okay, you keep mentioning whitfield. i wonder if you could tell us just a little bit more about him. why is he important to your story? yeah, george whitefield. he's a a famous figure in the history of frankly global level evangelicalism one of its founding lights. so he's an english field preacher. he studies at oxford university in the 1730s. he's a contemporary of the wesley brothers the founders of english methodism, and he's a dramatic orator and theatrical performer and during the late during the late 1730s. he embarks on the first of many transatlantic preaching tours. so in 1739, he preaches his way all the way from, south carolina to york, maine and electrifice. his audience is everywhere. he goes whitfield preaches in a kind of a folksy style. he uses all sorts of oratorical techniques derive from the theater to connect with us audiences and he preaches powerful message a message of instantaneous conversion people that heard whitfield preach suddenly realized that the ways they have been kind of participating i

but whitfield was constantly talking to him. and i just wonder what their private conversations in a were unrecorded -- i wish i could have been there for those conversations. franklin and his sister had conversations like that. there was one time where franklin, after he had kind of made it big in publishing, went back to boston from philadelphia to visit his family. and it's clear that his sister and he fought. this is one of the struggles that you have writing a biography of almost any kind of 18th century figure like this. almost all the letters that she wrote to ben franklin are lost because some person in the past thought oh, who cares of this 18th century woman, let's just throw this in the trash. this priceless stuff. it breaks your heart, really. it makes you think of a phone conversation where you hear only the one side. but ben writes back to her later and in a sense says i am sorry we fought. and he sends her a cloth as a government or something like that to say i am sorry, i was harsh towards you. but it is clearly

and so whitfield's saying i need you to take care of this publication and so forth. by the way, i have noticed how much success you've had in electrical experiments and you've made so much progress in understanding the mysteries of electricity, he said to him. now i am implore you to consider the mysteries of the new birth in christ. and you can just imagine franklin kind of rolling his eyes and so forth, but whitfield was constantly talking to him, and i just wonder what their, you know, private conversations that were unrecorded. i wish i could have been there for some of those conversations. franklin and his sister jean m eacom had conversations like that. there was a time after franklin made it applying big in publishing went back to boston from philadelphia to visit his family, and it's clear that jane meacom and ben franklin fought, and this is one of the struggles that you have writing a biography of almost any kind of 18th century figure like this, almost all the letters that jane meacom wrote to ben franklin are lost because some person in the past thought,

whitfield is a methodist. you may know the name john wesley who becomes sort of the founding father of methodist in. these are almost always in britain, but wesley's missionaries and pastors start becoming active in the first great awakening and especially after the american revolution, the methodist go out on the frontier and establish, eventually, thousands of new churches so that by the time of the civil war the methodists have gone from being nonexistent in the beginning of the great awakening to by the time of the civil war they're the largest protestant denomination in america. so the congregation lists the, church of england, anglican church, what comes to be known as the episcopal church, they are kind of left behind in in terms of numbers. and the baptist and methodists come to the four. obviously, for baylor, that is a significant baptist. get as far out of central texas by 18 forties and establishing not only churches but in college, baylor. okay? so that's pretty important to us. the revivals, as y

i've written a book on whitfield. i have this sense that i still don't quite get it, because i don't have my youtube clip. edwards' brilliance is captured on the printed page. you didn't have to be there for edwards. it's his ideas. they're captured on the page. so the first great awakening is obviously this renewal of religious fervor. to people who are not into this sort of thing, people who are not christian, not religious, not devout themselves, it may seem like, this is this quaint thing that happened in the 1730s and '40s, worth knowing about but maybe not that interesting to people on the outside. but i would say that the great awakening is also significant because of the controversy, culturally that it creates. it's disruptive in colonial society. it's the biggest upheaval in the british colonies before the american revolution, happening 30 years before the american revolution. it's the biggest social upheaval in the colonies before the american revolution. even from a secular perspective, this is a big deal.

