alternatehistory.com

--- Supplemental: Development of Religion in America (1814-1914) ---

Excerpts from America’s Religious Fabric: Faith in the Republic, by Dr. Edward C. Hunter, published by Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1995.

During the early years of the nineteenth century, Christianity in America was in transition. Following the years after the Revolution, there had been a slowly growing revival of new types of churches as a reaction against the more traditional Episcopal and Congregational traditions that had existed during the colonial era. Methodist and Baptist churches were popping up across the country, with tent revivals spreading interest and gaining converts. Then came the war with Britain in 1812. The defeat, and the loss of Washington and the chunks of territory given away to the British in particular, was a huge morale blow to the entire country.

Faith leaders across the nation struggled to find the right way to interpret the loss. The newer churches generally adopted language saying that America’s loss had been due to a lack of piety and overall godlessness. Traditional churches, however, pointed to these newer churches as a (but, importantly, not the only) cause of the country’s defeat. They called on people to come back to the older faiths, and in some areas this message took hold. There were several ministers from the Episcopal and Congregationalist traditions that went out and held their own revivals, borrowing from the Baptists and Methodists. There seemed to be an active war for the souls of the nation’s citizens, that really peaked between 1815-1825. Things eventually settled down, and as the dust settled, Episcopal and Congregationalists claimed victory in the Old Midwest and West, while the Baptists and Methodists had gained a larger following in the South.

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During the 1830s and 40s, America saw a large influx of German Lutherans, most of whom settled into Ohio and places farther west, such as Iowa and Illinois (and of course in Texas, where today the Lutheran Church of Texas rivals the Roman Catholic Church for dominance). A fairly substantial number of German Jews also immigrated during this period, and established a sizeable presence in Franklin, along with the German Lutherans. It was during this time that an itinerant Methodist preacher by the name of Sherman Boren founded the New Israel Church in 1842, in a small town outside of Franklin called Gainsboro. Boren preached what he called a “harmony between old Judaism and Christianity.” He said he had been visited by an angel who showed him that “all Abrahamic religions speak truth.” From 1842-1845, Boren worked on what he called the “Unifying Testament,” which he called a third revelation from God that brought harmony to the various faiths of Abraham.” While on the one side there was some level of religious legalism in the enforcement of some of the Jewish Old Testament law, there was also a great focus on working in the community. There is also some incorporation of teachings from the Quran, which would help the new faith attract converts from Islam in the 20th and 21st centuries. The focus on community really helped the New Israel Church grow, and by the 1850s and 1860s it was becoming a nuisance to many in the surrounding communities, as Gainsboro, which had changed its name to New Jericho in 1854, now boasted over 15,000 people, almost all belonging to the Church, and there were satellite communities growing all around. It was estimated by 1860 there were close to 40,000 NCI adherents in the region. A series of raids on the town in 1862 and 1863, along with the unrelated death of Boren in 1864, were major blows to the faith. Boren’s son, Jacob, said that his father had had a dream before he died of a new homeland in the West, where they would have more freedom and face less persecution. So in 1866, the “Great Migration” began, with the “New Israelites” moving from Ohio to Platte Territory. They founded the town of New Israel on the Platte River, and would stay there for nearly 50 years, until after the Dixian Rebellion, when, in 1909, the Church voted to move to the Adams territory. At this time, there were over 150,000 NCI members, a third of which lived in New Israel. An estimated two-thirds of the followers moved from Platte to Adams Territory between 1909 and 1915, helping found New Jerusalem, which is now the second largest city in the State of Adams.

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During the 1850s, as tensions about slavery were on the rise, North-South splits in many of the nation’s churches occured. Northern Methodists broke off and formed the Reformed Methodist American Church in 1851, leaving the Methodist Evangelical Church to the South. Southern Episcopalians likewise left the Episcopal Church to form the Conservative Episcopal Church of America (CECA) in 1853 when the General Convention of the Episcopal Church formally adopted language condemning slavery and supporting the abolitionist movement. In 1860, during the midst of the War Between the States, the Episcopal Church and the Reformed Methodists came together to form the United Episcopal Church. Following the War, during the Dixian Exodus westward, the old Baptist congregations of the South shattered, and either died out or moved West in the Exodus. In their wake, they left only the CECA, and a plethora of different African-American congregations which by the 1870s would coalesce into the Union of African Congregations (UAC), the Congress of Christian Churches of America (CCCA), and the United Church of God (UCG). The United Episcopal Church began to make inroads into some states as well, especially in Virginia, North Carolina, and Arkansas. Catholicism also grew in the post-War South as well, winning many former slave converts in Louisiana, Mississippi, Jefferson, and Alabama.

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As Communalism (then referred to as Owenism or Oweniteism) began to grow in Indiana and Illinois in the 1870s and 1880s, many members began to grow dissatisfied with their Episcopal or Congregationalist faith communities, and began seeking something that better served their communal lifestyle. As no such church really existed, one was started in 1874 in New Harmony, Indiana, by a former Episcopal priest, Father Henry Pike. Pike and several of his friends founded the Communal Christian Church, and by 1890, there were nearly two dozen Communalist Christian sects in the Old Midwest, with several hundred thousand adherents. These churches focused on social justice and giving to the poor, taking to heart the message of Matthew 25:40, giving to the “least of these.” In 1901, many of these Communalist churches came together in Indianapolis to establish the Communalist Christian Assembly (CCA), which today is one of the top five Christian denominations in America.

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The Dixian Rebellion of 1906-1908 effectively destroyed the Baptist movement in America. Nearly half of all such congregations existed in the State of Dixiana from 1870-1905, but after the rebellion many congregations fell apart as thousands of Dixians fled the country. The movement was discredited as being a “seditionist church,” and viewed with suspicion by most Americans. The Western Baptist Convention, which had been founded in 1890, nearly collapsed in 1909, but held together, and today has some 600 churches nationwide, mostly in Brandt, Adams, Platte, and Kanasaw

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Okay, here's what I have so far. I will try to weave in more religious details into future regular updates as I can, and maybe have another one of these supplementals later on down the road.

Estimated Christian religious adherence in the USA by 1914 by percentage (Christians make up approximately 85-90% of total population):

United Episcopal Church: 22.5% (25,000,000)
Federation of Congregationalist Churches 10.7% (11,900,000)
Methodist Evangelical Church 7% (7,700,000)
Conservative Episcopal Church of America 4% (4,400,000)
Lutheran Churches of America 12% (13,300,000)
Communalist Christian Assemblies 7.3% (8,120,520)
Roman Catholic Church 4% (4,400,000)
Union of African Congregations 17.1% (19,000,000)
Congress of Christian Churches of America 8.9% (9,900,000)
United Church of God 5% (5,500,000)
New Israel Church 0.15% (166,800)
Western Baptist Conference 0.05% (55,620)
Other Christian 1.3% (1,400,000)

Some notes:
- Episcopal an Congregationalist churches have maintained a strong Enlightenment touch, and encourage intellectualism over "emotional experiences."
- The CCCA is the most similar to the UEC among black churches.
- As of the current date of the TL, there are discussions among the MEC and the CECA to combine, but nothing has happened....yet.
- There will be some shake-ups to this data as the 20th century picks up steam, but these are definitely some of the biggest players in the American Christian scene.