[Peace-discuss] July 4th float -- okay, seriously...

[E. Wayne Johnson]

Your idea is a good one, Ron.


Thoreau and the other transcendentalists contributed much.

Charles Grandison Finney is not often considered as an abolitionist 
perhaps because his efforts on social ills is oft
overshadowed by his theological works.  Finney was a "19th century 
Pentecostal" in the real sense.  (Most of the
groups that fall under my definition of "evangelical" are "Passover 
only", knowing only the Baptism of John, somewhat like Apollos and his 
disciples in
the latter verses of Acts 18 & the first several verses of Acts 19.

I found this note about Finney---

    /Now the great business of the Church is to reform the world, to put
    away every kind of sin. The Church of Christ was originally
    organized to be a body of reformers ... the Christian Church was
    designed to make aggressive movements in every direction -- to lift
    up her voice and put forth her energies against iniquity in high and
    low places -- to reform individuals, communities and governments,
    and never rest until the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom
    under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of
    the Most High God -- until every form of iniquity be driven from the
    earth."  - CG Finney
    /

    The foremost itinerant revivalist of the Second Great Awakening was
    also the leader of many reform movements of the early 1800s. Finney
    taught that man had the ability and moral responsibility to repent
    of any and all sin. He identified the social and moral problems of
    the day as sin that must be repented of immediately. Social reforms
    which Finney championed included abolition, dietary reform, dueling,
    education, gambling, hygiene and temperance. As the president of
    Oberlin College, he pioneered co-education of the sexes and enrolled
    both blacks and whites. The first black woman in America to receive
    a degree graduated from Oberlin.

    His most controversial measures included allowing women to lead
    prayer during meetings, appealing by name to sinners while
    preaching, long protracted meetings without a planned format, and
    teaching the possibility, even the necessity, of totally eradicating
    sin both in the individual and in society. Some estimate that over
    80 percent of his converts during the revivals stayed true to Christ
    without ever backsliding. In later years, he moved away from
    sensationalism and put more emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit
    through prayer.



On 5/22/2009 1:44 PM, Ron Szoke wrote:
> Wayne's mention of Lysander Spooner suggests a way out of the current impasse:
> we could carry signs, pictures or simply names of others of Lincoln's time&  after
> who were firmly anti-war&  anti-slavery (from birth?) -- suggesting they were part
> of the "lasting legacy of Lincoln."
>
> Can we find anyone sufficiently "pure" for this?  Maybe not, if a few insist on
> continuing their "More anti-war than thou" posturing.
>
> Any nominations?  Thoreau, perhaps?  Whitman?  Others?
>
> -- Ron
>
>
>
>    

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