ethnic nationalism – Kanisa la Christadelphian huko Anderlecht

A world where one must make oneself clearly known #3 Looking for personal freedom and a better life

février 17, 2024février 9, 2024 par obligingworldviewer, publié dans Christadelphian, Faith, History & news feed, World events & environment

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok on Pexels.com

In the century that a lot was written about the evolution of the universe, animals and plants, man and the inner or soul of man, many people also started to think for themselves about the origins of everything, who or what was behind it, and where we mucked towards with our world.

It was also a time when a conflict arose between the technicians, economists and the different class of people.

The working class or proletariat did do most of the work or hardest labor, there were writers, such as Karl Marx who believed that workman would emerge victorious from the conflict, but for those workers victory was hard to find or bitterly sweet, unlike the possessing or capitalist class, the working class had no means of production of its own at all. In the past, carrying out paid work had been limited to cities, but companies also settled outside cities and farmers and livestock farmers also had to ensure that they earned sufficient money to cover the costs or to pay the resources that were now provided by the industry (such as clothing).

In the second half of the 19th century this seemed to many to be a hopeless process, in which they felt like slaves to society and wanted to free themselves. Society seemed very suffocating to some. Especially because in many villages or regions they were looking forward to everyone in the same boat, while not everyone felt like it. There were frictions here and there, especially on the faith front In Western Europe, ethnic nationalism grew.

Rumour spread over very large areas that things would be much better in the New World and that one would be completely free there, that freedom beckoned to many, from the far north to deep in the south people went out to port cities from which boats left for the alluring New World.

While Russia opens up the areas in the East and establishes the only ice-free Russian port on the Pacific Ocean (1858-1860), more and more ‘seekers’ are finding the money they have saved to set out on the Great Pool that separates them from the expected freedom.

Between 1820 and 1957, more than 4.5 million people emigrated from Britain to the United States. In the late 1800s, many people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes to go on a trek in a world where they had already heard many positive things. had heard about.

For many, it was no longer doable in Europe, so they fled crop failures, shortages of land and jobs, rising taxes and famine, America seemed to them the land of their dreams, because it was seen as the land of economic opportunity.

Others came seeking personal freedom or relief from political and religious persecution, and nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900, During the 1870s and 1880s, the vast majority of these people were from Germany, Ireland, and England – the main sources of immigration for the Civil War. Yet, a relatively large group of Chinese emigrated to the United States between the start of the California gold rush in 1849 and 1882, when federal law stopped their immigration.

Immigrants entered the United States through various ports, but those who came from Europe usually entered America through East Coast facilities, while those from Asia generally entered through West Coast centres, the great place of arrival to start the new life was through New York City, which became known as the « Golden Door ». During the late 1800s, most immigrants in New York entered the Castle Garden depot near the tip of Manhattan. In 1892, the federal government opened a new immigration processing center on Ellis Island in New York Harbor.

It was in the period with the highest migration levels, during the 1860s, 70s and 80s, with almost 110 thousand people migrating in 1888 alone, that the British doctor John Thomas, also with one of the boats, took the crossing. On the ship that made the long crossing he had a lot of time to talk to all kinds of people about the Bible and faith. He noticed how different the teachings of those many believers were their denominations. In New York he also came into contact with many Jews, whom he tried to convince that Christianity did not replace the Law of Moses but rather fulfilled it. He believed that Christians, through faith and baptism, should become the « seed » (or, « offspring« ) of Abraham.

Through his thorough Bible study, more insight came to him over time, which he came to share during his tour. Others began to find his lectures revealing and realized that things in which their denomination had frightened them so much, such as the eternal torture in the eternally burning fire in hell, was completely unbiblical.

John Thomas’s supporters began to publish themselves as « Bible Students » or as Thomasites, a title that John Thomas did not appreciate at all, because one does not have to follow a person on earth, but one does have to go through life as a brother in Christ.

