The Great Awakening

The Great Awakening was a radical newfound spirituallity overcoming many people such as the British colonies in the 1720s. This evengelical Christian revivalism took over America under the religious movement "whose common denominator was Protestantism". Jonathan Edwards is "frequently identified as the founder of the Great Awakening, inward spirituallity and ouward religiously owe a debt to...Theodorus Frelinhuysen."

In this atricle I found one man's philosophy of preaching very interesting. Minister Theodorus Frelinghuysen served as a Dutch reformed minister. He started a new way of prayer that was "derisively called the 'howling prayer' because of all the howling and wailing involved." He believed that prayer and spirituality resided in the heart. Although his church rejected his relgious adaptions i think they have some truth in them. For instance, in my synagoge once every month we have musical shabbat in which,as it sounds, we use music to reach God. In hebrew Ruach means spirit. But it means more than spirit...it also has a feeling of completeness, and happiness attached to it. I feel the ruach and soul of the congregation around me when we all sing together. This sence of unity within praying i believe brings us closer to God. I believe that singing or howling or whatever people do is enough to feel complete and whole. It's what's in their hearts that matter. I think that it is pointless to pray if your heart isn't into it because then it is simply just saying words. There is this one quote that i found particularly that relates to my views. "Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays." -Søren Kierkegaard. It means that prayer only really changes a person if he means it and wants to see a differance in his or her life. Another aspect of praying that bothers me is that some people only pray in times of need or hurt. "Many people pray as if God were a big aspirin pill; they come only when they hurt." ~B. Graham Dienert. I totally agree with this quote because it's true. People need to pray when things are good too. They need to relize how fortunate they are and they need to show appreciation for having the things that they do. I should start doing that. I never take the time out of my busy day to stop and think how great of a life and family I have. I never really tell them how much they mean to me or thank God for blessing me with a semi-normal family haha. I will definatly do that next time in my prayers. BE Well

pray what you feel. That's all i have to say.
"Great Awakening." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .

Leopold and Leob trials

During this class period I found an intresting atricle about the Leopold and Loeb trails. This case dealt with the murder of a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, named Bobby Franks, at the hands of two teens from the area. The two teenagers who were responsible for the killings were very bright in school, were wealthy, and looked as though they had a bright future ahead of them. They initially kidnapped Bobby in order to make a profit but they also intended to kill him to "commit murder and partly to prove that their superior intelligence would enable them to get away with it." The bafling thing about this case is that the two killers were JEWISH!! The fact that the two killers were Jewish enraged the public even more.I feel that because the killers were jewish it gave jews a bad name in the area and it also further seperated the jews from the rest of society. Anti-semitism played a big role in this time era. I think a lot of the reason for all the chaos is because of religion and the inablility for people to accept one anothers religion.


check out the article - http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com>.





"Leopold and Loeb trials." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. .

Religion and Education during Reconstruction

Religion not only plays a role in the church but also to the people that preach it. In the Reconstruction time, African Americans relied on religion to help them evolve through all the "economic hardships and social deprivation." This faith allowed the blacks to believe that there could be hope for the future. Churches in the South were one of the main centers of black institutional life other than school and labor unions. One thing that i found surprising about the churches was that some were led by white ministers and some felt that it was still a form of slavery. But there were also many other independent churches such as the Methodist or Baptists ones. The church was not only meant to be a place for worship but also a place for funding education. "African Methodist Episcopal churches opened bank accounts for a book fund to support Wilberforce University, and a ladies aid society." I think that this was a great contribution by the church because education does also go in hand with religion.
The article also commented about how whether schools were privately or publicly funded, they were invariably segregated. "As in the realm of religion, where African Americans embraced the opportunity to worship Independently of whites, school segregation did not cause undue concern within the black community." I found this very interesting because they did not mind being segregated in religion. I guess i understand why because its much easier to worship or appreciate things more if you're with people that you are comfortable with.
The best part about religion is that you can bring it with you where ever you are and you don't have to be in a labeled place of worship.



"African American religion and education during Reconstruction." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010. .

Is there a God?

"What are you doing this friday night!? want to come out to the school basketball game with us?"
I reply:" Sorry, I have to go to my grandma's house for shabbat dinner"
So religon is the hot topic for today... I come from a very religous house and am highly involved in my youth group. Relgion to me is the belief in a God or some higher power. I think people are lucky if they have religion in their life because it gives people the ablitlity to believe in something that is bigger than other people or ideas that are comprehendable. It makes people question things, even science. I have many questions that come to mind instantly. For example, many religious people believe that God has the power to change a future and to make people's fates...but does he really have that power? I think that people are underestimating their ablilities to make their own choices and determain their future. I think sometimes people become to dependable on God that they lose sight of their life here on earth. I personally have recently been questionting my belief in God and i think that its ok to do. I mean, as teens its a very complicated time and many changes are occuring that the same time. Most people are thinking about girlfriends or boy friends, school, or the stresses of home life or sports. God doesn;t play a very immediate part in my life but I think the morals that my religion teaches me always stays in the back of my head.

State of the Union

Tonight Barak Obama gave his state of the union address. Personally, i wasnt very excited to hear about it but it turned out that he brought up some very intresting points about our nation and about the people. In his introduction he was talking about the struggles of the nation during the beginning of his term what with the two wars, economic slump and unemployment rates going up very fast. He explained how recently the two main political parties, democrats and republicans, have been seperated and have only been unified by a few things. Obama believed that the groups were just unified by their hatred for the bank bail out and the hopes for a better future. This speech reminds me of the second inaugural speech of Lincoln. Lincoln addressed the nation and said that they need to be unified in order to have a more successful nation. The citizens and government also need to work better together in order to have a more mutual understanding of important issues. He closes he speech by saying, "let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." This line shows that regardless the time period, the government is always striving for its citizens to get along and to fight for a better future.

Another point i wanted to bring up was that some Americans also have been quite upset with the direction that Obama has been leading the nation and feel that, "Change hasnt come fast enough". He makes this point in his speech because he wants to show America that change is gradual and its not going to automatically go to being great. I somewhat believe in his words but its very hard to be dependable on a good future with the state the country is in right now

The start of something NEW..

heyy welcome to my blog! this is so cool! its way better than writting a paper in my opinion. I could get used to this :). ok....so here it goes. Imma try to link to one of the sites that i like. Because I enjoy playing guitar, i like some of these simple songs.-
http://chordie.com/ -check it out! it has so many songs and artists on it.