so, i think the best example is george whitfield, who i mentioned a minute ago, whitfield and franklin were friends and business associates for 30 years. they had a very transparent relationship about understanding that they were not on the same page spiritually, and whitfield thought franklin needed to do something about that. so, field just pulls no punches and say, you need to put your faith increase for salvation. franklin would say, i am all set. they even have these conversations, my favorite is in the 17 fifties, whitfield wrote a letter to franklin, again, they are business partners. whitfield said i need to take care of this publication and so forth. now, by the way, i don't -- i noticed how much success you have in electrical experiments, you made so much progress in understanding the mitch -- mysteries of electricity, he said to him. now i implore you to considering the mysteries of the new birth increase. you can imagine franklin rolling his eyes. . whitfield was constantly talking to him, and i wonder what they're private conversations that were all recorded, i wish i coul

she at the time for sure is george whitfield. i know the way it's spelled it looks like it would be whitefield but on good authority i'm told it's whitfield. he is by far the most famous. she of the 1740s. and it's even more than that. he is the most famous person in britain and america of his time per the only competitor that he has his king george and maybe more people know king george's name but a lot more people have seen whitfield and person his journals his sermons. we think that probably by the end of his career, he died in 1770 that three-quarters of everybody that lived in america had heard him preach. he is a bigger celebrity in his time than anybody we have in our culture today. in our culture we live in the celebrity driven culture and we know that but we are disbursed, right? d some people like justin bieber and some people don't like justin bieber. you know what i'm saying. even if you are a critic. he is arguably the first modern celebrity. i didn't say religious celebrity i said the first modern celebrity. when he

he would have more success in time convincing his sister than convincing george whitfield. um, when he ran away from boston as a teenager. when he ran away to boston -- from boston to philadelphia, he also ran away from boston's calvinism. but many factors. his puritan tether. the pressure of relationships with christian friends and family. disappointments with his own integrity. repeated illnesses. and the growing weight of political responsibility. all kept him from going too deep into the dark woods of radical skepticism. franklin explored a number of religious opinions. even at the end of his life, as we will see, he remained noncommittal about all but a few points of belief. this elusiveness has made franklin susceptible to many religious interpretations. some devout christians, beginning with the celebrated 19th-century biographer, parson mason weems, have found ways to mold franklin into a faithful believer. weems opined that, quote, franklin's extraordinary benevolence and useful life were -- even unconsciously from the gospel. and there's something to this notion o

he would have more success in time convincing his sister than convincing george whitfield. when he ran away from boston as a teenager, when he ran away from boston to philadelphia, he also ran away from boston's calvanism and the tether with christian friends and families and disappointments with his own integrity and repeated illnesses and the growing weight of political responsibility all kept him from going too deep into the dark woods of radical skepticism. franklin explored a number of religious opinions, even at the end of his life as we will see he remained non-committal with beliefs. this elusiveness has made franklin susceptible to many religious interpretations. some devout christians, beginning with the celebrated are 19th century biographer have found ways to mold franklin into a faithful believer. weems opined that "franklin's extraordinary benevolence and useful life were imbibed even unconsciously from the gospel," and there's something to this notion of christianity's unconscious effect on franklin, but weems had to employ indirection here because of frankli

george whitfield is number one on the list. they're brilliant preachers who travel around, and they become famous at least regionally if not internationally, whitfield becomes famous internationally, having a reputation of being this brilliant preacher. and you can't wait for them to get there, and it's new, it's exciting, and they have a laser focus, these itinerants do, on the message that you need to accept christ's free offer of salvation and that you need to be born again. born again. if you'll remember, jesus talks about the born again experience in the gospel of john chapter three in order to see the kingdom of god, you must be born again. so they're not inventing this kind of experience out of nowhere. it's a longtime biblical message, but people in the past maybe have had different understandings of what born again meant. people in the first great aa wakening are real -- awakening are real clear. what you need is that as an adult or at least, say, a teenager, you need to understand for yourself that you're a sinner, th

