I am completing the TSA skills tests so that I can apply to be an Early Childhood Education Major.

The Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening has had a major impact on the history of the United States. At the start of the 19th century religion and church attendance among Americans was rapidly declining, but with the population growth religious fervor quickly grew. In the Second Great Awakening, emphasis was put on personal spirituality more than schooling and theology. Revolutionary ideas were spread, such as ordinary people having as much authority as the elites.
During the Great Awakening new religious denominations sprung up and quickly gained members. The top two fastest growing religions were the evangelical Methodism and Baptists. A way that preachers got people to convert was through camp meetings. These camp meetings were marked by very enthusiastic preaching and involvement with the audience. These kind of meetings had never before been seen in America. The denominations that grew out of the Great Awakening are still alive and flourishing today. The church membership during the Great Awakening skyrocketed. Suddenly people were excited about religion again.
Another way the Great Awakening impacted the history of the United States was that it spawned social activism. As part of this social activism abolition groups, temperance, and suffrage groups came together to demand more rights. Prison reform and care for the handicapped was also improved with led to the betterment of life.
The Great Awakening did not only change the religious and moral landscape of America, it also changed the secular landscape too. The middle class that grew with the population developed a very strong work ethic, as well as the values of frugality and temperance. The 2nd Great Awakening also emphasized that individuals can fix their lives and alleviate their suffering by themselves, they didn’t need priests. This democratized the whole landscape.
The Great Awakening also had a huge impact on the slave population. Many congregations of the Baptist church especially were formed among slaves and free blacks. They soon numbered in the hundreds, and the concentration of black Baptists in the South is still very highly concentrated today.
From a gospel standpoint as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Great Awakening had monumental impacts. It was the religious fervor happening in New York that caused 14-year-old Joseph Smith to go pray in the words, and receive his answer about which of all the choices he should join. This single event brought about the restoration of God’s true church once again to the earth, and impacted generations of Americans who joined the church.
The 2nd Great Awakening is one of the most important, yet overlooked, events in American history. It’s affects caused the religious, moral, and secular worlds in America to completely change. New religious denominations sprang up, church membership skyrocketed, social reforms took place, and positive values were reinforced. It was also one of the catalysts that allowed the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to occur, which will forever change the United States, and the world. The Great Awakening took America in a new positive direction, which impacts the United States even today.

Types and Shadow:"Imitations of Divinity"

I really liked the exhibition Types and Shadows: “Imitations of Divinity.” All of the artwork was well chosen to portray the exhibition’s overall message. While I liked some of the interpretations of the artwork, I thought that some of them were a little overanalyzed. Sometimes artwork should just be admired for how it makes you feel, not about every little detail that may of may not mean something else.
My favorite piece was the 3-D art that was copper colored and seemed to come to life right before your eyes. The bodies of the two men looked like they were real and you could just reach out and feel them. I really like the symbolism of the larger man as our Father in Heaven, reaching out to help us from beyond the veil. This piece really made me feel the hardship in the young man’s life and the hope he gained from reaching out to his Father.
Another favorite of mine was the drawing of two simple chairs, one draped with a red robe and the other with white. The red chair was lying down at the feet of the white chair, which was very interesting. The interpretation I liked of this painting was that the red represented the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ, while the white represented his resurrection three days later. Jesus Christ, as the chair, laid down his life for us that we many all receive the gift of resurrection, and the chance to be clothed in white and live with our Heavenly Father forever.
The last art piece I found interesting was the depiction of Lehi’s family crossing the sea to the Promised Land. I have seen this picture numerous times throughout my life but have never really given much thought to it’s meaning. The picture, upon closer inspection, is much more than just a depiction of Lehi’s family in a boat. Everything about the picture points towards Christ. The tilt of Lehi’s head, the waves, and the white birds in the sky all are allusions that point the viewer towards Christ. This made the picture much more meaningful to me as I contemplated on how much this family leaned on Christ as they made their voyage to a new land.
I am grateful for the chance to visit the Types and Shadows exhibit. I think every BYU student should take the opportunity to view this great artwork, while at the same time being edified and pointed towards Christ.

