George Whitefield Commentary

The passage, “Benjamin Franklin on Rev. George Whitefield, 1739,” tells the story regarding the English clergymen, George Whitefield and the influences that he brought to the people who listened to his speeches from Benjamin Franklin’s point of view. Through the passage, Franklin shows that he recognizes Whitefield as being a very powerful and influential speaker and role model. Franklin also expresses that he admires Whitefield, treating Whitefield as a close friend or companion. Franklin demonstrates that he is a man of Enlightenment through his relationship with Whitefield and displaying rational thinking that goes against the general ideas of his time. Franklin shows in many parts of this passage that Whitefield is a very charismatic and successful speaker. Franklin describes that “he had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words and …show more content…
In the passage, Franklin mentioned about Whitefield that, “he was at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy taking a dislike to him, soon refus’d him their pulpits and he was oblig’d to preach in the fields,” and, “critics attack’d his writings violently, and with so much appearance of reason as to diminish the number of his votaries and prevent their increase.” This shows that unlike Whitefield’s followers, there were many people who did not like Whitefield and saw him as offensive or repulsive. Franklin displays that he thinks freely and did not agree with many of the church’s teachings but saw Whitefield as an honest man with good integrity, who wouldn’t use the money from donations for personal profit. Franklin explains that he had no religious connection with Whitefield but understood Whitefield’s teachings that came from Whitefield’s traveling of many different places and were different from those of corrupted