Heritics of the New World Unite!

I found chapter 4 to be particularly interesting.  In it Kidd ties evangelicalism to the beginnings of revolution.  One aspect of Kidd’s argument can be extrapolated throughout American history:  the “free-market” of religious economy.  In response to being called a heretic by an established church, the plaintiff has no recourse but to respond in kind and appeal to a higher judge: God.  Once all are heretics no one has authority.   A state sponsored established church had traditionally used the states sword as means to silence dissent and present it as divine intercession.  The state was an agent of God’s authority.  Evangelicalism added an additional source of authority, the people.  By leaving established churches and spreading new and unique ideas of Christianity the itinerant preacher’s converts where proof of their righteousness.  These new Christians’ growth validated their existence.  By protecting the individual’s right to choose from this “marketplace”, colonial leaders, like Jefferson, were ensuring that colonial values would become attached to the new Christianity and ensure an American civil religion.  Naturally, the churches which most closely reflected regional and social norms would thrive.  Jefferson’s motivation to create this “free-market” is wonderfully reflected in the quote on page 188, “ ‘Almighty God hath created the mind free.’  Jefferson based religious voluntarism on the example of Jesus, who possessed the power to coerce people to follow him yet choose not to do so.”  Persuasion should be unfettered in the religious landscape as Jesus himself exemplified.  The tongue in check statement by Jefferson, who disavowed Christ’s divinity and the existence of miracles, is hilarious and speaks precisely to the “odd coupling” of Evangelicals and Enlightenment leaders.  Here again a heretic makes a biblical argument for heresy.  As seen through the present day. the Church which reflects the principals of the day will thrive; whether that means preaching a message of prosperity today or millennialism at the end of the 18^th century.