Phyllis Wheatley :: essays research papers

Televangelists like Jimmy Swaggert and Jim and Tammy Fay Bakker promise the Christian doctrine toone thousand thousands everyday. For the right price, anybody can have something- a.k.a. Christianity, God, andfaith- in their lives. On these shows, there is no need to have believed in piety before, as longas there is a need for it now. &9Religious telecasts asking for property in exchange for faith attract nearly five million peopleeach year. Fifty-five percent of these people ar patriarchal woman Thirty-five percent are from thedesperation pool, the poorest and neediest members of society The stay ten percent arethose who might be classified as upper-middle class, who want spiritual justification for their greed.Most of us know that the religion professed on these telecasts is not about trusting in God orhaving a deep ruling in his teachings, ideas that aggregate Christianity in society. Instead, the old,the poor, and the abundant are buying something to have as their own wh en they have zero point else,whether it be in the material, social, or emotional sense. So-called faith gives them possession, onlyplaces responsibility in the hands of a higher force. And in that, they are hoping to find freedom inknowing that their lives are less abandon and without direction.&9It may seem that we can hardly relate the televangelist auditory sense of the 20th Century topoetic views on Christianity of the 18th Century, but surprisingly, there lies many similaritiesbetween the two.. Both Anne Bradstreet and Phyllis Wheatley appeal to Christianity after theirown individualised tragedies. These women, like the many viewers who watch Church-TV everyday, havelost everything and are left field with nothing. In an attempt to fill the void in their lives, left byBradstreets burnt house and Wheatleys treatment as a slave, they turn to the Christian faith that attimes seems as empty as the faith that can be commercialized and exchange by dramatists on television. &9In analyzing "Here Follows Some Verses Upon the fervent of Our House" and "On BeingBrought from Africa to America," I will consider Christian faith as means of coping with nothingness,rather than a religious way of life. While making references to Anne Bradstreets similar developmentof faith, I will contend that Phyllis Wheatleys Christianity seen is sought out for her own purposesin times of feeling nullity rather than a confident belief or trust in God and the acceptance ofGods will.&9Phyllis Wheatleys first appeals to Christianity emerge as she is transported on a slave shipfrom West Africa to Boston in July 1761, which begins the poem downstairs analysis.