The following is taken from John MacArthur’s Ashamed of the Gospel (see it on Google books).

Charles Finney was born in 1792 in Connecticut but lived most of his childhood in Oneida County, New York. His parents were not Christians, and Finney grew up largely ignorant of Christian doctrine. He remembered no preaching or gospel witness in that part of New York (which he called “a wilderness”) — though the historical records indicate there was at least one strong evangelical church in the community.

The religion Finney remembered as a child was, he said later, “of a type not at all calculated to arrest my attention.” (more…)