could have worked hard and reforms wouldn’t stop God from making sure their laziness held consequences

Charles Darwin really challenged the theory of a significant being creating man when he displayed a his theory of evolution which showed man evolving gradually over time from distant animals. The theory itself did not challenge thought of a significant being or the idea of creation but it did question the literal interpretation of the bible. Evolution revolutionized and changed religious beliefs forever.

religion has had its controversies, and its confusion but in the end Religion has played a major part in American History. It was the main reason the country was started and has been influenced by and has influenced the U.S. tremendously.