Faith spread across American lands and eventually there were also Bible students who returned to Europe to further proclaim faith in the Only True God.

Unfortunately, it was no different for that religious community than for others that divisions arose here and there or splinter groups occurred. Between 1864 and 1885 there were at least 6 divisions within the Christadelphian denomination, including the large divisions caused by the disfellowships of George Dowie in 1864, Edward Turney in 1873 and Robert Ashcroft in 1885.

But in the end, more unity grew over the years, and it can be said that even though there are still a few groups, the faith of those groups is almost identical.

Preceding

Additional reading

A world where one must make oneself clearly known #2 Unrest among the working people

février 16, 2024février 8, 2024 par obligingworldviewer, publié dans Faith, History & news feed, World events & environment

In the « Far West« , conflicts had already arisen among the indigenous population when growing prosperity had taken place between the different peoples, an alliance was the only way to resolve these conflicts and so the Iroquois Confederacy was founded.

The Haudenosaunee considered themselves a proud warrior nation and originally called themselves Ongwe Hongwe, « men who surpass all others »; yet in their heyday they could raise at most a thousand warriors.

Outdoing others was nothing new, but this was about the hatchet because of others who were materially better off.

On 17 March 1768, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Sir William Johnson, concludes a peace agreement with the leaders of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (the tribal nations of Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora) of the North American lands, and with Chiefs Oconostota and Attakullakulla of the Cherokee nation in the South American lands.

Ten days later, Catherine the Great of Russia sends troops under General Pyotr Krechetnikov to intervene in a civil war in Poland, at the request of Polish King Stanisław II Augustus, a move that will eventually lead to the Partitions of Poland.

On one side there is a merger of peoples while on the other side there is a division.

On April 5, 1768, the New York Chamber of Commerce, the first of its kind in the American colonies, is established in the New World, it is clear that one is thinking of facilitating the trading of goods and seeing them as a possible source of enrichment, and this may well ask the question « whose enrichment »?

Those who provide the ship link between the old and new world and those who land food and merchandise in Great Britain are tired of their starvation wages That year in Sunderland the sails are lowered by the sailors, to reinforce their grievances and claims for better working conditions. It was one of the first major work stoppages and she was then considered a ‘muitery’. Since that mutiny, in which the seafarers lowered their sails (‘striking the sails’), the word ‘strike‘ became established in the English language as an indication of a work stoppage or strike.

The onshore mutiny for better working conditions and working conditions, the strike, would rapidly expand in early industrial England.

A hundred years later, those working conditions had not really improved and the dissatisfaction was so great that many were no longer interested in staying there in wet England or cold Scotland.

In the century, which is characterized by unparalleled advances in the sciences and an attitude to life that increasingly focuses on a materialistic philosophy of life, there is a resentment among people because the rich are seen becoming increasingly richer while the ordinary working people have to work harder and harder to make ends meet.

In several regions, a feeling jester is also emerging that one must save one’s own region and be able to manage it oneself, nationalism is emerging, and certain groups are also going to demand from others that if they want to belong they will have to adapt to their nationalism is opening the way to legitimize racial, ethnic and religious divisions, to attack or suppress minorities and to undermine human rights and democracy.

Certain faith groups are either targeted or accused of the difficulties that exist In Central and Eastern Europe, an ethnic nationalism emerged in which the language one spoke or the religion one practised would become decisive to either be loved or hated Heads of Government took particularly convenient advantage of this to blame others and thus stigmatize them, as a result, Jews, for example, began to have a very difficult time, especially because their work and financial activities were a thorn in the side for those who owned little.
The Roman Catholic Church stoked the fire by accusing them again of murdering Jesus. Furthermore, that Church as well as the Anglican Church also railed fiercely against other believers, especially those who did not wish to accept the Trinity, such as certain Anabaptists and Baptists, including the Brethren or Brothers, who were convinced that only the Bible had the authority to tell the truth and thus adhered to the sola scriptura.