Author: Jeffrey Pitts

Marks of a True Conversion was a sermon written and spoken by George Whitefield. George Whitefield lived from 1714-1770, which means he was alive during the Great Awakening which lasted from 1720-1780. According to Wikipedia, “George Whitefield, also known as George Whitfield, was an Anglican cleric and evangelist who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement. Born in Gloucester, he matriculated at Pembroke College at the University of Oxford in 1732.” He was best known for being the central figure in the Great Awakening. According to Bartleby.com, “It (the sermon) is representative of the Great Awakening. It was a revival sermon, the goal was to gain conversions to Christ, the sermon used detailed imagery as rhetoric, it was Calvinistic. But, it didn’t focus on the role of the local church. It assumed the conventional preaching had not produced conversions.“

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was a sermon written by Johnathan Edwards. According to Wikipedia, “”Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a sermon written by the American theologian Jonathan Edwards, preached to his own congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts, to profound effect, and again on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut. The preaching of this sermon was the catalyst for the First Great Awakening.” This was another sermon preached during the Great Awakening preached by Johnathan Edwards. According to Wikipedia, “Jonathan Edwards was an American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist theologian. A leading figure of the American Enlightenment, Edwards is widely regarded as one of America’s most important and original philosophical theologians.”

If you had heard the sermons “Marks of a True Conversion” and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, would you have assumed that you were the target? If you read or listened to these sermons, would you assume that you were the target of the sermon? According to Bartleby.com, “His (Edwards’) sermons were intended as a wake-up call for those who underplayed the majesty of a holy God and overemphasized their own worthiness as a decent, hard-working, successful citizens. Edwards believed strongly that only a genuine conversion experience should qualify a person for church membership.” His and Whitefield’s sermons were intended as ‘wake-up’ calls for people who were already Christians. In fact, the sermons were intended for Christians. The goal of these sermons was not to convert people to Christianity, but to strengthen the faith of those who were already Christians. This was the entire reason for the Great Awakening.

So, if I had heard the sermons “Marks of a True Conversion” and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, would I have assumed that I was the target? I feel like I was the target of the sermon. The target audience of the sermon were people who are Christians, and this sermon was not meant to convert people to Christianity, because that means that the sermon would be completely different, but rather to strengthen the faith of those who were already Christians. That refers to me and everybody else who is a Christian who read or listened to this sermon.

What is the origin of money? Here is a little history lesson. Way back when money did not exist, people used to barter for things, like trading paper for a bag of apples. But there was a problem with this. If you had a frisbee, and you wanted a hat, you could trade that frisbee for a hat, but the trick was to find a guy who had a hat, and also wanted a frisbee. Also, if there was a barber, and wanted a meal, would he trade a free trip to the barber for a meal? What if the waiter was bald? Also, if all you had was a castle, and you wanted a loaf of bread, would you cut your castle into little sections and trade that for a loaf of bread? What would someone do with a chunk of a castle? So there were a ton of problems with bartering. Well, people began using things of value to replace for bartering, like gold. Then a man could trade his frisbee with someone for gold, then he could use that gold to buy a hat. People started to use gold as a form of exchange, and it was widely accepted. Years later, people were still using gold as a form of exchange, but gold was too heavy to carry around places, so the government started using paper money. People could trade in gold for the same value of paper, then they carried around paper money that represents gold. Then, if people wanted to buy something, they could trade in paper money for the same value of gold to buy things. But people began to realize that if paper money was worth the same as gold, then they could just trade paper money instead of trading it for gold then trading it. This is how paper money came into use. This worked well, because the government could not print more money without mining more gold, and it worked great. But then the government became greedy, and started to print more money without mining more gold, causing inflation (the prices of products rise without people’s pay checks rise, so things got more expensive, but people did not get any richer, to put it into simple terms). People spent their lives collecting paper money, only to lose it all to inflation. Be careful with your money.

What problems do price controls cause? According to the Dictionary, price control is “a government regulation establishing a maximum price to be charged for specified goods and services, especially during periods of war or inflation.” Price control causes many problems. Tons of economists think so. According to Hoover Institution, “The negative effects of price controls are many. By creating shortages, they often cause people to wait in line, they often cause the quality of products whose prices are controlled to fall, and they can lead to favoritism by suppliers. All those effects remain until the price controls are ended.” Every time price control was used anywhere, it ended very poorly.

