The Fifth Great Awakening: The Restoring Honor Rally In Washington, D.C.

America’s history has in great part been defined through the changes produced by a series of profound religious upheavals know as “Great Awakenings” or periods of significant spiritual renewal and transformation. In total the United States has experienced four of these events.

The First Great Awakening began in the 1730s and was spearheaded by the likes of reformed theologian and pastor Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield, an Anglican clergyman and one of the early founders of “Methodism” in America. The First Great Awakening preceded the American Revolution and very much influenced the religious and theological foundations of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Indeed, the words “In God We Trust” on our currency is a modern day remnant of these heady days of faith and patriotism.

The Second Great Awakening occurred almost a century later and resulted in the emergence of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (the Mormons), The Seventh Day Adventist Church, The Advent Christian Church as well as the dramatic expansion of Baptists and Methodists throughout the Western States. The Third Great Awakening spanned the 1850’s through the early 1900’s and produced the “Social Gospel Movement,” Christian Science, the Holiness Denominations, and the Nazarenes. The leaders of this era included Mary Baker Eddy, Dwight L. Moody, and evangelist William Ashley “Billy” Sunday.

The most recent Great Awakening, The Fourth Great Awakening, occurred in the turbulent 1960’s and 1970’s. It marked the beginning of the demise of the so-called “mainline” denominations (a trend which continues to this day) as well as the emergence of the “Jesus Movement” and the growth of large independent Protestant churches (mega-churches) employing contemporary biblical interpretations and sacred music, while eschewing reliance upon traditional music, theology and liturgy. It was also the era in which women were introduced into the clergy of many denominations and the debate over homosexuality, ordination, gay-marriage and “piety” versus “spirituality” began. Charismatic and evangelical Christianity also expanded during this era, often through the efforts of televangelists like Billy Graham, Robert Schuller, Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Baaker, Ernest Angley, Oral Roberts, Kenneth Copeland, John Osteen, Joel Osteen, and numerous others. This era was also transformed by the emergence of the African-American Church as a profound prophetic, political and social force led by the sacrificial ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and countless other brave pastors who sacrificed their very lives to put an end to racial discrimination in our Nation. It was likewise the occasion for the emergence of a domestic form of American Islam under the leadership of Malcolm X.

Since the era of the sixties and seventies, the nation has become increasingly cynical, secular and antipatriotic. Religion and faith have become passé pursuits for a growing number of citizens, even as membership in charismatic, evangelical and Catholic congregations continued to swell. Meanwhile public expressions of faith and patriotism have increasingly been curbed by the forces of political correctness and secularism.

In a very real sense, the nation has drifted afar from its religious and patriotic foundations.

However, the spiritual drift of the nation ceased on Saturday August 28, 2010 on the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. On that day, hundreds of thousands of Americans from all walks of life and from virtually every region and ethnic community gathered together to recommit to the task of restoring America’s honor by reaffirming an individual commitment to faith, duty, honor and country.

This profound contemporary spiritual renewal was ushered in by the most unlikely of leaders, a recovering alcoholic, high-school graduate, and college dropout with an unsavory past. Moreover, it was predominantly (though not exclusively) a “Christian” renewal prophetically introduced by a Mormon layman.

Radio and television celebrity Glenn Beck challenged America to come to the nation’s Mall on that day and recommit themselves to Faith, Hope and Charity. He painstakingly built an idea and hundreds of thousand came to Washington, D.C. on a hot muggy August day to affirm these values and for the purpose of recommitting themselves to their God and nation – a mutual commitment to one another and to God.

I was there among the hundreds of thousands of others who also answered the call. They flowed into the Mall hour upon hour. They came on foot, on bicycles, by wheel chair and with the assistance of caregivers. So crowded were the subways that many – many with walkers – walked for many miles to attend. In the end, hearing the program and the words of the speakers and singers paled in comparison to their need to come together to pray, pledge and recommit to Nation and God.

Thus began the Fifth Great Awakening.