also sermons presented by george whitfield. george whitfield was very controversial in his style of preaching, so many times he wasn't allowed or invited to preach in churches. he had this field pulpit, he would set it up and start preaching. >> it is undeniably certain, we must receive the holy ghost, err we can't be styled true member of christ's mystical body. >> so we enter to this particular era in the museum, you're going to see a lot of interesting technology that we're using and helps us tell the story, some drama that we created, but in a very different way, and many people would expect it to be done, and we brought in some symbolic items again like replica of the liberty bell. this came from the same foundry that did the one in philadelphia. and some would say well, i mean, why have this one, the one in philadelphia is there. but we have so many foreign visitors and people, americans who will never go to philadelphia and they want to see what that was all about. it also as the text says here, inscription from book of

the key elements of this populist theology including five factors, first, george whitfield's concept of conversion is debatable, full bodied and above eight experience with the dissent and physical implantation of god's holy spirit, which was secondly fascination with various charisma attic the holy spirit and continuous revelation and superseded what is contained in the bible. thirdly the desire among many revival convents to be married saints can testify to a similar experience with the holy spirit. and fourthly, marriage to an internal union of souls ordained by god, dependent on social practices in human authorities. and alas, for some, the sense their souls at least not their bodies, perfect without sin and morally corruptible. leaders of the separate movement quickly recognize internal marriage or represented accounting heresy. it's a logical extension of many of the practices they previously nurtured and sought to institutionalize among their breakaway churches. as you can see from this map ideas about internal marriage were spreading rapidly throughout southern new england du

also, sermons that were presented by george whitfield. george whitfield was very controversial, in this style of preaching. and so, many times he was not allowed or invited to preach in the churches. he had this field pulpit if you will and he would set it up and he would start preaching. >> it is undeniably certain that we must receive the holy ghost so we can be true members of christ in his mystical body. >> so, we entered at this particular era in the museum. they're gonna see a lot of interesting technology that we used and it helps us tell the story. there's some drama that we created. . but in a very different way. many people would expect it to be done and we brought in some symbolic items again, like the replica of the liberty bell. this came from the same foundry that did the one in philadelphia. and some would say, well, i mean i have this one in philadelphia that's there but we have so many foreign visitors. and people, americans who will never go to philadelphia -- they want to see what that is all about. it also has as the t

so i want to get a shot out here to join who has a biography on spiritual biography of george whitfield that came out that looked at in real close detail at how we understand whitfield's relationship toempire . it's a biography so it's the whole story but he really gets into the question of how we see whitfield's relationship to the empire and understanding why whitfieldwas committed to the british empire . he was. he dies before the revolution so there are americans who claim him as a spiritual founding father. i personally have a hard time thinking he ever would have supported the revolution because he's nearing the end of his life he wants to found this college in georgia and the archbishop of canterbury says no and he tried to draw as much attention to it as he can but he does ultimately put his oath he took when he was ordained and his position in the church of england i had ofthe protest . >> my reading pile just grew a little bit more so i'll check out that book. last question here in the time we have. what is the most surprising thing you learned in your research ? >> i'm not su

on good authority i'm told it was pronounced whitfield. he is by far the most famous preacher of the 1740s. and it is even more than that. he is the most famous person in britain in america in his time. the only m competitor that he h is king george. and maybe more people knoww kin george's name. a lot more people have seen whitefield in person, have read his stuff, his journals, his sermons. we think by thedy end of his career, he dies in 1770. that probably like three quarters of everybody who lived in america heard him preach. he is a bigger celebrity in his time than anybody we have in our culture today. because in our culture, we live in a celebrity-driven culture. that.now but we're dispersed. right? some people like justin bieber. some people don't like justin biebeler. i won't do a poll but you know what i'm saying. everybody knows whitefield. even if you're a critic, you've had to sort of deal with whitefield. he is arguably the first modern celebrity. i did not say religious celebrity. i said first modern celebrity. whene he show