The Amistad

I really enjoyed watching La Amistad in class these past couple of days. Sometimes it’s much easier for me to understand and remember history if I see it visually. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the story and message of the Amistad now.
I think it’s so crazy how slaves were just treated like sub-humans. It bugged me so much after they worked so hard to win the first court case, and then the men repealed the decision so it would have to be tried again at the Supreme Court. All of the jury and the people knew that the slaves were not guilty, but they did nothing to try and stop this from happening.
Although there were many depressing parts in the movie, I loved all of the good people that it showcased. When I think of slavery and this time period, I don’t usually think about people who actively fought against slavery or disagreed with it. But in reality, there were a great number of people who didn’t agree with slavery. I really admired that lawyer Michael Baldwin who lost all of his clients and his livelihood just for standing up and defending the slaves because he knew it was right. I also loved the judge that the president handpicked. They picked him because they thought that he would immediately side against the slaves, but after hearing all the evidence, he knew that they were innocent and stood up for them even though he knew it would probably cost him his job. It was really great to hear the stories of these people who gave up a lot in order to do what was right and just.
I think The Amistad is a movie every American should see. It really portrays the unjust nature of slavery, but it also inspires me to see that there were people who stood up for what was right in the face of overwhelming pressure and influences.

The Wealth of a Nation

Adam Smith made a very important contribution to the discussion on the wealth of nations. Before Smith’s book, it was widely believed that the wealth of a nation was determined by how much treasure they had. This notion of mercantilism was widely practiced from the 1500s up until the 1800s.
However, in his book Smith argued that it is not the amount of treasure a nation has that determines wealth, but the living conditions and lifestyle of the people. Or, in other words, the per capita income of the people living in the country actually determines wealth. Wealth does not come from stockpiling treasure and hording gold, but from consuming and producing, which is called consumer sovereignty.
The economy that emerges from consuming and producing is called a Market economy, and its basic method is self-interest. In order for a Market economy to flourish it needs personal relations among highly ranked officials, it needs to operate on its own without government involvement, and players that themselves respond to economic forces. Another point made by Adam Smith was that if human beings, if free to do so, will act in their own best interests.
Adam Smith’s book, The Wealth of Nations, was truly revolutionary in its ideas. It completely changed the way the world judged a nation’s wealth and moved more nations towards establishing a market economy.

Crandall Printing Museum

I found the Crandall Printing Museum highly interesting. It was very fun to learn about printing because I knew absolutely nothing about it beforehand. The guides were incredibly knowledgeable, and it was even better that they actually worked as printers during their life. They knew so many fun facts and made the presentation very interesting and hands-on which made it easier to learn.
One thing I found fascinating was that Gutenberg’s Printing Press, which he invented in 1440, was not improved upon until the late 20th Century. This is incredible! The technology that he used to create his moveable type and printing press in the 1400s could not be improved for hundreds of years! He was a truly intelligent and inspired man that he could make that kind of invention during the era in which he lived.
Another thing that struck me was the amount of time that went into printing. It was a truly time consuming process! I can’t believe they had to pick out every single letter, and then put them into a long line of type. And do that with every single line of type throughout the whole paper! I thought it was funny that they would hire 14 years old boys to do this during the summer; it was probably the only people they could persuade to do the tedious job.
The point I found the most amazing was how they tied the Joseph Smith story into printing. They talked about how incredible it was that there was a Gutenberg press in Joseph Smith’s town, along with the presence of a bookbinder. These two things were very uncommon and I think it was truly the work of God that they were together in the same town where Joseph was ready to publish the Book of Mormon. He told us that the printer was reluctant to print the Book of Mormon at first, but he took the job because he needed the money. So Joseph Smith ordered 5,000 copies of the book of Mormon to be printed, and he wanted them done by April 6. The amazing part of the story is that starting in August like they did, the job should have taken at least 2 years. But incredibly, they were done by April 6 so that Joseph Smith could organize the church. Men could not have done this job on their own. Truly Heavenly Father had his hand in the work of the printing of the Book of Mormon. You could tell how amazing this was by the emotion of the guide who told us this story. He had printed his entire life and knew the hard work and time that printing required. He had tears in his eyes as he adamantly told us that God helped those men who printed the Book of Mormon. This to me was a very testimony building experience, and convinced me even more of the divinity of the Book of Mormon.
We are so lucky to have the Crandall Printing Museum so close to us in Provo. It is one of the best printing museums in the entire world, and is continually gathering new artifacts for display and improving their museum so that people can gain a new appreciation towards the work of printing.

