How did the Great Awakening lead to egalitarianism?

The Great Awakening led to (or helped lead to)
egalitarianism because it conveyed a message that implied that individuals'
relationships with God were more important than doctrine and the teachings of church
leaders.

The preachers of the Great Awakening emphasized
the need for people to have emotional relationships with God.  They argued that religion
was a matter of the heart and of emotions, not of erudition and book learning.  By
emphasizing this, these preachers weakened the position of church leaders.  They told
people, in essence, that the leaders were not necessary and that people could find God
on their own through emotion.  They did not need to be learned in order to understand
what God wanted.

By preaching such a message, the Great
Awakening helped to instill the idea that the common people were capable of running
their own affairs in something as important as religion.  If this were so, there was no
need for hierarchy in society either.  This was a message that asserted the equality of
all people, thus leading to egalitarianism.