Gimme that Old Time Religion, Part 3

Spirituality Column #191
July 6, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Gimme that Old Time Religion, Part 3
By Bob Walters

Gimme that old time religion, Gimme that old time religion,
Gimme that old time religion, It’s good enough for me.

This is not a song I learned in my traditional church as a kid, but often pops up in American culture (movies and TV) so I sure know the tune. It was adapted from an African-American spiritual by Charles Tillman and was first heard, the story goes, at an 1889 Christian revival camp meeting in South Carolina.

The five tripled verses are:
It was good for our mothers …
Makes me love everybody …
It has saved our fathers …
It will do when I am dying …
It will take us all to heaven …
… and it’s good enough for me.

A simple song for simpler times?

Maybe. But I am not sure there have ever been truly “simpler times” when it comes to trying to express the Christian faith. Jesus Christ has always been a tough sell despite the seeming simplicity of His message: Love God, and love each other.

Certainly not every era of the Christian faith has been great. Early on there were the Christians and lions as Roman entertainment. Then came the heresies of the early church. Then there were the Muslim marauders, the Christian Crusades, the Great Schism, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials and the several TV-inflated maladies of modern times – insincere preachers, church scandals, self-serving doctrine.

It seems someone is always either trying to kill the Christians, or the Christians are trying to kill each other. What’s been nice about the American experiment in democracy and religious freedom is that, with a few notable exceptions, the Christians here have only had to worry about fighting each other.

The Second Great Awakening in America’s early 1800s invited God to the far-flung camp-meeting party by celebrating independence with the Bible, and Jesus.

Christianity has thrived here in the USA over the years. But when I hear “Old Time Religion” it brings to mind a cultural default position that accepts the existence of God, believes Jesus Christ is His Son, and invites the Holy Spirit into America’s collective heart to seek truth and justice with faith, hope, love … and peace.

“Old Time Religion” is a Gospel song that’s extra light on theology, but assumes a widely shared belief in the goodness of God. Gimme some of that this Fourth of July.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recommends authors Mark Noll, George Marsden and Nathan Hatch for U.S. religious history.

Gimme that Old Time Religion, Part 2

Spirituality Column #190
June 29, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Gimme that Old Time Religion, Part 2
By Bob Walters

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
– Preamble, U.S. Constitution

“… Blessings of Liberty …”

Did you catch that?

“Blessings” – capitalized in the original – is a God and faith word, not a secular, non-faith word. It’s a word that assumes a Creator and more importantly assumes a relationship with that Creator.

Yes, one could argue that a blessing can be as secularly simple as doing something nice for someone else, but that’s a good deed. One can also argue that all the nouns except “defence” are capitalized in the Preamble, but that’s grammar.

I would argue that Blessings are God-inspired things, and that words like “Blessings” and “ordained” clue us into the intent of the Constitution’s framers – that for this grand venture of American democracy to succeed, God needed to be not only on our side, but in the very hearts of the republic’s newly empowered and free citizens.

Given that Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Benjamin Franklin were all more deist than conservative Christian, and that secular humanism was the philosophical fashion of the age (and especially of the Founders), let’s not worry for now whether 18th century America was founded as a “Christian Country.”

Let’s instead focus on the immense, frontier-penetrating Christian revival, the Second Great Awakening, that almost immediately followed our nation’s birth.

Revival is when the Holy Spirit works to reveal the Gospel truth of Jesus Christ. And regardless of the “Christian Country” debate, America with its unbridled freedom was surely a nation of unlimited personal opportunity, an unimaginably vast expanse of land, and with no establishment church, previously unknown religious openness.

Americans proved thirsty for the Gospel message. In many ways we were a people without tradition. New directions and snap judgments fueled the ferocious growth of the nation. The population physically grew away from the Protestant religious establishments of the East. The independent pioneers went west, and independent Bible preachers followed.

The Holy Spirit knew the opportunity was ripe to shine the light on Jesus Christ from sea to shining sea. The old rules were left behind, and Bible revival was on.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) can’t think of a worse hindrance to freedom – and brotherly love – than state religion. More next week.