i'm fredericka whitfield. breaking news. haitian officials say at least 29 people are dead after a major earthquake hit the island this morning. the epicenter was far enough from the capital city of port-au-prince that the country may avoid the kind of devastation that we saw from an earthquake that hit the area in 2010, but the nation still feeling aftershocks now and the damage is significant. this is new video. just into cnn that shows the extent of some of the damage. you can see part of the building there, reduced to rubble. haiti's prime minister declaring a month long state of emergency. this disaster coming as two named storms are baring down in the area. patrick oppmann is with us now from havana. are we learning anything more about the damage and lives impacted? >> reporter: absolutely. it will probably take hours if not days to really get a better idea of the scope, the magnitude of this disaster. areas that have been hit by the earthquake are simply not accessible from the capital of port-au-prince that would mak

thank you for joining me, i'm fredricka whitfield. we begin with this breaking news this hour as hurricane henri gathers strength and takes aim at the northeast. more than 40 million people could be impacted, henri became a hurricane just last hour and could be as strong by the time it makes landfall which is expected on long island, new york. cities are preparing for massive storm surge, flash flooding and strong winds into next week. alisyn chinchar is tracking this storm for us. what more do we know about the potential impact? >> there's a lot of impacts to go around. let's begin with the basics, sustained winds are 75 miles per ho h hour, gusting up to 90 miles per hour. and the guard movement now at 14 miles per hour. the track is expected to curve back towards the west, that's why we anticipate the landfall to be likely over long island, timing best chance looks at lunchtime sunday. it pushes up and then goes back out over the open water but we're still likely to have significant impacts. not just where the storm is going to mak

i'm fredricka whitfield. we begin with breaking news. a major earthquake has hit haiti today, and officials warn the casualties will likely be high and the disaster is widespread. haitian officials say there are fatalities from this 7.2 magnitude quake already, but at this point we don't know how many. and you can see some of the damage in these images that we're just receiving, collapsed buildings, huge piles of rubble. the island nation was already in a state of chaos following the assassination of its president last month and now this, an earthquake of a similar magnitude which devastated the country in 2010, killing hundreds of thousands of

i'm fredricka whitfield. we begin with breaking news. a major earthquake has hit haiti today, and officials warn the casualties will likely be high and the disaster is widespread. haitian officials say there are fatalities from this 7.2 magnitude quake already, but at this point we don't know how many. and you can see some of the damage in these images that we're just receiving, collapsed buildings, huge piles of rubble. the island nation was already in a state of chaos following the assassination of its president last month and now this, an earthquake of a similar magnitude which devastated the country in 2010, killing hundreds of thousands of people then. patrick oppman is joining us from havana, cuba. patrick, what more are you hearing about the impact, what happened and the calamity? >> reporter: well, we're starting to hear from survivors of this earthquake, talking about buildings crashing down around them, people having to run for their lives. and of course the initial reports of fatalities. it will probably take days or longer to

i'm fredicka whitfield in atlanta along with chris cuomo on long island. this is coverage of tropical storm henri. parts of the east coast are already feeling the impacts of this extremely dangerous storm. imminent landfall is expected in rhode island. you're looking at a live picture from newport. 40 million people are in the storm's path. tropical storm warnings in effect from long island to cape cod. chris. >> fred, thank you very much. i'll tell you more about what's happening. the story in new york is a light story. we have one part of the storm cell is stalling over new york city right now. that increases the chance of flooding. we mow the story from last night, a lot of rainfall in areas that weren't expecting it, three, four, five, six inches. the main area for us will be in about an hour. that's when henri will make landfall. about 100,000 people without power, only 2,000 in new york. the bulk in rhode island as fred was referring to. about 65, 66,000. that's going to increase. connecticut, about 12, 15,000, that's going to likely increase. we'll

