From Destructiontionist to Restorationist:
The Religious Evolution of Rev. Adin Ballou
Adin Ballou was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island in 1803. He was a descendant of Maturin Ballou, a Huguenot who was with Roger Williams at the time of the founding of Rhode Island.
Adin went to school about three months a year until he was fifteen and then went to Dean Academy in Franklin for a few months.
In 1813, during a period referred to as the Second Great Awakening, Ballou's parents joined a newly organized faith called the Christian Connexion. (The Spann book uses this spelling. I've seen it elsewhere as "Connection.") A common argument of the time involved the fate of sinners. Many rejected the idea of Hell, and questioned why God would create billions of souls, while knowing that many (most?) of them were to suffer eternal punishment. Some felt that all would be saved while members of the Christian Connexion thought that, rather than being punished, the souls of the sinners would be destroyed. This view became known as "Destructionism."
At the age of seventeen, engaged to Abby Sayles and with no particular career in mind, Ballou began giving some thought to the ministry but was evidently not totally sold on the idea. One night, however, he had a vision of his dead brother, Cyrus, saying, "God commands you to preach the Gospel of Christ to your fellow man." Soon after, he preached a sermon at the local meeting-house where his father was a deacon, and shortly later he became its minister.
Several years went by and Ballou became the defender of the local Destructionists. As he debated the merits of the idea with the Universalists, he eventually became convinced that he was wrong and they were right. This, of course, led to his dismissal by the Christian Connexion congregation. Ballou joined the Universalists and spent a brief but somewhat lively period as a once a month preacher in Bellingham.
In 1823, at the age of twenty, he became the Universalist minister in Milford. While he didn't believe in eternal damnation, neither did he believe that the souls of the sinners were to be let off easy. He felt there would be a time of punishment for those who deserved it, followed by salvation.
While in Milford, three weeks after the birth of their second child, Abby died. A year later Ballou married Lucy Hunt.
Most Universalists of the time believed in universal salvation without punishment but as time went on, Ballou became more vocal in his opinion that sinners would be punished before being restored to their rightful place in Heaven. Those who held this view were referred to as Restorationists. In 1830, Ballou began publishing The Independent Messenger, a Restorationist weekly newspaper. Within a month, he was fired from the Milford church.
Before long, Ballou's Restorationism as well as his other liberal religious beliefs led to his appointment as minister of the First Congregational (Unitarian) Church in Mendon. He remained there until his move to Hopedale in 1842. During his time in Mendon in the 1830s, Ballou gradually increased his interest in the various causes of the era. These included opposition to smoking (after a successful struggle to give it up himself) and alcohol, promotion of moral reform, women's rights, non-resistance, Practical Christian socialism and, above all, abolitionism. In 1841, these ideals became the basis for the formation of the Hopedale Community.
In The History of the Hopedale Community, writing of the year 1867, Ballou states, "The end of the Community was now at hand. That consummation was hastened by the formation of what was called The Hopedale Parish; a name which the organization still bears. The reason for this new movement can be briefly stated and easily apprehended. With the advance of time the disproportion between the number of Community members resident at Hopedale and non-members had so greatly increased that the latter were largely in the majority. And yet they had no voice whatever in the management of matters pertaining to the activities and institutions of religion, in which they took more or less an interest, and for the maintenance of which they were year by year asked to contribute. There was an inequality in this which arrested attention -- a wrong which the common moral judgement recognized and affirmed ought to be righted.
"Measures were therefore initiated looking to some change in the administration of religious affairs... These resulted in the organization on the 27th of October, 1867, of an association bearing the before mentioned name, under a Constitution setting forth its origin, its relations to the Community, its functions, and general mode of administration. This new body, which three months later, with myself as Pastor, was admitted to "The Worcester Conference of Congregational (Unitarian) and other Christian Societies," entered directly upon the execution of its proper work, the responsibilities and duties of which were cheerfully transmitted to it by the Community, and as cheerfully assumed on its part. The formal act of transmission took place at the Annual Community Meeting held Jan. 8, 1868.
Ballou died in Hopedale on August 5, 1890.
Most of the above is a summary of Edward Spann's From Commune to Company Town, pp. 3-9. The "end of the Community" paragraph, as stated, is from Ballou's The History of the Hopedale Community, pp. 333 - 334.
For much more on Ballou, click here to go to a biography on the Unitarian-Universalist site.
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