What are three ways that the Great Awakening contributed to the seperation of church and state?

Answer 1

One of the biggest effects of the Great Awakening was a counter swing in popular thought. The Great Awakening was mainly characterized by charismatic lay preachers without much (or any) formal training conducting large tent meetings that would draw in everyone from around (usually in the less civilized territories). This meant that some relatively weird ideas would be adopted by some followers.
This worried the more conservative, rich cosmopolitan leaders of the time. While some more populist candidates in the frontier might run on a Mormon, Shaker, or whatever platform, the political elite (who usually were from the more conservative Anglican church) decided to stick to the idea of a separation of church and state, thus allowing the "fad" religions of the time to pass by without effecting the workings of government. In the long run, it also allowed for more freedom of religion, as it became tacky to try and legislate religious dogma.

Answer 2

(adphllps is thinking of the SECOND Great Awakening, in the 19th century, with its frontier "camp meetings". The colonial Great Awakening was quite different. For one thing its leaders [like Jonathan Edwards] were not anti-intellectual "charismatic" types...)

Here are some ways the Awakening affected church-state relations:

1) The Awakening crossed denominational boundaries, while causing some tensions WITHIN several denominations (between those who supported the Awakening and those concerned about what they believed were its emotional excesses). This contributed to less power in the individual denominations and to more tolerance of those of like-mind in OTHER churches

2) It caused many new churches to spring up very quickly. Quite a number of these were "separatist" (e.g., Baptist churches) which did not believe in being under the state. Thus many more people (those joining these churches) were opposed to "state churches".

3) On the "NATIONAL" level -- the Awakening spread across the colonies, with much co-operation amongst them. This helped establish foundations for the colonies' working together, so important to the growth of a united colonial movement in the 1760s and to a unified nation later. But given this growth in this inter-colonial respect and co-operation the fact that different states had DIFFERENT state churches worked against a NATIONAL state church.