i'm fredicka whitfield. we're following breaking news out of afghanistan. what you're seeing now, u.s. helicopters over kabul shuttling out american personnel as the taliban moves into the capital. with us, jeremy diamond at the white house and kylie atwood at the state department. we're learning the u.s. embassy is fully evacuated. is that the case? >> all the u.s. diplomats that were at the embassy have now left, they've evacuated. they've been taken to the airport in kabul. the only folks still at that embassy, there's a small number of security contractors i'm told, but they're going to leave soon. in addition to that, in the most recent hours, the u.s., the american flag was taken down at the embassy. that is something they do as a final step in evacuating an embassy. we've also seen in recent days that preparations were under way for this inevitability. there were documents that were burned, classified documents. they were also getting rid of anything that could be used as anti-american propaganda, such as american flags or anything that had a seal of

i'm fredicka whitfield in atlant

thank you so much for joining me, i am fredricka whitfield. following breaking news out of haiti where authorities are responding to a major earthquake this morning. officials say there could be significant casualties, serious damage. the haitian prime minister sending condolences to those that lost loved ones in the 7.2 magnitude quake. at this point, we don't know how many people may have been killed. this video showing the extent of the damage in some areas, buildings reduced to rubble. the disaster couldn't come at a worse time. they had the assassination of the president last month and storms in the region. patrick oppmann and allison chinchar. patrick, what are you hearing about the impact? >> reporter: any numbers we get at this moment are preliminary. officials haven't been able to go into effected areas to remove injured and dead from the rubble. seeing images of people treated in the open area because there's concern of aftershocks. there are reports of aftershocks, buildings damaged by the initial quake could come tumbling down. thi

thank you so much for joining me, i am fredricka whitfield. we are following breaking news. a major earthquake hits haiti this morning. officials say there could be high casualties, widespread damage. haitian officials are confirming fatalities from the 7.2 magnitude quake but at this point we don't know the exact death toll. this video just into cnn shows some of the damage on the island there, buildings collapsed into rubble, streets covered in debris. the prime minister is headed to some of the hardest-hit areas now. this could be a massive test for the new leader that took office after the shocking assassination of the president last month. joining us, patrick ottman, an and allison chinchar. what are you hearing about the impact of the outbreak? >> reporter: as each hour passes by, we see new harrowing images, new accounts of dead pulled from rubble, seeing images of people being treated in the open air because there's still aftershocks and many buildings collapsed in the earthquake. the prime minister said not only is he going to be traveling to the effected zone, the

so the same stuff that you might have heard of, billy graham, or billy sunday, or from george whitfield in the 18th century, richard allen, all of those are coming out of the same source of material, they're using the bible, they're evangelical in the protestant sense, and, of course, they are showmen, all religious leaders have to be showmen. and i don't mean that insultingly. i mean, if you save the mass, you have to be a performer. if you're a rabbi, people want you to be an excellent orator, they don't want to be bored. so there's all of this performance that goes along with this. so african-americans, though, are in this oppressive situation of slavery, and then post-slavery, building institutions so that people can live. so by politics, i mean how black religious leaders engage in state locally, regionally or nationally pertaining to laws and reported social inequities. this was taking place in harlem, a funeral service for jim crow, that took place on the street. so the social inequities, jim crow, racial apartheid, voting economic disparities. black ministers, in a way, differen

you can see here on the screen we have an image of george whitfield who is the most famous preacher of the great awakening preaching in london there in the 1730s, 1740s. he is the sensation of the age, but we'll talk more about him when we get there. first, i want to take a look at the background to what's happening in 18th century america with regard to religion. we've talked about some of this already before in class about the scope of religion and religious commitment across the colonies. if you look first at the southern colonies from maryland down to georgia, mostly what we have is a formal commitment to the church of england. and the church of england, of course, is the national official church of england, of britain, and most of those colonies adopt what we would call a kind of formal establishment of the church of england. but the southern colonies overall are probably the least religious of all the colonial regions which, if you think about that for a second, you'll see why that's a little weird. we think of the southed today as the bible belt, correctly. but in the colonial p

