Di Pietro: “The authorities and Anglican power brokers were intimidated by his ministry. They felt something had to be done to stop him. They drew the line in the sand and said they were not going to allow his efforts to go unchallenged. Some New England pastors wrongly claimed that Whitefield destroyed, “New Englands’ orderly parish system, communities, and even families.” A prominent newspaper editor in Charleston, South Carolina labeled him, “blasphemous, uncharitable, and unreasonable.” In many of the Colonial pulpits, Whitefield was accused of being an “imposter, a devil, the beast, the man of sin, the antiChrist.” In 1757, while preaching in Dublin, Ireland, a huge Roman Catholic mob rioted and attacked him. These out-of-control people wounded Whitefield severely and smashed his portable pulpit. Opponents threw anything they could get their hands on – rocks, feces, rotten food, and even dead cats. On one occasion, Whitefield was almost killed by a man who beat him with a brass-headed cane. Another time he was assaulted by a woman wielding, “scissors and a pistol, and her teeth.” Whitefield endured numerous public humiliations including the time an opponent climbed a tree and urinated on him.”

Yet, he “was unwavering in his commitment to preach. He stood whether people received his words or not. When the people became harsh, he said, that they were “being hardened as were Pharaoh and the Egyptians.” Any opposition made him more adamant to set God’s people free.”