Holy and Rich: Selling Christianity in Early America – James Dupey

On September 28, 1808, Jane Campbell and her seven children boarded the ship Hibernia in Lough Foyle, Ireland, bound for Philadelphia to reunite with her husband, Thomas Campbell. They waited several days for favorable winds before setting sail. At first, a gentle breeze carried them north, but changing winds soon forced the captain to take in the sails and float. By morning, the ship had drifted nearly 30 miles off course, dangerously close to Scotland’s rocky coast. They anchored in Loch Indaal Bay despite warnings from local pilots about the area’s hazards.

After three days in the bay, a violent storm struck on the night of October 7. Around ten o’clock that evening, those aboard felt a sudden jolt and heard a roaring crash. The wind had dragged the ship and its anchor onto a submerged rock and the force of the storm threatened to push the ship end over end. The ship’s main hold had splintered, and water rushed in. The passengers chaotically scrambled to the upper deck where the captain called for all hands to cut down the masts. Passengers and sailors began hacking at the masts and cutting away the stays. As the masts tumbled overboard, the ship settled on the rock.

Figure 1. Campbell Mansion, pictured here, was included in John Brown’s deal with Campbell that kept his daughter, Campbell’s wife, nearby. Photo by author.

Amid the chaos, Alexander Campbell, who was Jane and Thomas’ eldest child, climbed onto the stump of a broken mast and “abandoned himself to reflection,” making a deal with God. As his friend and biographer, Robert Richardson, later explained, “It was then, in that solemn hour, that he gave himself up wholly to God, and resolved that, if saved from the present peril, he would certainly spend his entire life in the ministry of the gospel. It was at this moment that he, for the first time, fully decided upon adopting the ministry as his profession.”[1.Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell: Embracing a View of the Origin, Progress and Principles of the Religious Reformation Which He Advocated, (Cincinnati: R. W. Carroll & Co. Publishers, 1872), 102.]

The Campbells, along with the rest of the passengers of the Hibernia, survived the shipwreck. And after a year spent in Scotland, Alexander and his family migrated to the United States. Shortly after their arrival, Alexander made a related commitment to the one he made while a sitting on the severed mast – a commitment that was central to the image of himself that he sold throughout his life. Despite the precarious nature of his family’s finances, he resolved to “never receive compensation” for preaching, a resolution, strictly speaking, that he maintained throughout his long life. His father, who was a paid minister for much of his life, worried, “My dear son, I fear that you will have to wear many a ragged coat.”[2.Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, vol. I., 275. ] Despite preaching for several decades, never for personal compensation, Alexander died a wealthy man.

Figure 2. The size of Campbell’s 1831 hymnbook reveals how easily it would have been to carry it from home to church or wherever else a person went. Photo by author, courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society.

He was lucky, he was shrewd, and he was an innovator who, like evangelist George Whitefield before him and Christian leaders D.L. Moody, Aimee Semple McPherson, Billy Graham, and so many others after him, used effective business methods of the day to build both wealth and a following. He used the spectacle of public debates to sell his subscription magazine, he used his magazine to sell his other publications, he used the post office as his distribution network, and he used his preaching to prove his legitimacy as a Christian leader. His preaching – and doing it for free – validated his claims that he was different from his competitors, that he was neither a confidence man nor an employee. His sales pitch was compelling, and the Ohio River Valley was transformed into a Campbell stronghold.

His religious movement – often called the Stone-Campbell Movement – is perhaps the most notable example of consumerist Christianity in early America. At a time when the United States was rapidly transforming into a consumerist society, Alexander went against the moral judgments of major religious publishers and embraced market logic. Like his contemporaries in other industries, he argued that rational consumers would value-test religious goods and the best product(s) would win. He argued that his wealth and prominence were proof of his God-given abilities and his faithfulness to them – an associative relationship between success and the divine that is not far from the association offered by similar religious figures in American society today. In fact, Alexander Campbell’s story has plenty of present-day significance.

Even though adherence to most Christian denominations continues to decline, selling Christianity is big business today. Contemporary Christian personalities sell their products and prescriptions for Christian living to an increasing number of American consumers. While their detractors often characterize them as swindlers, con-artists, or – more generously – as hypocrites, the size of their congregations, as well as their bank accounts, continue to grow. The logic of consumerist Christianity is alive and well and, perhaps as much as than anything else, explains much of American Christianity’s past and present.

James Dupey is Associate Clinical Professor of history at Arizona State University. His research considers consumerism, religion, and the history of capitalism in nineteenth-century United States. He can be reached at Jdupey@asu.edu