Christian History Home > Issue 90 > Let Freedom Ring
Let Freedom Ring
The young American republic was ready to break new frontiers-at home and abroad. It's no wonder missionary pioneers Adoniram and Ann Judson were the "American Idols" of their day.
Ruth A. Tucker | posted 4/01/2006 12:00AM
The year was 1800. It was an American election year—bitterly fought between the often-brooding incumbent John Adams and the tall, handsome, flashy Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. The stakes were high—a "conservative" federalist fighting for his political career against a godless populist—a "liberal." It was a brutal campaign that ended in a victory for Jeffersonian democracy.
The rancor of partisan politics was exceeded only by the rancor of doctrinal divisions. For those like the Rev. Adoniram Judson, Sr., a Congregational minister in Massachusetts who looked back nostalgically to the days when Puritans like Jonathan Edwards set the standard for ministers, modern ideas were now threatening the very core of orthodoxy. Rationalism was a plague, and it was contagious.
John Adams had many years earlier been infected through an encounter with a Worcester lawyer. In his turn from Calvinism to deism, Adams did not ridicule religion as had Thomas Paine. But for him, religion was not a set of doctrines ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
|
If you ARE a member
of ChristianHistory.net…
Please login:
| |
If you are NOT a member
of ChristianHistory.net…
Please click here to see our membership options. As a member, you will be able to have access to all of the content on ChristianHistory.net.
|
|
Browse More ChristianHistory.net
Home | Browse by Topic | Browse by Period | The Past in the Present | Books & Resources
| |
|
