It is unimportant what or which of our founding fathers said about separation between church and state. The fact remains that America’s colonial and post-revolutionary history is rich with incredibly influential religious movements that have played an unusually active role in shaping our nation’s political fortunes.

Wikipedia has identified no less than four ecumenical Great Awakenings in American history, the final one having apparently spanned 1961-1982.  Although this was a period of spiritual experimentation and transformation for the country as a whole, it was, perhaps ironically, the Christian Evangelical movement that emerged from the canon-based-chaos with the most comprehensive message for America – and indeed the world (a notion that probably wouldn’t have appealed to the crusaders of the second and third great awakenings, whose message translated into domestic movements like the abolition of slavery and the prohibition of alcohol.)

Read More >>