Decline of Methodism, growth of Baptists until near end of century. Rapid growth of Pentecostalism.
Conflict over the proper role of religion in society.
Conflict over theological ideas tended to replace conflicts between denominations.
Cultural forces tended to pull evangelicals in new directions.
Race continued to be a defining issue among Alabama evangelicals.
Bureaucracies became increasingly prominent as denominations became larger, wealthier, and their members better educated.
Religious groups in Alabama:
Although Baptists and Methodists numerically still predominate, Catholics became an increasing presence in the early 20th century, as did Pentecostal and Holiness groups. By end of century, Pentecostals (Assemblies of God, Church of God, etc.) were growing much faster than other groups.
Baptists and Methodists divided sharply along the lines of race, education, and income.
Religious tolerance for other denominations increased even as religious intolerance for ideas different from one's own increased.
Major events:
The Social Gospel, ecumenical, and liberal theological influences between 1900 and 1920.
The fundamentalist reaction during the 1920s, especially the impact of the Scopes trial (1925) and the close connection between evangelicals and the Ku Klux Klan. Growth of fundamentalism, Christian Coalition in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Billy Graham/urban revival movement of the 1950s and the emergence of the Southern Baptist Convention as America's largest Protestant denomination.
Reaction of white and black churches to Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and desegregation.
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