美国国家公共电台 NPR To Understand How Religion Shapes America, Look To Its Early Days

To Understand How Religion Shapes America, Look To Its Early Days

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Religion has always played a large role in the history and politics of this country. But in many ways, it has been an untold 1 story. Well, the Smithsonian Museum of American History wants to change that. For the first time, it has a full-time 2 religion curator. And a new "Religion In Early America" exhibit sheds light on what makes U.S. history special. Here's NPR's Tom Gjelten.

TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE 3: Crossing the Atlantic was a dangerous proposition in the colonial period. There had to be a good reason to do it. Many colonists 4 were seeking sanctuary 5, members of some religious minority back home facing persecution 6 for their beliefs. Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, Catholics - America to them was a place they'd be free to practice their faith.

PETER MANSEAU: This country, somewhat uniquely, is a nation of transplanted religions.

GJELTEN: It's the story Peter Manseau tells in his first exhibit as the Smithsonian's new religion curator.

MANSEAU: New traditions coming in, now learning and needing to negotiate, to compromise, and finding ways to live together.

GJELTEN: To live together, America's tradition of religious freedom arising from its great diversity of faith. Each item in this exhibit adds another dimension to the story. The oldest is the Bay Psalm 7 Book published in 1640 by the Puritans in Massachusetts wanting to purify their worship. Rebellion is a theme of America's religion history. George Whitfield was so controversial as a preacher that he was not welcome in most churches. So he built his own pulpit and took it on the road, preaching outdoors to huge crowds.

MANSEAU: It's about 6 foot tall. The base is about 3 feet off the ground. It has several hinges so you could fold it up and actually strap 8 it to the side of a horse or throw it into the back of a cart.

GJELTEN: Whitfield's thought to have used his portable pulpit about 2,000 times. He was America's first great evangelical preacher. While Americans have always been a religious people, some of their founding fathers weren't so devout 9. Thomas Jefferson struggled with Christianity, trying to reconcile the teachings of Jesus with the ideals of the Enlightenment. His idea was to edit the New Testament 11 - literally 12.

MANSEAU: And with a pen knife he would remove those sections that he agreed with and found useful.

GJELTEN: Jefferson then pasted those sections together, making a new book. He called it "The Life And Morals Of Jesus Of Nazareth." The Smithsonian exhibit includes both a Bible that Jefferson cut apart and one he created from his pasted clippings. It gives his version of the New Testament story.

MANSEAU: Jefferson saw himself as a Christian 10 in what he thought as the truest sense, as one who saw Jesus as a moral exemplar. He didn't have any use for miracles or the supernatural. And so perhaps most interestingly, Jefferson's Bible does not include the resurrection.

GJELTEN: America's religious history is not just about Christianity. Many enslaved Africans were Muslims, among them Bilali Muhammad, who, in a desire to keep his faith alive in America, wrote out a 13-page text in Arabic.

MANSEAU: It is a very simple document. It contains some basics of Islamic practice. These are the times at which we pray. This is why we wash our hands. This is why we wash our feet before we pray.

GJELTEN: Scholars think the text suggests Bilali was in the process of forgetting and trying to hold on to what he once knew.

MANSEAU: Very basic ideas of this is what I want to pass on to my children if they're going to learn to be Muslims, as well as just words of praise to Allah despite the circumstances.

GJELTEN: People motivated by their religious beliefs were among those who pushed most vigorously for the abolition 13 of slavery. Smithsonian curator Peter Manseau tells that story through a pair of saddlebags. They belonged to a man named Freeborn Garrettson, himself a slave owner until one Sunday morning, when, while reading the Bible, he was stopped cold.

MANSEAU: He heard the voice of God command him to let his slaves go free.

GJELTEN: Inspired, Garrettson became an abolitionist minister, traveling from plantation 14 to plantation, trying to convince other slave owners that they were violating Christian teaching.

MANSEAU: He carries with them these saddlebags, which become the iconic objects of itinerant 15 preachers throughout early America.

GJELTEN: And what did he carry in those saddlebags?

MANSEAU: Bible tracts 16, other reading material related to abolition and ultimately the conversion 17 of those to whom he was preaching.

GJELTEN: The diversity and significance of the American faith experience explained through a songbook, a portable pulpit, a cut-and-pasted Bible, a slave's notebook and a pair of saddlebags at the Museum of American History beginning today. Tom Gjelten, NPR News.