i'm fredicka whitfield in atlanta along with my colleague, chris cuomo on long island. this is cnn's special live coverage of tropical storm henri. we begin with breaking news. henri has made landfall in rhode island. take a live look at live pictures of newport where henri is thrashing the coast. the storm turning slowly, prolonging its potentially dangerous impact. you can see wind is kicking up in some parts. sometimes it doesn't look like much, but the waves are churning up and beginning to grow. our chris cuomo is on long island for us. chris. >> reporter: fred, good to be working for you today. we're in east hampton on the southern shore of long island right off new york. we're here because this was the fear of concern path early on, a beach front community, reminiscent of super storm sandy. did not happen, not going to happen. that was a hurricane that bounced off new jersey and then came here. new york will not be directly impacted by this. there will be flooding. we do have some power outages. now it's about time, this storm. as fred was laying out to you, ther

i am in this weekend for fredricka whitfield. thanks for joining me. >>> it is impossible to ignore sobering new numbers in the coronavirus surge across the u.s. the u.s. is averaging more than 100,000 new cases per day. that's the worst it has been since february. with that surge also comes more hospitalizations, more deaths. those hospitalizations occurring now in younger and younger people. the surge fueled by the new variant and hospitals are inundated. doctors are pleading with people to take precautions now. >> the numbers of cases in our hospitals, in children and children's hospitals are completely overwhelmed. local hospital here here has 116% occupancy for covid. that's mind boggling. our pediatricians, nursing, staff are exhausted and the children are suffering. natasha, what's the situation you're seeing on the ground. >> it is serious with florida hospitalizations exceeding 12,000 people in hospitals for covid. beds are being used up, hospitals are overwhelmed, including children's hospitals. the good news is we are

i am in this weekend for fredricka whitfield. thanks for joining me. >>> it is impossible to ignore sobering new numbers in the coronavirus surge across the u.s. the u.s. is averaging more than 100,000 new cases per day. that's the worst it has been since february. with that surge also comes more hospitalizations, more deaths. those hospitalizations occurring now in younger and younger people. the surge fueled by the new variant and hospitals are inundated. doctors are pleading with people to take precautions now. >> the numbers of cases in our hospitals, in children and children's hospitals are completely overwhelmed. local hospital here here has

so the same stuff that you might have heard of billy graham or billy sunday or from george whitfield in the 18th century down, richard allen, all of those are coming out of the same source material. they're using the bible. they're evangelical in the protestant sense. and, of course, the -- they are showmen. all religious leaders have to be showmen. i don't mean that insultingly, i mean that if you say the mass you have to be a performer. if you're a rabbi, people want you to be an excellent orator, they don't want to be bored when you give expression. so in some ways there's all of this performance that goes with this. and so african-americans, though, are in this oppressive situation of slavery and then post-slavery building institutions so that people can live. so by politics -- i mean, how black religious leaders engage the state locally, regionally or nationally pertaining to laws and publicly supported social inequities. i love this. this was taking place in harlem. "here lies jim crow" a funeral service for jim crow that took place on the street. you know, so the social inequi

i'm phil mattingly in washington in for fredricka whitfield. right now, the covid pandemic is surging in the u.s. and shows no signs of slowing down. to know how bad it is, all you have to do is look at the numbers. the average number of daily cases has increased nine fold since july, the delta variant fuelling this rise in cases and overwhelming hospitals in many states. hospital even more troubling is how this variant is affecting children. childhood and teen cases have jumped 84% in the past week. despite those numbers, only half of the country is vaccinated. health officials say the drive is because of the unvaccinated which make up most of the hospitalizations and deaths we're seeing now. >> we would not be in the place we are in right now with this delta surge if we had been more effective in getting everybody to take advantage of these imnaikss. >> state after state, governor after governor, is trying to slow that trend. in kentucky, the seven-day average of new cases is around 1800. the worst it's been in six months. less than half of t

