[St.Chuck]

Perhaps it sounds crazy to say that RCs were granted religious freedom because our Framers hated RCism, but it is ultimately correct. Our nation's founders had not forgotten that Catholic France had killed tens of thousands of Protestants over purely religious disagreements only a couple of centuries earlier. America's founders were determined to make sure that this Word-hating, murderous mess of Constantinism never happened over here.

I would take issue with "purely religious". Nothing in the the persecutions of the 16th and 17th centuries were purely religious. Much, if not all had a lot to do with social class, and political power. More on that later.

Thank you for inspiring me to read about the Great Awakening. It is very interesting and I look forward to reading more about and by Jonathan Edwards. Do you share my assessment that the Great Awakening was a departure from Calvinist doctrine?

[the_doc]

The Great Awakening was a return to vital Calvinism.

Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were two of the most vigorously Calvinistic preachers in history.