If you had been a member of the General Court, how would the sermon Theopolis Americana have influenced your politics? The book Theopolis Americana was a sermon written by Cotton Mather. This book was an extended interpretation of the Bible verse Revelation 21:21, here is what it says: “The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.” According to Wikipedia, Cotton Mather was “a New England Puritan child prodigy, clergyman, theologian, and writer. Beginning his Harvard College undergraduate education at age twelve, he is the youngest person ever to be admitted there.”

Cotton Mather wrote this sermon to Massachusetts General Assembly (also known as the General Court). He was hoping that this sermon would persuade the General Court into changing how they viewed politics, how they change laws, and he was even hoping that he would change their way of thinking. His sermon was kind of messy and in some parts his ideas were way too extreme to be taken seriously (besides a few good points found in the sermon). The reason for this was that, like many other sermons in his day, he was trying to be general and vague. He tried to keep it civil because he could not afford to divide up the legislators by being more specific than need be. Many pastors may alienate a large amount of the congregation, and they may try to get him fired, or they might leave the church, reducing the income of the church, and this was something he could not afford.

Mather uses many criticisms in his sermon, like the free market. Many of his criticisms were heard of, or maybe even dealt with. Many of the criticisms include contract violations, commercial dishonesty, business corruption, and this includes the kidnapping of African slaves. He used Richard Baxter quotes to enforce his idea of how horrible it was to kidnap people from another country and force them to become slaves. And contract violations were already dealt with in England for centuries by the common law. Like I said, the General Court already knew of these criticisms, and probably just ignored him. He also describes his extreme dislike of alcohol and the excessive use of it. He explains that he is not against the use of alcohol, or that he encourages it, he does not do any of this. He just says that he does not like the excessive use of it, but he does not want to ban it, he never says this. However, he never gives an explanation for the excessive use of alcohol, and he did not tell the legislator what to do about it. He just simply states that he dislikes the excessive use of it, and expects the General Court to solve it themselves, depending on how they liked his sermon.

Honestly, if I were on the General Court, I would not have cared. The General Court was already aware of the things he criticized, and were doing what they could to stop it. He just told them things they did not already know.

According to Wikipedia, the benefit principle is “a concept in the theory of taxation from public finance. It bases taxes to pay for public-goods expenditures on a politically-revealed willingness to pay for benefits received. The principle is sometimes likened to the function of prices in allocating private goods.” The benefit principle was supposed to help the government decide what projects to take on, and who pays for it. But there are problems with the benefit principle. According to Hello Vaia, “Two main drawbacks of the benefit principle of taxation are: it’s often difficult to accurately determine the level of benefits each individual receives from public services, and it may exacerbate wealth inequality as lower income earners may pay a disproportionately higher amount for services compared to higher income earners.”

What was the Washington Monument Syndrome? According to Wikipedia, “The Washington Monument syndrome, also known as the Mount Rushmore syndrome or the firemen first principle, is a term used to describe the phenomenon of government agencies in the United States cutting the most visible or appreciated service provided by the government when faced with budget cuts.” Years ago, the Department of Interior was told it needs to make budget cuts, so they shut down the Washington Monument and did not allow access for tourists. They did this because they knew the public would scream for it to re-open. Now, their were some things that the Department of the Interior could have shut down besides the Washington Monument, but they purposefully chose the thing the public would scream the most for, so that the public would get the budget restored.

What are anti-poverty programs? These things include food assistance, housing assistance, family tax credits, etc. Anything that keeps millions of Americans for poverty each year. It also reduces hardships for other millions. These programs are just supposed to keep people out of poverty.

What are the primary problem facing a policymaker trying to design a program to benefit people in unfortunate circumstances? A policymaker is a person involved in formulating policies, especially in politics. According to standardfusion.com, here are some problems facing policymakers, “Inconsistent Document Creation and Editing, Poor Policy Maintenance, Lack of Accountability, Outdated Documents, Improper Policy Mapping.”

In what ways was Penn an advocate of middle class morality? According to Wikipedia, “William Penn was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonial era.” Penn is best known for being the founder of Pennsylvania, and for being one of the first ever champions of expressive freedoms in the American colonies. In fact, the name Pennsylvania is actually derived from “Penn’s Woods”. This term refers to William Penn’s father, Admiral Sir William Penn, a British naval officer. Founding Pennsylvania was actually Penn’s greatest accomplishment. He was also one of the most important people to influence religious freedom in the states. William Penn also wrote a book of aphorisms called “Fruits of Solitude”.

