Confederate Communication: "The pulpit, the stump, and the press" (Faust 39)

In Goen's article, we see that the earlier split of the Protestant denominations such as the Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians essentially isolated Northern and Southern congregations from communicating with each other. According to Goen, "the denominational schisms not only severed a bond of national union and set a deceptive example for states to follow; they also cast the sectional churches in an adversary relationship that actively furthered the alienation of North and South until sectional differences were felt to be irreconcilable" (Goen 34).

We see in our primary source material the correspondence of two clergy members printed in a Boston newspaper, the Christian Reflector (Fuller/ Wayland 4).  Faust makes the argument that in order for Confederate nationalism to take hold in the South, "it had to be publicly available" (Faust 16).  Faust continues by stating that "the prewar South had relied largely on northern publishing houses and printing technology, and wartime conditions intensified the difficulties of communication within the region" (Faust 16).  Where Boston could publish newspapers, such as the Christian Reflector, according to Faust this was increasingly difficult in the South and the South relied heavily on the North for their publications. (Faust 16-18)

In our survey over the last couple of weeks of Revolutionary War America, we saw numerous sermons (many in printed form), stump pieces (Thomas Paine), and far fewer press pieces from that era as primary sources.  In our readings for the Civil War era South, our secondary sources utilize sermons (and a lot of hymns/ songs) (Faust 18-21), writings from individuals like John C. Calhoun (Goen 22-23), and a lot of sources -- especially in Faust's book -- from the press.  

Given the fact, as Faust argues, that the South was essentially isolated from sources of print communication, did this place more stress on the pulpit for communication than was the case during the Revolutionary War?  However, according to Noll, there was a twofold crisis in America on the eve of the Civil War.  One, "a wide range of Protestants were discovering that the Bible they had relied on for building up America's republican civilization was not nearly as univocal, not nearly as easy to interpret, not nearly as inherently unifying for an overwhelmingly Christian people, as they once had thought." And two, "far fewer turned seriously to Scripture to find an authoritative message concerning race or the transformation of the American economy..." (Noll 33). He further states, "the country had a problem because its most trusted religious authority, the Bible, was sounding an uncertain note" (Noll 55). Can one make the argument that fewer people relied on the clergy for their information in the mid-nineteenth century than during the mid-eighteenth century?  Did the South on the eve of the Civil War have a "Thomas Paine"?