Lyman Beecher: New England's Leading Clergymen

Born on March 29, 1962, in Linden, Alabama, just 90 miles outside of Montgomery, Ralph David Abernathy Sr. was the tenth of twelfth offspring born to William and Louivery Abernathy. His family was more fortunate than most due to the fact they owned a 500 acre farm, which provided a certain measure of independence. Abernathy exhibited evidence of inheriting his father’s spiritual and leadership skills by joining the church at the age of 7 and serving in the army during World War II at the age of 18, where he quickly earned the rank of sergeant. After serving in the war, Abernathy attended Alabama state college, where his political awareness began to flourish. He was elected as president of his student council and led protests to secure suitable student living conditions and quality food in the dormitories. He then graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1950 and also achieved religious training by obtaining a masters degree in sociology from Atlanta University. Remaining committed to church and education, Abernathy became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he met his wife Juanita Odessa Jones and he became Dean of Men at Alabama State University at the young age of 26.

James Myers is the pastor at the East Campus of Biltmore Baptist Church. Myers has been employed with BBC for the past 4 years and has a Master’s Degree in Christian Education. He and his wife, Michelle, live in Asheville with their 2 children, Noah and Cole, and are expecting their third child, a girl, due in August. Myers says he is very lucky to be a part of this church because they have an extensive network of employees, including a group of licensed therapists located in the Hope Network.

The Puritan community of the Massachusetts Bay colony was primarily focused around church and faith. In 1630, a mass exodus of Puritans moved from England to the colonies in an attempt to isolate themselves and focus on their own religion. Puritans believed that they had a covenant with God, meaning they were predestined for heaven.

Dwight Lyman Moody, one of the famous and well-known evangelist in America. Moody was born on February 5, 1837 as the sixth child of Edwin and Betsy Holton Moody in Northfield of Massachusetts. D.L. Moody’s formal education have ended in the fifth grade, and he quickly got tired of spending his life in a farm. Therefore, he decided to abandon his home at age 17 and tried to seek for an employment in Boston. While searching for a job, he was having difficulty to find a secure and desirable position that he ever wanted, so he gave up and asked to his uncle, Samuel Holton for a job. Luckily, his uncle hired him for work in the retail shoe store that he owned. However, his uncle wanted to keep and protect this young boy Moody from misbehavior,

In Massachusetts Bay Colony, many of the Puritans were superstitious; this is evident in the fact that they believed the victims’ ability to see the devil or familiars of the devil. Superstition was common because the Puritans feared the devil and his way of luring more victims to be on his side.

The central theme of both John Winthrop’s “City Upon a Hill” and Jonathan Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, is the prospect of religion in one’s everyday life influencing their future. In order to build up their ideas about acting in a way that pleases the Lord, both these authors use repetition, diction, allusions, and metaphors as a way to build momentum in their speech as they allude to teachings of the bible and their diction install a notion of uncertainty. However, while Winthrop uses his notion of uncertainty to give the audience a sense of security, in their endeavors to the Americas, with the prospect of religion, Edwards does the opposite and makes the audience fear God even more as he talks about his

Samuel Parris has a long and eventful history that shaped his views and actions while he was preaching in Salem Village. At the age of 20 Parris inharated his fathers sugar plantation in Barbados while he was attending Harvard (Linder “Parris” Par1). The wealth that Parris had accumulated while in Barbados was sufficient enough to support him and his new family when he moved to Boston (Par.2). Unhappy with his life as a merchant Parris decided that it was time for a change in his vocation. In 1691 he began to substitute for absent ministers and speaking at informal church gatherings (Par.3). After the birth of his third child with his wife Elizabeth Eldridge, Parris began to have formal negotiations to become the preacher for Salem Village (Par.3). The marriage of Parris and Eldridge linked him to

1. The letter from the clergymen is directly trying to reach MLK in Birmingham. They are

Cotton Mather was interesting to read as I have heard of The Salem Witch Trials through television and other works I have read. Of course television has a more dramatized version of this experience, but some events were well articulated in the reading. Cotton Mather was very well accomplished, graduating Harvard at the age sixteen and becoming an ordained pastor of Old North Church. Christianity was very big during this era, so Mather’s success to pastor was more than just an accomplishment. Though his intellect was well attained, his choices were not that great and caused much confusion with the witch trials giving his unexpected support being that his is a pastor. I just wonder how can he call himself a pastor of the church

Richard Furman was born in 1755 to an Episcopal school teacher and wife and grew to be a strong student (Wheaton College). With a strong background in education, Furman was recognized for his strong preacher skills and established

Harriet Beecher was born in Litchfield Connecticut. She was really influence with church Due to major role that religion plays on her family. Her father Reverend Lyman Beecher was a minister and a moral reformer at the time which beyond doubt influence her to be the person who she is. She was raised along with seven siblings, Catharine, William, Edward, Mary, George and Henry they always stick together thru everything that they had to go through, and pushed themselves to reach important achievements. In 1832 Lyam Beecher started to run The

John Winthrop’s 1630 sermon, “A Model of Christian Charity” is one of the first examples of early “American exceptionalism”. (Noll, 2012) In his sermon, Winthrop (1630) talks about how the citizens in colonial America should set a good example for others, and obey God, as they are looked up to by non-Americans. This concept of America being chosen, or somehow unique in a divine manner was the fundamental meaning of American exceptionalism to Puritan society.

Religion was the foundation of the early Colonial American Puritan writings. Many of the early settlements were comprised of men and women who fled Europe in the face of persecution to come to a new land and worship according to their own will. Their beliefs were stalwartly rooted in the fact that God should be involved with all facets of their lives and constantly worshiped. These Puritans writings focused on their religious foundations related to their exodus from Europe and religions role in their life on the new continent. Their literature helped to proselytize the message of God and focused on hard work and strict adherence to religious principles, thus avoiding eternal damnation. These main themes are evident in the writings of

The American Baptist Movement came from England in the 17th century, after the Baptists were persecuted by the Church of England for being dissenting separatists. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, new members were converted and congregations were formed by Baptist preachers who traveled throughout the South, in particular during the eras of the First and Second Great Awakenings.

The interpretation of religion has evolved and transgressed throughout the different periods of American Literature.