What is middle class morality? According to Wikipedia, “The term middle-class values is used by various writers and politicians to include such qualities as hard work, self-discipline, thrift, honesty, aspiration and ambition. Thus, people in lower or upper classes can also possess middle-class values, they are not exclusive to people who are actually middle-class.“

In what ways was Penn an advocate of middle class morality? In his book the “Fruits of Solitude”, he includes numerous aphorisms with several themes, such as ignorance, pride, luxury, truth, discipline, apparel, promising, knowledge, master, servant, respect, passion, patience, religion, and several others. Aphorisms are usually short and memorable, so you can easily remember them. They are also clever and must sound plausible to the reader. And they usually always have a moral lesson to them, however, in Penn’s “Fruits of Solitude”, this is unfortunately a rare occurrence. Some of his so-called aphorisms follow some or even none of these rules. It is rare when there is an aphorism that we find in his book that is a true aphorism. Penn’s evidence of living in a middle class morality is manifested through his book “Fruits of Solitude”. In this book, he makes it perfectly clear that he is fully content with taking “the middle path”. He encourages the reader to achieve satisfaction by taking “the middle path” for all goals in life. He gives examples around the themes I mentioned earlier. He tells us to chose to be in the middle between rich and poor, luxury and rags, things like that. He tells us these things so we want to choose the “middle path” so that we can have a healthy balance in life. In fact, one of the themes regarded in this book is ‘balance’.

He was a Quaker leader, so he took religion very seriously. Religion actually took up the longest section of this book. He recommends a lot of spiritual advice to his readers, which all ties into his spiritual outlook, which was majorly Protestant. He urged his readers not to ‘stuff’ themselves, which concerned all aspects of middle class Puritan life. He thought the middle road to be the safe road in life. This idea of middle class morality was constant throughout his observations. He truly believed the middle road to be the best and safest road to be on in life.

How can private-property rights help solve environmental problems? The kind of environmental problems in this essay are pollution, like air pollution, sound pollution, etc. Now, as you can probably tell, pollution is not a good thing. The title says “How can private-property rights help solve environmental problems?”, and here is how. According to World Health Organization, “Air pollution is contamination of the indoor or outdoor environment by any chemical, physical or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. Household combustion devices, motor vehicles, industrial facilities and forest fires are common sources of air pollution.” How can our right to private property reduce pollution? Since air pollution can travel anywhere, it can be in your yard, or other place that’s yours. Now, you have a right to your property, and this air pollution is a violation of your right to property, which is why air pollution needs to stop, but that is not the only reason air or other types of pollution need to stop. These problems can cause all types of other problems for the environment, and they all need to stop.

What have been some of the problems with the federal prohibition on certain drugs? Prohibition basically means that people can not manufacture or sell certain drugs. What were some of the problems with prohibition? According to DocsTeach, “Prohibition was enacted to protect individuals and families from the “scourge of drunkenness.” However, it had unintended consequences including: a rise in organized crime associated with the illegal production and sale of alcohol, an increase in smuggling, and a decline in tax revenue.” The attempt at this prohibition was an economic failure.

Do I have what it takes to become an entrepreneur? First, lets take a look at what an entrepreneur is. According to the dictionary, an entrepreneur is “a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.” Now we know what an entrepreneur is, but how do you become one? According to Wix, ten easy steps to becoming an entrepreneur, “Find a business idea. Get to know your target audience. Test your idea. Use a business plan template. Create a website. Hire great partner(s)Build your network. Plan your finances. Develop a strong brand. Create value in your market.” There are other methods to becoming an entrepreneur, but this is just one of them. To get started, all you need is a great idea, and the money to make happen (or maybe you do not need money at all, depending on the idea). Being an entrepreneur could make you a lot of money, and if your idea is really good, you could become rich. Being an entrepreneur would be a good idea if you know what to do. So, looking at different ways to become an entrepreneur, I think that I have what it takes to become an entrepreneur, and I have tons of good ideas. I just need to put them into motion. Remember, anyone can be an entrepreneur, anyone, even you. So if you have a good idea, and you have money, put your idea into motion.

Factors contributed to rising health-care costs in the United States. What are some of these factors? According to People Keep, nine reasons why healthcare is more expensive, “1. Medical providers are paid for quantity, not quality, 2. The U.S. population is becoming more unhealthy, 3. Newer healthcare technology is more expensive, 4. Many Americans don’t choose their own healthcare plan, 5. There’s a lack of information about medical care and its costs, 6. Hospitals and providers are well-positioned to demand higher prices, 7. Fear of malpractice lawsuits, 8. Inflation’s impact on the economy, 9. The U.S. population is growing older.” These are all plausible explanations for why healthcare is growing more expensive, and I totally agree with them.

