Mark Small

But I tell you he (sic) does see it - and He will bless this nation according to the course they take in politics. 11/29

Finney, a Nineteenth Century Presbyterian minister, slipped irony into his stmnt: pronoun “he,” to refer to the supreme deity, starts with a lower-case “h” then an upper-case “h.” That is not “consistent ground.” 12/29

Mr Finney was credited with inspiring John Humphrey Noyes, who went on to found the Oneida community in upstate New York. Hillebrand, “The Shakers/Oneida Community, Part Two.” 13/29

The Oneida community manufactured and marketed a variety of things, perhaps the most memorable of which was flatware, still manufactured under the Oneida brand name. Noyes did not confine his thoughts to great designs of forks to prick things. 14/29

Noyes preached “perfectionism” - as did Finney - but also “rejected monogamy and the idea that one man and one woman should become closely attached to one another.” Oneida Community, Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 15/29

Noyes advanced a concept of “complex marriage,” in which “every woman was the wife of every man and every man was the husband of every woman.” Id. The community denied rumors about orgies or sexual promiscuity in the community. 16/29

One can misinterpret a situation. Finney, who inspired Noyes, advocated social reforms, such as abolition of slavery and equal education for women and African Americans. “Presidents of Oberlin College,” Oberlin College Archives. 17/29

Finney taught @/president of Oberlin College: students were accepted w/o regard 2 race/sex Faculty & students :activists 4 abolition, Underground Railroad, & universal education. Hambrick-Stowe, “Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism,” 1996, p. 199. 18/29