Kevin P. Dincher . From “God’s Good Creature” to “Demon Rum” Frontier and the Wild...

Kevin P. Dincherwww.kevindincher.com

From “God’s Good Creature” to “Demon Rum”

Frontier and the Wild West

Saloon culture, vices, lawlessness, violence

Immigration Degeneration of the Cities•Poverty, crime, violence •Undesirable Others•Un-American

First Wave of Feminism•Suffrage Movement (1800s)

Alcohol’s impact on women and families







Slavery and Abolition•Jim Crow; KKK

Stereotype African-Americans•Lazy, violent

Minstrel Show First distinctly American theatrical form Core of American music industry in the

1830s and 1840s Precursor of Vaudeville Lampooned black people as dim-witted,

lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, happy-go-lucky, and musical

Lens through which white America saw black America

1832: Jim Crow – Thomas D. Rice Satirized Andrew

Jackson’s populists politics

1838: popular pejorative

Al Jolson The Jazz Singer

1927

Birth of a Nation1915









World War I Beer makers = Germans










Religion The Great Awakenings










Religion The Great Awakenings

Politics Wayne Wheeler

Periods of intense religious revival 1st: 1730 – 1755 (Britain, US and Europe)2nd: 1790 – 18403rd: 1860 – 19004th: 1960 – 1980

Significantly impacted the development of religion in the US Politics and social reform movements

Revival Meetings

Preaching and conversion Emotional/Ecstatic

Signs of the Spirit Prophecies Healings Speaking in tongues and interpretation of

tongues Slain in the Spirit

Kevin P. Dincher

17

Kevin P. Dincher

18

Personalized Spirituality Personal revelation,

authority and morality independence

Emotional/Ecstatic

Evangelical Bible “Return to Fundamentals”

Calvinist Theology

Millennialism Personal Repentance Social Reform

Kevin P. Dincher

19

Five Points of Calvinism (TULIP)

1.Total Depravity Original Sin

2.Unconditional Election God has already chosen who will is saved (The Elect)

3.Limited Atonement Salvation is only for the Elect

4.Irresistible Grace The Elect cannot resist and will eventually freely accept salvation

5.Perseverance of the Saints Once saved always saved

The Elect Everyone Else

Saved- have accepted

salvation

Saved - have not yet

accepted salvation (but

they will)

Not saved (and won’t be –

nothing they can do about it)

• Live by the gospel

• May slip but will always return to the gospel

• Don’t live by the gospel – but inevitably will

• Live by the gospel

• Don’t live by the gospel

Goal: everyone lives by the gospel whether saved or not

Need rules/laws and government structures/institutions that:1. Support those who live by the gospel2. Keep those who do not live by the gospel from causing those who

do to fall away3. Require those who have not chosen to live by the gospel to live by

the gospel whether they want to or not

Alcohol Contributing factor(the ultimate cause?):•Lawlessness•Crime•Corruption•Violence•Poverty and disease•Degeneration of the cities•Marital infidelity and breakdown of the family

Contrary to the gospel

Need to control/ eliminate alcohol: •Support those who live by the gospel•Keep those who do not live by the gospel from causing those who do to fall away•Require those who have not chosen to live by the gospel to live by the gospel whether they want to or not

Biblical Prophecy:

Gospels: Jesus promises to return Second Coming (Parousia)

St. Paul’s Letters: Second Coming to happen soon

Book of Revelations: Initiate 1000 year reign Last Judgment

Harold Camping (1921 -2013)

Different interpretation and explanations

Great Awakenings Second Coming = soon!

1st Great Awakening Personal reform

2nd and 3rd Great Awakenings Personal reform Social reform

Initially appealed to established clergy General devotional decline Reaction against “modern Ideas”

Enlightenment Ideals of rationalism/humanism Deism (religion based on reason rather than faith)

Emphasis on Personal Reform Personal acceptance of salvation Alcohol: Personal behavior = personal

reform32

Waning of Popularity

Challenged established clergy and civil authority

Itinerant preachers criticized them Challenged their authority/power Unruly/disorderly

Southern landholders Opposed preaching to the slaves Abolitionist itinerant preachers in the South

General population Increasingly outlandish 33

Impact

Politico-religious language Revolution and Founding = God’s work

Camp meetings became a fixture of rural life

Revivals continued on smaller scale

34

36

Fed by American “Revolution” Passion for Equality/Freedom/Individualism Authority: “Who’s in charge?”

Fed by disappointment “Shining City on a Hill” didn’t happen!

Enlightenment/Deism instead Millennialism and the “Second Coming”

What would Jesus find when he returned?

Fed by Economic mess God’s punishment?

37

Fed by population growth: 1776 – 1845

US population grew from 2.5m to 20m Initially: high birth rate After 1830: immigration Population density doubled

Encouraged westward expansion

Missionary Preachers grew from 1800 to 40,000

Ratio: 1/1500 to 1/500

38

Growth of Existing Churches• Methodist• Presbyterians• Baptists• Shakers• Black Churches

New Religions and Utopian Societies• Disciples of Christ (1803/1811)• Mormons (1820s)• Millerites (1822)• Spiritualism (1840)• Oneida Community (1848)

New Independent (non-denominational) Congregations

Impact

Reform: part of Gods plan

Purify the world Bring others to salvation Change laws

“Christian Nation”

