Lyman Beecher

Personal Bio:

· Birthday: October 12, 1775 in New Haven Connecticut U.S
· Death: January 10, 1863 in Brooklyn New York, U.S
· Nationality: American
· Entered Yale in 1793.
· Presbyterian Clergy Man
· Reformer, educator, and central figure in theological controversies.
· 1799 he was ordained as pastor of the Presbyterian Church at East Hampton, Long Island, N. Y.
· 1826 Beecher became pastor of the Hanover Street Church of Boston
· Defended orthodoxy against Unitarianism which made him very popular


Issues:

· Fear of Catholicism began to emerge and led me to share in the nativist attack on that faith
· I wasn’t sure if I wanted to Christianize the West and educate the ministers because my desire was to cancel Catholic influence in the Ohio River Valley
· Debate over slavery in 1834 divided students and faculty that it took years for Lane Seminary to recover-I am in favor of anti-slavery
· Religion is what motivates me to challenge the gov’t and other people. I want people who believe to fully understand everything about our religion.
· While preaching, enforcement of the liquor laws was not strict and no one really showed a big opinion about excessive drinking
· Indirectly responsible for the sacking of a convent of Ursuline nuns at Charlestown by the Boston mob


Solutions:

· Individual moral reform is very important, it is the reason I give sermons, people listen and then they change themselves
· 1825- preached 6 successful sermons on the evils of excessive drinking (intemperance)
· 1831- gave a series of negative sermons against the Catholics
· The conservative Presbyterians attacked me with charges of heresy, slander, and hypocrisy
-Heresy because my interpretation of the Westminster Confession differed from theirs
-Slander because I maintained that my views were of a large body of evangelical Christians
-Hypocrisy because I pretended that my doctrines squared with the Scriptures and the Confession


Cronin