Pokeweed religion

July 8, 2006

Now here is a forgotten English term that comes from our own Missouri Ozarks. It means the sort of religious excitement that springs up rapidly and seems impressive, but has no permanent value. The term lightnin’-bug revival carries the same meaning. This definition comes from a book that I would like to read some day: Vance Randolph’s Down in the Holler: A Gallery of Ozark Folk Speech, 1953. It may still be in print.

On the same calendar page was a squib about John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of Methodism. After his death, an English sea captain and novelist named Frederick Marryat said, “The fact is that there is little or no healthy religion in [America's] most numerous and influential churches - it is all excitement.” He also believed that there was a species of bronchitis peculiar to ministers in the United States because they yelled too much. “I have already observed that the zeal of the minister is even unto death.”

Dave, usually not too excitable.

Posted by Dave | Filed Under General