The Democratization of Christianity

"The rise of evangelical Christianity in the early republic is, in some measure, a story of the success of common people in shaping the culture after their own priorities rather than the priorities outlined by gentlemen, such as the founding fathers." ~Nathan Hatch in "The Democratization of Christianity, pg. 96

This is the crucial idea of Hatch's argument and I think it's a little bit startling for us to hear "rather than the priorities outlined by gentlemen, such as the founding fathers."  Usually we think of the founding fathers as always right and people we are reverent towards.  It's important to note that these Christian movements were doing the exact opposite, and that is how we have the kind of democratic society we have today.  Life isn't always about following the rules, but thinking for yourself and I enjoyed reading about how a group of plain, ordinary people, like myself, did exactly that in the face of people who were so against it.
In class I would have liked to talk about the "normalizing religion" piece of Opal's sentence and what that idea really is and how this "early republic" would have looked differently, had things gone differently in this time period.