New Church Movement

        An interesting aspect of this non-theocratic nation of ours is how often religion rears its political head; the Civil War was no exception. The article, “Proscribed Preachers, New Churches: Civil Wars in the Illinois Protestant Churches During the Civil War,” discusses a topic that the author says has been discussed “in passing” by most other historians. It discusses the “new church” movement. According to the article, Northern churches were under the “control” of Republicans. Democrats in these churches, predominantly Methodist, were ostracized by their fellow church goers and clergy.

            Not surprisingly, after a while of being the proverbial elephants in the room, the Democrats had even more trouble, legal trouble. The article states examples of a few people who were tried for various reasons that the church deemed politically distasteful: not praying for the well-being of Lincoln and the Union, for example. It goes on to say that in response to such negative treatment from their own churches, new church movements began to spring up where Democrats could go to freely pray or those who felt that politics and religion should be kept separate.

            As mentioned, the author notes that not too many other historians have covered this topic. (At least this was the case during its publication date in 1998.) However, he does name two other authors who have extensively covered this topic, Ralph E. Morrow and Kenneth O. Brown. Because of this and in the interest of authenticity, the author of this article uses mainly primary sources such as documents from these churches and people within them.   

            My reaction to this article is one of little surprise. In a war where all sides believe that they have God on their side, it is not without warning that there would be rifts within the churches of the time. Moreover, it is also not surprising that the rifts would escalate as they did. The Civil War is arguably the most tumultuous time in our nation’s history; of course it had deep effects on personal lives. It goes without saying that religion would somehow become involved, whether it fueled or cooled the animosity among the political parties—but most likely fueled. This article does a good job of explaining an overlooked, yet profoundly influential aspect of the Civil War’s home front. 

Andreasen, B. (1998, September). Proscribed Preachers, New Churches: Civil Wars in the Illinois Protestant Churches During the Civil War. Civil War History, 44(3), 194-211. doi:10.1353/cwh.1998.0069