The Great Awakening and Seperation of Church and State

The United States of America grew up with a fundamental distrust of government that is evident all the way back to the very beginning of its founding. Many early Americans took part in the fostering of this trait during an event known as the Great Awakening. To understand how this religious event resulted in this type of response, a closer examination of the situation is required. The Great Awakening led to the separation of Church and State as a result of anti-government feelings.

The Great Awakening was the religious movement in the mid-18th century experienced by the majority of all American Protestants. In this timeframe, both Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield preached with a fiery emotion that inspired crowds to scream, weep, and tremble. The actions of these two preachers inspired a whole new type of preacher to be unleashed across the American settlers, giving rise to a more deeply emotional and personal connection to their faith that had not existed before this time. Also noteworthy is the fact that the Great Awakening was the first spontaneous movement mass movement of this totally cosmopolitan people. It is also important to note that the majority of these people banded together on the basis of religion. From this point of view, it becomes more obvious how the American people developed a special affinity towards their faiths; these people could bond together on the premise that they all feel the same burning in their hearts and have a commonality even amongst their many differences.

Early Americans developed their modern anti-governmental attitude through their emotional and communistic feelings towards religion. It is natural to want to preserve this war-fuzzy feeling and this is why the majority of Americans advocated for the separation of Church and State. The mere nature of the personalization of religion makes it impossible to be ‘blanketed’ over society. This blanketing action would come from the government and an intelligent American society could make the deduction that this would surely happen to them if they followed in the steps of the European parents. Therefore, Americans decided to keep separate their personal church and their ruling body. This view of government is negative in that the people were not willing to give up this freedom of worship in fear of losing a dimension of their personality. In conclusion, Americans did not support a joint church and state in response to their anti-governmental sentiment.