[af_vet_1981]

However, to lump him under the Protestant category is not accurate on your part.

The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1790, gained momentum by 1800 and, after 1820, membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led the movement. It was past its peak by the late 1850s. The Second Great Awakening reflected Romanticism characterized by enthusiasm, emotion, and an appeal to the super-natural. It rejected the skeptical rationalism and deism of the Enlightenment.

The revivals enrolled millions of new members in existing evangelical denominations and led to the formation of new denominations. Many converts believed that the Awakening heralded a new millennial age. The Second Great Awakening stimulated the establishment of many reform movements designed to remedy the evils of society before the anticipated Second Coming of Jesus Christ.[1]

Historians named the Second Great Awakening in the context of the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s and of the Third Great Awakening of the late 1850s to early 1900s. These revivals were part of a much larger Romantic religious movement that was sweeping across Europe at the time, mainly throughout England, Scotland, and Germany.[2]


During the Second Great Awakening, the region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm; and between 1817 and 1825, there were several camp meetings and revivals in the Palmyra area.[15] Although Smith's parents disagreed about religion, the family was caught up in this excitement.[16] Smith later said he became interested in religion at about the age of twelve; he participated in church classes and read the Bible. As a teenager, he may have been sympathetic to Methodism.[17] With other family members, Smith also engaged in religious folk magic, not an uncommon practice at the time.[18] Both his parents and his maternal grandfather reportedly had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God.[19] Smith said that although he had become concerned about the welfare of his soul, he was confused by the claims of competing religious denominations.[20]

20 Bushman (2005, pp. 38–9) ("He had two questions on his mind: which church was right, and how to be saved."); Vogel (2004, p. 30) (saying Smith's first vision was "preceded by Bible reading and a sudden awareness of his sins"); Quinn (1998, p. 136) (saying that Smith was concerned with obtaining a forgiveness of sins); Brodie (1971, p. 21) (Smith wrote that he was troubled by religious revivals and went into the woods to seek guidance of the Lord); Remini (2002, p. 37) ("He wanted desperately to join a church but could not decide which one to embrace.")

[ealgeone]

Still no linkage to anything Protestant. Mormonism is a cult. It is not Christian.