This reneging of a fundamental right to practice religion as an individual saw fit, resulted in increased control without representation for the average citizen. Only a few decades earlier, Americans had fought and died for the principle centering on someone having control over the country, without the country having any say in the matter whatsoever. The Second Great Awakening was very much the same. This religious tyranny insisted that citizens worship in the way they felt was appropriate and the average citizen had no input. All of this was in addition to a general sense of hypocrisy of the movement.

Preachers during the Second Great Awakening gave sermons against a market society. Wealth and greed were selfish,...

Yet, it was this same wealth and greed that funded their evangelical tours and allowed them to travel the country and host month-long revivals. In their continuing hypocrisy, they preached free will and the ability to choose their own destiny -- choosing righteousness over sin. However, this free will oddly didn't include the choice of how one could choose a moral life.
I look at the Second Great Awakening as a step backwards for America. The young country took two of its founding principles and through them out the back door for a promise of salvation from little more than sideshow charlatans. It was a time of intolerance and hypocrisy that I hope we have learned from, but fear we have not.