Religion when everyone is a priest

I read today an editorial titled, "Is There an Evangelical Crisis?"NY Times 27Nov2017.  The core of the essay concerns an apparent disconnect between the teachings of Christ and the ideals of the Trump-led Republicans.  Certain evangelicals are described as an 'embattled and thriving' group of religious believers who are bound together by their simultaneous rejection of traditional religion and the secularization of society trending towards no religion.  While leaders of the evangelical movement have trended towards Trump and his plutocracy, these evangelical members are abandoned orphans, having no institutions or leaders to host them.

One of my difficulties with religion in general and with Christianity in particular, especially Protestantism, is the scholastic dimension.  In the wake of Martin Luther, parishioners were encouraged to have no priest intercede between God and their soul.  This was followed by mass production of 'The Bible', translated into native tongues, to allow each person to read, pray, and commune with the Almighty.  “Next to theology I give music the highest place of honor,” writes Luther.  This sentiment conveys the sense of experiencing God through faith and without instruction. Righteousness is what you feel it to be, and no one can deny your own understanding of God's plan for you.

But if this religion by personal revelation dominates behavior, then scholasticism, (the derivation of meaning through study, logic, interpretation, debate, etc.) is relegated to the point of irrelevance.  In  this confusion, I think many people default to a rather primitive 'theology' of self.  The simple logic is that

1) I am a human being entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by my Declaration of Independence.

2) All policies that interfere with my progress towards my definition of 1) are to be opposed, irrespective of society as a whole.

3) While I accept that the government is necessary and is dictated by our Constitution, I should continue to grouse and otherwise fight towards maximizing my outcome with respect to item 1).


Sadly, my own philosophy is also conflicted.  That is, I can understand intellectually that individuals are at once discrete and part of a whole.  I can only understand my own experience (and even that understanding has limits), so I cannot dictate how others should behave.  Yet I believe we should feel some collective responsibility, especially for community health, defense, and commerce.  Without agreements on community matters, we are all imperiled and especially vulnerable to circumstances of birth and other random cruelties.  I can have empathy for the helpless, and I can advocate for a society that strives to eliminate senseless suffering.  Indeed, I can sacrifice towards this ideal, in the spirit of Matthew 25:40

"And  the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you,  Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,  ye have done it unto me."

But this is my personal religion.  I cannot force others to accept that they should have empathy and concern for the less fortunate.  I cannot force others to imagine that their own existence is advanced when their fellow citizens are free from hunger, homelessness, ignorance, and disease.  I cannot make anyone accept that a threat to anyone's freedom is a threat to their own.

Returning to the theme of this essay, the crisis in religion in America is a crisis inherent in the reformation, wherein each person becomes their own priest.  Such an arrangement in the context of a religion makes each person an author of their own religion!  There is nothing quite like self-righteousness as granted by the Creator of the Universe to empower selfishness, bigotry, and blind pursuit of personal wealth and advantage.  But is a society better served having citizenry in a zombie-like state of adherence to strong leaders telling them what to do and how to think?  Perhaps today's crisis is a stage towards a more just, stable, and peaceful world, where each person appreciates our dual responsibilities to ourselves and our community.

Hammett Plantation and the Battle of Kettle Creek

My mother's mother, Roxanne Kathrine Jones (Hammett), (1905-1984), descended from Hammetts that were part of the American Revolutionary War in Georgia.  I learned this from my cousin Karen Hammett Cook today.  She has long pursued family history and she alerted me to this gem after I obtained what I believed to be new information on the Hopper branch of the Hammett lineage.  Here is the sequence.

Mark Stidham: Fama Stidham (Jones) (1928-2013): Roxanne Jones (Hammett)(1905-1984): Americus (Mack) Christopher Hammett (1870-1923): John Robert Hammett (1820-1873): James Hammett (1797- after 1860).  The connection with James Hammett who owned the track of land on which the Battle of Kettle creek was fought is not quite clear.  In research on the internet, I found reference to a James Hammett, orphan of Edward Hammett, who was adopted by James Hammett.  It could be that Edward had a son, James and a brother James.  His son James could have had a son named James (born 1797), this one being the bona fide member of my particular Hammett branch and the one who married Elizabeth Brooker in Green County, Georgia in 1813.

The Hammetts at the Battle of Kettle Creek (February 14, 1775) included William Hammett and two Hammett brothers who were casualties according to one account reference .  The accounts of the battle indicate more of skirmish.  Its fame derives from the outcome that British loyalists were defeated by the Patriot militiamen at a time the British were counting on their "southern strategy" to win the war by recruiting loyalists.  The British went on to control Charleston on May 17, 1780.  Many more British victories came in the summer.  But in October, Cornwallis stopped his advance toward North Carolina, falling back to South Carolina.

Hammett, James -  The 450 acre plat surveyed for James Hammett is found in Plat Book G, page 176.  The warrant for the survey was issued on December 22, 1783 by Benjamin Catching, Senior Justice, presiding at a Land Court held in Wilkes County. The survey was executed on January 14, 1784 by James Finley, D.S., and Samuel Creswell, C. Surveyor. The rectangular plat is bounded by Vacant on the east, Unknown on the north, Thomas Brown and Vacant on the west and Vacant on the south. Kettle Creek forms the property line on the southwest and south. A road is shown crossing Kettle Creek and entering the plat from the south. Soon after, the road forks and the eastern fork of the road is thought to have led to Karr’s Fort. This plat was the site of the Battle of Kettle Creek.  Patriot forces coming from Karr’s Fort discovered the British near War Hill, located just south of the fork in the road. A skirmish ensued and the British, once their commanding officer was killed, were driven back to the south, down the road and across Kettle Creek.

 from http://www.hiddenancestors.com/wilkesga/narrative.htm