This sums up a neat package, but of course sadly, it is far from neat. All of those "sects" also have taken political positions, and they will at times quarrel both within their own ranks, and with each other. Thus it has always been, you may day--and that's true. But one can hardly focus on the good of the church if it's busy arguing who should be president, and why this leader is evil--and that leader is good....
I don't actually see an issue with us all getting along if we cling to what unites us...particularly the 10 Commandments, even before Christ. Our squabbles tend to be on all the nuances, but fundamentally we have, or should have, the same foundation.
I've been thinking a lot about this sort of thing after being called a heretic by a Catholic Priest on Substack. He's really doing his bit for evangelising the faith.
Flannery O’Connor wrote a wonderful short story which I can’t recall the name of. But it’s about a very self-congratulatory Southern women who is involved in all the doings of her church. One day she’s out feeding the pigs and looks up. To her astonishment and horror she sees a line of people heading up to heaven. People who are lame, crazy, white trash, blacks - all the people she thinks she is so superior to. And here they are dancing and singing and heading up to the light of heaven. Maybe you can find the story and xerox it for the priest. Flannery O’Connor was a Southern Catholic writer and Thomas Merton loved her stories.
I know that feeling. Anytime I say God may not know the future, instead of waiting for an explanation, I get the looks and guffaws—and sometimes comments—that say just that.
I read Albion's Seed some 30 years ago, and greatly appreciated it, as it described my own background (most of my forebears were in that first migration). However, I take issue with your words, or rather, lack thereof, on that fourth group, the 1740's migration (post Culloden, and Scotch Irish), who did indeed go into the Appalachian backwoods (and southern New Hampshire as well). But the Scotch Irish were largely? entirely? Presbyterians, therefore Calvinists, and therefore just another thread of the same weaving as the 1620-1640 settlers. The Highlanders probably mostly Catholic. And on that note--the anti-Catholic sentiment of the 17th Century--which sentiment remained in New England well into the 20th Century--had just reason: not because "they represented the old world", but because the memory of Protestant heretics' torture and burnings, under Mary, was still fresh. To an emigre of 1620, perhaps that time was only "in my granfer's day"--merely 62 years earlier. That's my take, any way.
This sums up a neat package, but of course sadly, it is far from neat. All of those "sects" also have taken political positions, and they will at times quarrel both within their own ranks, and with each other. Thus it has always been, you may day--and that's true. But one can hardly focus on the good of the church if it's busy arguing who should be president, and why this leader is evil--and that leader is good....
I don't actually see an issue with us all getting along if we cling to what unites us...particularly the 10 Commandments, even before Christ. Our squabbles tend to be on all the nuances, but fundamentally we have, or should have, the same foundation.
I've been thinking a lot about this sort of thing after being called a heretic by a Catholic Priest on Substack. He's really doing his bit for evangelising the faith.
Flannery O’Connor wrote a wonderful short story which I can’t recall the name of. But it’s about a very self-congratulatory Southern women who is involved in all the doings of her church. One day she’s out feeding the pigs and looks up. To her astonishment and horror she sees a line of people heading up to heaven. People who are lame, crazy, white trash, blacks - all the people she thinks she is so superior to. And here they are dancing and singing and heading up to the light of heaven. Maybe you can find the story and xerox it for the priest. Flannery O’Connor was a Southern Catholic writer and Thomas Merton loved her stories.
You can find those in Protestant (also Orthodox) circles also. All I can say is Some people are in for a Real Shock when they get to heaven.
“Look! It’s Jim! How on earth did he get in after all his goin’s on?”
?
That's my example of what you were saying. I was going to use Steve and then I realised that's your name.
I know that feeling. Anytime I say God may not know the future, instead of waiting for an explanation, I get the looks and guffaws—and sometimes comments—that say just that.
Excellent and concise essay. Thank you and God bless.
Is there a way to submit questions to that livestream chat?
I read Albion's Seed some 30 years ago, and greatly appreciated it, as it described my own background (most of my forebears were in that first migration). However, I take issue with your words, or rather, lack thereof, on that fourth group, the 1740's migration (post Culloden, and Scotch Irish), who did indeed go into the Appalachian backwoods (and southern New Hampshire as well). But the Scotch Irish were largely? entirely? Presbyterians, therefore Calvinists, and therefore just another thread of the same weaving as the 1620-1640 settlers. The Highlanders probably mostly Catholic. And on that note--the anti-Catholic sentiment of the 17th Century--which sentiment remained in New England well into the 20th Century--had just reason: not because "they represented the old world", but because the memory of Protestant heretics' torture and burnings, under Mary, was still fresh. To an emigre of 1620, perhaps that time was only "in my granfer's day"--merely 62 years earlier. That's my take, any way.
My mother’s family were ScotsIrish and they were all devote Catholics.
I’ve understood that in the post-Culloden emigration, the Scots fleeing the Highlands were Catholics. Lower down (in latitude), Presbyterians.