Individuals, the great connectors.

Nathan Hatch's article, "Religion and American Politics from the colonial period to the present," in an anthology by Mark Noll, discusses the many popular religious movements following the American Revolution which directly influenced the ideas of Democracy that we as Americans relate to today.  I found the article to be interesting, because it connected two spheres often thought of as being completely separate: politics and religion.  He claims, for the Morman, Methodist, and Baptist movements, as well as other popular religious movement, that, "All of these movements challenged common people to take religious destiny into their own hands, to think for themselves, to oppose centralized authority and the elevation of the clergy as separate than men"(101).  He goes on to claim that, "religious movements...had the ironic effect of accelerating the breakup of traditional society and the advent of social order given over to competition, self-expression, and free enterprise"(109).  I thought that it was extremely interesting that we can look to the very origins of a capitalistic society in an institution one normally regards as one concerned with the common good, rather than the individual.   The article connected well to Ms. Frykholm's lecture as well as "On Being,"  by giving me historical perspective on the effects of religion upon our lives even to this day.