Second Great Awakening: American Religious Freedom

Throughout history, America has faced disagreements that led to various complications, one of them being religious freedom. Americans claimed to have always supported religious freedom and that the First Amendment backed that up. However, according to David Sehat, this was only a myth. The myth he argued that there was a moral establishment that constrained religious liberty, therefore American religious freedom was only a myth. Sehat overstated this claim because there have been many historic measures that have shown American religious liberty, such as the Second Great Awakening, the emergence of new religious movements, and religious liberty court cases.

The Second Great Awakening reformed American’s religion. This revival movement began

in 1790 and consisted of Puritans, Congregationalists, Anglicans, and Evangelicals, but by the 1800s, the movement rapidly was fueled by Methodists and Baptists. During this time, camp meetings and revivals were very successful. In 1801 at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, the camp had an attendance of at least ten thousand that brought many people into the movement. The preaching at the revivals led to activism, voluntary organizations, and social reforms that included public positions for even African Americans. Early Americans separated into different denominations, which is where America began to see that idea of Christianity could be recognized in various ways.
Reformed Protestants started to realize that there wasn’t just one way to be saved and that they had their right of free will. The Second Great Awakening “created numerous religious organizations that disagreed with one another…but beneath the dizzying array of theological controversy remained a core of agreement that united these groups…”(Sehat 52).
New religious movements took off in great numbers. The Shakers, Oneida communities, Millerites and Adventists, and Latter-day Saints emerged in the early 1800s having uncertainty and concerns of revelation. The Shakers, who began in Europe, believed that a woman named Ann Lee was the female form of Jesus. America begins to see that the Shakers and Oneidas brings the choice of sex into their worship, which was something different then what people were use to during this time. Joseph Smith, who was a Latter-day Saint, published the Book of Mormon in 1830, which claimed that American inhabitants were lost from Israel, connected to Judaism. The movements did not stop here because in the 20th century, we see the rise of more Catholicism, Judaism, and Mormons. These religions faced ongoing struggles with constant FBI surveillance and were unable to hold office positions without Americans being upset. The Latter-day Saints “were not immune from the challenges of human association. Though there was dissent from within, severe persecution from without kept the Mormons on the move for the first quarter century of their existence” (Laderman/Leon 275). This was not only happening to just the Mormons, but all of the emerging religions in North America. Still, they slowly gained cultural acceptance, while standing by their institutions. Even though these religious movements encountered discrimination and disapproval, their numbers grew.
In 1940, the first case of Minersville School District v. Gobitas involved Jehovah Witness William and his sister refusing to say the pledge. They were expelled from their school, sued the district, and went to court about it in Pennsylvania. They won against the lower courts, but lost against the Supreme Court. The “Court found that this regulation was within the scope of legislative power, and consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment” (Anglim 329), but three years later, the Court overturned their decision. In the same year of 1940, the court case of Cantwell v. Connecticut involved the Cantwell family getting arrested for soliciting without a license and disturbing the peace. They sued the state for interfering with their religious freedom, and won. The Supreme Court found the “statute defining “breach of peace” was too broad” (Anglim 74). These court cases against Jehovah Witnesses showed the liberal Supreme Court decisions taking a stance on religious liberty. Later in 1962, America is faced with the case of Engel v. Vitale that declared school prayers unconstitutional and a violation of the Establishment Clause, “forbidding government from favoring one or more religion over non-religion” (Anglim 32).
Buddhism picks up quickly after President Johnson passed the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, overturning the laws from the 1920s that limited their migration.

However, around the 1940s, the Japanese were sent to internment camp. This happened due to the treat Americans felt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, so they were transported to the camp and imprisoned. Some might feel that these restraints against the Japanese were to limit the Buddhism to spread, but the camps allowed the freedom of religion and even had a variety of Buddhist, Catholic, and Protestant temples. The campsites wrote letters to one another and started to take on “the establishment of religious identity was a component in the process of Americanization as Buddhists began to lay claim to a U.S. cultural identity” (Laderman/Leon 56). They changed the name to Buddhist Church of America, sponsored Sunday schools, spoke English, and even called their leader “ministers” instead. According to Sehat, conservatives claim that the United States has always honored Christianity above other religions, recognizing the role of religion as the foundation of morals to be enforced in law” (Sehat 283). Despite the fact that the Japanese were imprisoned, their religions were permitted at the

camps.
Sehat argued that Americans interpreted there was such thing as religious freedom because they did not want a want to be seen a particular way. He states that in order “to move forward we must first confront and assume the burdens of history…clear the ground of historical myths and erroneous concepts” (Sehat 291). In his claims, he exaggerates that American religious freedom was just a myth, however there are many episodes in America’s history that proves him wrong, the outcome of the Second Great Awakening, several new religious movements, and finally, Supreme Court cases that ruled in favor of different religions.