When it comes to the role that religion played in the war we don't really think about the
soldier's themselves who are the ones fighting. We generally think about the people outside of the battlefields. Without the influence of Christianity upon America, there might not have been anyone encouraged to be in the war. "Protestant leaders encouraged men to live lives of "Christian action" by becoming warriors against evil". This gave people a reason to fight in the war and when they died it gave them eternal salvation or as they thought that it would. War not only brought more religion into soldiers lives but it took it away creating more atheist who because of the war lost faith in God. For both white and black men the war offered redemption, As for black men it offered more than just redemption but racial equality as well. Although race didn't matter since both experienced a similar belief in god.
I wonder how American Protestants felt about killing other Protestants, not just Christians. Did it weigh on them or did they feel like they were doing the right thing?
ReplyDelete