“World War II was a time of great prosperity in the United States.” Is this true? Was World War II was a time of great prosperity in the United States? Yes and no. Let me show you what I mean.

During the war, there was an economic boom. According to The American Prospect, “During the war 17 million new civilian jobs were created, industrial productivity increased by 96 percent, and corporate profits after taxes doubled. The government expenditures helped bring about the business recovery that had eluded the New Deal.” So the War was good for the economy, but what about the people? With more products being spent on military equipment, there was less for the people to buy, and with people working for the military, there was less people to work at regular jobs. So the war may have been good for the economy, but not for the people.

In this essay, I will give the views of these three people, Cotton, Winthrop, and Rowlandson, regarding the Puritans’ errand in the wilderness. Lets look at them one at a time, shall we?

1) John Cotton: He wrote and was the well known speaker of the famous sermon “God’s Promise to His Plantation”. In this sermon he spoke to the Pilgrims who were leaving for America, and in this sermon he tells that the Pilgrims that going to America is God’s will. He also said that The land will be free fro settlement once the Pilgrims got there. He elaborates on the several many ways that God has lead the Pilgrims to starting their own colony. Cotton’s reason for leaving was mainly for better business opportunities for the Pilgrims, for the Pilgrims to plant their own colony, better employment, and to have the freedom to have their own form of worship and religion, different than what the Parliament was forcing them to follow back in Europe. He specifies numerous different Biblical passages and quotes them, as was done in Puritanism. This leaving England and going to a different country is just like what happened in the Bible, when the Israelite’s departed for Canaan, leaving a country where they were not allowed to freely worship, to move to a different country so that they could worship, just like the Israelite’s.

2) John Winthrop: He was another great influential figure of this movement. Winthrop actually served as governor of the colony for some time. He also wrote a speech for the departing Pilgrims. He too, wrote in several Biblical passages into his speech. His account is set up in an odd kind of question and answer format. In this ‘different’ account, he tells of the struggles of not knowing what to look forward to in this place where they were setting up this new colony. His hope was that the Puritans would work together to build a strong working body, but it did not turn out as hoped. Many Puritans disobeyed laws and grew further from the reason they even set foot in America in the first place. This is also just like the Israelite’s departure for the land of Canaan.

3) Mary Rowlandson: A minister’s wife, would have been expected to be devout, submissive to her husband, quiet, and even hard working, just like any other wife during that time. In this colony, feminism could destroy the patriarchy, and were not allowed to make other women to differentiate from the group, but she wrote an account of Indian captivity from her own personal experience. While she was in captivity, she experienced the harshness of the wilderness. She was dragged around by her Indian masters and was forced to live in extreme hunger. However, she kept returning to her belief that God had kept her alive and was sustaining her, and that it was Him that caused her to be rescued, and that He caused her to be brought through the trial of Indian captivity to bring her closer to Him.

What has been the most significant contributing factor to the abolition of child labor? First, this topic refers to child labor in the 1800s, not today, in case you were confused. According to History Channel, “Through the first half of the 1800s, child labor was an essential part of the agricultural and handicraft economy of the United States. Children worked on family farms and as indentured servants for others. To learn a trade, boys often began their apprenticeships between the ages of ten and fourteen.” In the 1800s, child labor was not a bad thing. Children worked at factories  or farms or other places in order to earn money to help their family, because some families in the 1800s were not earning enough, so children had to work to earn extra money for the family. So what led to the abolition of child labor? According to History Channel, “Nineteenth century reformers and labor organizers sought to restrict child labor and improve working conditions to uplift the masses, but it took the Great Depression—a time when Americans were desperate for employment—to shake long-held practices of child labor in the United States.“

What is the problem that Ludwig von Mises identified that a socialist economic planning board faces? According to Wikipedia, “Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian–American Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberalism and the power of consumers.” According to Wiley Online Library, “In 1920, Ludwig von Mises claimed that rational economic calculation could not occur in a complex, socialist economy. He argued that an economic system that lacked private property rights in capital goods prevented the emergence of prices based on relative scarcities.” In his mind, the socialist experiment, he thought could only lead to dictatorship and chaos.