It was only after I came into contact with members of some of
> these faith traditions (Pentecostals, Evangelicals, Southern Baptists, etc.)
> who disassociate themselves from the Christian Coalition's views on a range
> of issues that I began to learn something about what some of these folks
> actually think and believe.
>
> I learned, for example, that in the 19th Century these faith traditions were
> in the forefront of the abolitionist movements and that in the early part of
> the 20th Century they fought for women's right to vote. It was only in the
> period after WWI and into the 1920s that these movements divided racially
> and turned inward to embrace a more private and conservative intepretation
> of religious doctrine.
>
Michael, your informants are massaging history a bit. The Southern Baptists came into existence precisely to support slavery -- they split from the regular Baptists pre-civil War over the issue of whether the bible justifies it, and have been a segregated church ever since. That's why they had to "apologize" a few years ago. And not a moment too soon! Later the Southern Baptists (I think I remember) opposed woman suffrage, -- as did the Catholic church and many other denominations.
You say it was "only after WW1" that these denominations "divided racially" and went conservative. I'm skeptical -- integrated Southern Baptist churches in, say, l905? But even if true, you are admitting that these "faith traditions" have been racist and conservative for virtually the entire century! the entire modern era. Well, they could hardly have been anti-modern before modernism existed.
Good luck to your friends, but I'd say they have an uphill battle ahead of them. there's a tremendous amount of church-hopping in America. I suspect that the descendents of those progressive Pentecostals of l880 or whenever are not Pentecostals today.
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