i'm fredricka whitfield. the "cuomo prnn newsroom" conti right now with jim acosta. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> you are live in the "cnn newsroom." i'm jim acosta. the afghan people will be waking up to the new reality of a country completely controlled by the taliban. this is video just aired live on al jazeera of taliban fighters inside the presidential palace in kabul. just hours before that, u.s. personnel took down the american flag at the u.s. embassy in kabul. the last step before they were fully evacuated with u.s. military choppers dotting the skies and reports of gunfire breaking out at the airport. there are still americans in-country, and they have been advised to shelter in place. meanwhile, america's afghan partners were scrambling to get out onto the last evacuation flights. you're seeing the desperate rush in this video that was posted on social media. those are the lucky few who will get out. thousands of other afghans who worked alongside the u.s. are still awaiting visas, f

. >>> i'm phil hatmattingly in washington in for fredricka whitfield. let's start with breaking news this hour. devastating new numbers in the coronavirus surge that's happening across the u.s. for the first time since february. the u.s. is averaging more than 100,000 new cases per day. hospitalizations and deaths are also on the rise across the country. now, the uptick almost exclusively among the unvaccinated. however, on the vaccination front, some progress.

i'm fredicka whitfield. we begin with breaking news on the collapse of the afghan government. taliban forces moving into the capital city of kabul as the president of afghanistan flees the country. the u.s. embassy is being evacuated, choppers taking personnel to the airport. the american flag on the embassy building just lowered.

i'm fredricka whitfield. taliban fighters are taking over the capitol city of kabul and the presidential palace. an eerie quiet as the u.s. embassy there is closed for business. it has now been evacuated. the american flag on the building intentionally taken down by american direction this morning. hours earlier you could see smoke rising from the building as embassy staff destroyed important documents. >>> choppers have been seen shuttling americans to the kabul airport for flights out. sources also tell cnn that afghanistan's president has now fled the country. thousands of other afghans are also seeking refuge and long lines of people at the banks at atms this morning trying to withdraw cash as the taliban closed in on the capitol city. meanwhile, would he have yet to hear from president biden today. this morning his secretary of state defended the president's time line on the u.s. troop withdrawal. >> when the president came to office, he had a decision to make. the previous administration negotiated an a

the great preacher george whitfield was the spearhead for the great awakening. it spread across the country. it started further north. it got to the central virginia. virginia, in the 1770s, was an anglican colony. the official established church was an anglican church. and all of a sudden these baptist ministers started seeping into virginia and drawing people away from the anglican parishes. and they were not happy about that. and they had english law at the time to enforce. and you couldn't just go out and preach. you had to be licensed by anglican state authorities. well, it happened that one of the largest revivals and meetings happened near the town of orange, virginia, custom is where james madison lived. and so james madison knew about what was happenhappening, and s the people that he knew were at the time in jail in culpepper, which is just right up the road. so he had a first-hand knowledge of the harassment of these baptist clergy and their followers. he was only in his early 20s at the time. and he had begun to get interested in politics, as his fat

>>> i'm phil hatmattingly in washington in for fredricka whitfield. let's start with breaking news this hour. devastating new numbers in the coronavirus surge that's happening across the u.s. for the first time since february. the u.s. is averaging more than 100,000 new cases per day. hospitalizations and deaths are also on the rise across the country. now, the uptick almost exclusively among the unvaccinated. however, on the vaccination front, some progress. the u.s. now hitting a major milestone. the cdc says over 50% of the population is now fully vaccinated. this is important. vaccinations in states hardest hit by the delta variant have been rising in recent days. but that has not been able to slow the deluge of patients pushing hospitals to capacity. there is new word that booster shots for the immunocompromised may be recommended, an administration official tells cnn. the fda could come to that decision in just the next few weeks. we want to begin in florida, where new cases are breaking state records. cnn's natasha chen is in orlando this morni