Religious Freedom

One of the things I have found most fascinating in our discussions so far this semester is the concept of Religious Freedom. Religion, I believe, is something that shapes history more than almost anything else.
When I have learned history in the past, I always learned how the pilgrims came here to America so that they could find religious freedom that they were denied in England. I always felt so proud that some of my ancestors had the courage to stand up for their religious beliefs and come to a strange new land. However, in one of the greatest ironies in history, once they had their religious freedom here, they promptly set about to denying those freedoms to all people who did not believe as they did. I don’t know how I missed that connection through all my years of studying history! I heard about the religious laws and Salem witch trials and things, but I did not make the connection that the very people who came here to find religious freedom were the ones persecuting others.
Once the Puritans came here, they quickly set up their own little society that was very exclusive and persecuted others. The priests also became almost like dictators who determined how the society was run. Everyone had to worship exactly the same, or they were ostracized and persecuted. It made it worse that the church and the state were one in the same, which made every individual of the community conform. Where is the religious freedom that the Puritans came to find?
There are countless examples of the Puritans flagrant disregard for religious freedom. When Anne Hutchison tried to hold private bible studies in her house, she was found guilty of “faulty preaching,” merely for expressing her own ideas about religion. Most of this persecution was probably aggravated more because of the fact that she was a woman, and she was eventually banished from Massachusetts and had to flee to Rhode Island. Another example is Roger Williams, who was also banished from the colony for expressing views contrary to those of the ministers. It’s so funny how different their definitions and views of religious freedom were. Of course they hated it when they were the ones being persecuted in England for their beliefs that were contrary to the churches, but as soon as they are in power they do the same thing. They had no idea that to be a truly free county, people must be able to worship, as they will, with church and state completely separate. In their society freedoms were forced on people with no thought for their individual rights and liberties.
The Salem Witch trials are an example of the extreme measures that were taken to ensure religious conformity. People posed suspicions about members and non-members alike, especially Quakers, and because they were even thought to have gone against the church they received no fair trial. Especially since the trial was run by the ministers of the church! It is always amazing to me how out of hand their society got at this period of time. It went far beyond denying people their religious freedom; it actively went about accusing people on every unfounded accusation! All they had to go on were the testimonies of some clearly deranged young girls, and they ended up hanging a number of innocent people! It is amazing what a slippery slope it is once you start denying people their freedoms. Soon the government, or church in this case, didn’t see anything wrong with killing people without any concrete evidence. Even after this, states would declare a “state religion,” and would persecute those who did not comply. I am so deeply grateful for the Founding Fathers and their great wisdom and foresight for including in the first amendment a declaration of people’s freedom of religion. They saw the tyranny that ensued when the church and state were fused and promised that America would never have a specific religion that it would be a melting pot where people from all religions could live in peace with each other. Without this statement, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints could never have been restored to the earth. I’m so grateful that here in America we are truly free to worship exactly as we please. It is a promise that is denied to so many peoples around the earth, and we need to remember and be mindful of it.