War and religion have always been closely linked in the South. Someone once said that there are few atheists in the foxholes. Southerners have always lead the nation in military service. Not only in the Confederate Army, but in all our nation’s conflicts. And these same returning service people often are the backbone of newly founded or revitalized churches.

This tendency first emerged as a part of “The Great Awakening” which began in England in the 1730’s following the revolutions there that saw one king beheaded and a new form of government headed by Cromwell, only to return to royal rule after his death. This revival of faith in England was a contributing factor in the anti-slavery movement there.

As the war turned bad for the South, a series of revivals swept through the Confederate army. The scope of those revivals was described in the book “Christ in the Camp” by J. William Jones. The religious revivals were actually lead by a number of key Confederate officers including Generals Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall Jackson.” These commanding officers were well known for their devotion to matters of faith, often leading prayer services for their subordinates.

The south is blanketed by small rural churches that were founded by returning soldiers and their families. Nearly every community in the South has one or more churches with founding dates just after the war. There are so many of them still in existence, that the South is known as "The Bible Belt."

Another wave of religious devotion swept the South following WWII as returning veterans sought relief from their emotional and physiological reactions to combat. My Uncle, the Rev. Ben Sorrow, who saw combat in the South Pacific, devoted himself to bible study that lead to his ordination. Other relatives became more active in church affairs after the war.

Uncle Ben was ordained into the Pentecostal Holiness Church, but later moved his affiliation to the Methodist. He pastured a number of churches in Madison, Elbert, Franklin and other counties in Northeast Georgia. Many of you will remember him. He retired to Elberton to be near his daughter and her family. He passed on a few years ago. His wife, Lorene, still lives in Elberton.

Today, those warriors returning from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan are often heard giving thanks to God and the church for their safe return. Again, an inordinate number of those soldiers are from the South, and as before, they are contributing to the growth of community churches in the South.

So, when you drive through the rural south, and see all those little community churches with signs saying they were founded in the late 1800’s, you can credit them to those Confederate soldiers who kept their faith in spite of their devastating defeats on the battlefield. When all else was lost, they turned to God and the church for support. May it always be so.

Copyright © 2010 by Frank Gillispie
frank@frankgillispie.com, Hull, GA