seen fireworks near whitfield corden lasalle avenue, when gunfire broke out, the first person arrested in this case, 18 year old james harbor of san francisco, was taken into custody in january. oakland police chief laurent armstrong says the city's crime rate keeps him up at night. the chief recently spoke about his first six months on the job, police say right now there have been 78 homicides in oakland this year compared to 54 at the same time last year. the chief says he's asking every officer even those normally assigned to desk jobs, too. patrol the streets for a few hours each day, the department confiscates at least 100 guns every month. even so, gun crime and robbery rates are up this year. i'm alarmed at the things that we've seen in chinatown. the videos that i watch when good samaritans are attempting to step up and they're being shot. it really says that there is a need for greater presence and stronger levels of accountability in the city of oakland, and that's what i'm seeking to do. chief armstrong says one of his main challenges remains a shortage of officers, he says

the great preacher george whitfield was the spearhead for this awakening. and the great awakening spread all through the country, kind of but to bring an inner conversion of people. when it finally -- it started further north, it got to central virginia, virginia, and the 17 seventies, was an act lincoln colony. the official established church was the anglican church and all of a sudden these baptist ministers started seeping into virginia and drawing people away from the anglican parishes. and they were not happy about that. and they had english law, at the time, to enforce. and you could not just go out and preach. you had to be licensed by anglican state authorities. it happened that one of the largest revivals and meetings happened near the town of orange, virginia. the which is where james madison lived. so james madison knew about what was happening and some of the people he knew at the time where in jail in cult pepper, which is right up the road. so he had a firsthand knowledge of the harassment of these baptist clergy and their followers. he was on

awakening was a powerful period of religious renewal in the united states, the great preacher, george whitfield was the spearhead for this awakening, and the great awakening spread all through the country, kind of to bring an inner conversion of people, and when it finally -- it started further north, it got to central virginia, virginia in the 1770s was an anglican colony. the official was the anglican church, and all of a sudden these baptist ministers started seeping into virginia and drawing people away from the anglican parishes, and they were not happy about that, and they had english law at the time to enforce, and you couldn't just go out and preach. you had to be licensed by anglican state authorities. well, it happened that one of the largest revivals and meetings happened near the town of orange, virginia, which is where james madison lived, and so james madison knew about what was happening and some of the people that he knew were at the time in jail in culpepper, which is just right up the road, so he had a firsthand knowledge of the harassment of these baptist clergy and their fol

arrested today for the killing of jay's young young was with a group of people watching fireworks near whitfield court and lasalle avenue when gunfire broke out the first suspect, 18 year old james harbor of san francisco, was arrested in january. an update now on a terrifying hit and run in the oakland hills over the weekend, a driver who was caught on surveillance video hitting in oakland man and then narrowly missing his pregnant girlfriend has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, oakland boys say 19 year old daniel ethan juan came speeding at the man and his girlfriend. after the couple yelled at him to slow down, the couple, says one, then threatened to kill them want is expected in court tomorrow on the charge. okay we talked about that air quality alert for tomorrow. we might see one again on friday. we'll look at the air quality right now. these are live sensors around the area around northern california and you can see where the smoke is right by those yellow areas representing kind of moderate and then the real bad smoke is up in the when you see the reds. and the oranges. n

he would have more success convincing his sister then convincing george whitfield. when he ran away from boston as a teenager, when he ran away from boston to philadelphia, he also ran away from boston's calvinism. but many factors, his puritan tether, the pressure of relationships with christian friends and family, disappointment with his own integrity, repeated illnesses, and the growing weight of political responsibility all kept him from going to deep into the dark woods of radical skepticism. franklin explored a number of religious opinions. even at the end of his life, as we will see, he remained noncommittal about all but a few points of belief. this elusiveness has made franklin susceptible to many religious interpretations. some devout christians, beginning with a celebrated 19th century biographer, person nascent weems found ways to mold franklin into a faithful believer. weems opined, quote, franklin's extraordinary benevolence and useful life was in bind even unconsciously from the gospel. there is something to this notion of christiana tees unconscious