WEEK 14: What are the legacies of the Third Great Awakening today?

As this cartoon illustrates, the culture of activism and protest runs deep in the culture of the United States, even among those who do participate in activist work. A major feature of the Third Great Awakening was the emergence of these intentionally activist organizations. Arguably, this pattern of religio-social response has roots from the Second Great Awakening in the Abolition movement; but it really bloomed in the Third Great Awakening Period.

Today, activist organizations in the United States of America have grown in number and diversity, and reach into every area of daily life: social, economic, and political spaces. Many of these organizations present themselves as secular, or at least not overtly religious. The question for this week asks you to explore what aspects of today’s activists organizations continue patterns from the Third Great Awakening.

1) First, find one or two activist organizations to study and discuss. You can search for an organization on your own, or you can choose from one from these lists (There are more and longer lists out in cyberspace):

• 24 Conservative Activist Organizations
• List of Progressive Organizations

2) Then, research the organization’s mission statement or “About Us” page and find some examples of the problems they identify and the solutions they advocate for.

3) Present a question to open discussion of how this organization either continues and/or departs from patterns identified in the Third Great Awakening. Do some of these continuities reflect earlier Awakenings? Do the departures suggest influences from after the Third Great Awakening?

Source: https://www.toonpool.com/user/16153/files/couch_activism_2_1488969.jpg