Feminism Abolition Prison Reform Care for the Mentally

Ill and Handicapped Temperance

1826: American Temperance Society

1839: 18 Temperance Journals

39

ATS

Established 1826 Boston, MA Rev. Lyman Beecher Membership: pledge to

abstain

American Society for the Promotion of Temperance

Religious Organization Alcohol is a moral

problem National clearinghouse on

the topic of temperance

1831 2220 chapters in US 170,000 members

1836 8000 chapters in US 1.5million members

Advocate Social Reform Abolition Women’s rights Poverty

1838: Father Theobald Matthew

Teetotal Abstinence Society 7million people took the

pledge 500,000 in the USA 1845-1849: enrolled 3 million

in Ireland

Knights of Father Matthew

Ladies Auxiliary of the Knights of Father Mathew

41

Similar to Second Great Awakening

New Religions Salvation Army (1865 in England; 1880 in

USA) Seventh –day Adventists (1863) Bible Student Movement (Jehovah’s

Witnesses, 1876) Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian

Science, 1879)

Different from Second Great Awakening

Social Gospel

Culture War Evolution

Scopes Monkey Trial (1925) Socialism

Millennialism Prophecy Movements

Oldest existing third party in the USA http://www.prohibitionparty.org

Early success Town and counties to go dry Elected officials

WCTU: 1873 First women’s organization devoted to

social reform that …

… "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity."

Years Membership

1881 22,800

1891 138,377

1901 158,477

1911 245,299

1921 344,892

1931 372,355

1941 216,843

1951 257,54

1961 250,000

1989 50,000

2009 20,000

2012 5,000

Conservative versus Progressive

Annie Wittenmyer, President: 1874 – 1879 Moral reform

Frances Willard President 1879 – 1898 Social reform

Carrie Amelia Moore Garrard County, Kentucky Family

Financial problems Belton, Missouri

Mental illness 6 feet tall, 175 pounds "a bulldog running along

at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn't like,“

Claimed a divine ordination to promote temperance by destroying bars

1867: married Charles Gloyd Alcoholic Separated in 1868

1868: daughter Charlien 1869: Gloyd died (alcoholism) 1872: teaching certificate

1872 – 1881: school teacher

1874 (age 28)

1874: married David A. Nation Attorney, minister, journalist ~20 older than Carrie

1889: Medicine Lodge, KS Founds local chapter of WCTU

1899: vision: “Go to Kiowa”1874 (age 28)

1900 – 1910 Arrested some 30 times for

"hatchetations”

1901: McKinley Assassination

Publisher The Smasher's Mail The Hatchet

Vaudeville "The Anti-Souse Queen" 1874 (age 28)

1869: Brookfield, Ohio

Attorney

Anti-alcohol: boyhood trauma

1894: Oberlin College

Non-denominational religious founded by Presbyterians

Progressive 1835: African-Americans 1837: Women 1844: George Vashon 1862: Mary Jane

Patterson

1894: Oberlin College

“The town that started the Civil War”

Underground Railroad

Foreign Missionaries

Temperance

1898: Western Reserve University (Cleveland)

Law degree

Skilled debater

Temperance Joined the Anti-Saloon

League after graduating http://video.pbs.org/video/2085902807/

Howard Hyde Russell (1855–1946) Lawyer turned minister 1893: Ohio ASL 1895: National ASL

Lobbying Organization Strongest in South and

rural North

1903: Lincoln-Lee Legion

Girls: Willards Northern Boys: Lincolns Southern Boys: Lees 1925: 5 million children

Raised five million dollars to promote the temperance movement

Became more powerful than either WCTU or Prohibition Party

Success

1.Single issue

2.Wheelerism (Pressure Politics)

Use of mass media and mass communication to persuade politicians that the public wants and demands a particular action.

Intimidation, threats and manipulation

Grover Norquist

President, Americans for Tax Reform

Taxpayer Protection Pledge

2012: 95% of all Congress Republicans

“Wayne B. Wheeler controlled six congresses, dictated to two presidents of the United States, directed legislation in most of the States of the Union, picked the candidates for the more important elective state and federal offices, held the balance of power in both Republican and Democratic parties, distributed more patronage than any dozen other men, supervised a federal bureau from outside without official authority, and was recognized by friend and foe alike as the most masterful and powerful single individual in the United States.”

Justin Steuart, Publicity Secretary

Obvious that Prohibition was a failure Drinking was up Number of saloons was up Deaths from alcohol were up Crime and violence were up Corruption was up

People were making lot money off of Prohibition

Scopes Monkey Trial The State of Tennessee v.

John Thomas Scopes Butler Act,

Unlawful to teach evolution in state-funded school

Trial staged to attract publicity

Clarence Darrow William Jennings Bryan Scopes never sure whether he

ever actually taught evolution

Clarence Darrow (left) and William Jennings Bryan chat in court during the Scopes Trial.

Scopes Monkey Trial

Fundamentalists won trial – but “retreated”

General Theory: humiliated and discredited

Alternative Theory: William Jennings Bryan died 5 days later

Wayne Wheeler died

Congressional Hearings and Publicity

Midterm Elections Congress shift from a dry Republican

majority to a wet Democratic majority, who understood that Prohibition was unpopular and called for its repeal

President Franklin Roosevelt Cullen–Harrison Act Amendment to the Volstead Act, Allowed manufacture and sale of beer and

light wines 3.2 percent alcohol by weight, approximately 4

percent alcohol by volume

Repeal of the 18th Amendment

http://youtu.be/PUeMD057wcU

Kevin P. Dincher . From “God’s Good Creature” to “Demon Rum” Frontier and the Wild...

Documents

Transcript of Kevin P. Dincher . From “God’s Good Creature” to “Demon Rum” Frontier and the Wild...