History too kind to Puritans' brutal intolerance

[LuckyTheDog]

Americans who worry about Muslim countries adopting Sharia law forget that our country was first settled by Christian fundamentalists who codified their own version of religious absolutism -- and had no qualms about killing anyone who objected.

And as you doze in front of the football game after Thanksgiving dinner, give a thought to the enduring myth this holiday perpetuates, that the Puritans who came to Massachusetts some 400 years ago believed in freedom of religion.

The truth is that the Puritans had no problem with religious persecution. They just wanted to be the ones doing the persecuting.

The "Body of Liberties," written in 1641 to govern the Massachusetts Bay Colony, incorporated many of the legal protections that would appear in the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights 150 years later. But it also said that anyone convicted of worshiping "any other God but the Lord God, he shall be put to death."


More: http://www.freep.com/article/20111124/COL08/111240487/History-too-kind-Puritans-brutal-intolerance

[no_hypocrisy]

1. The Puritans left The Netherlands for not being religiously fundamentalist as they were.

Or it was the other way around where they were kicked out.

Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter was based on historical and social mores of the colonists' society.

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[JNelson6563]

3. It's astounding how the lie is so widely believed

Good article, thanks for posting. :toast:

[TBMASE]

4. This was a large reason behind the different colonies, most were founded

by different religious groups seeking their own freedom of religion not so much the freedoms of other religions

[orpupilofnature57]

6. And Moola ,the pilgrims were supposed to go to Virginia.

[TBMASE]

8. Well, Columbus found NA by making a wrong turn

it's only fitting the pilgrims founded a country the same way

[orpupilofnature57]

5. A hangovrer from the crusades? the first draft was the Mayflower compact.

I think it's that Provincetown air ,I love it. http://www.pilgrimhall.org/compact.htm

[Proud Public Servant]

7. No argument, but

The Puritans and the Pilgrims were distinct religious sects who lived in different colonies (Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony were different political entities). The Puritans were dreary, evil theocrats. But Thanksgiving is about the Pilgrims, not the Puritans; sorry to be pedantic, but it bugs me when people get that confused.

[Joanie Baloney]

9. Did anyone notice this?

(From the link.)

I thought it was supposed to be funny...at first:

"After they were kicked out of the Levant at the end of the Crusades and could no longer slaughter untold numbers of hapless Muslins, Jews and funny-looking Eastern Christians in the name of Jesus, Europeans had turned to murdering each other by the thousands."

Interesting.


-JB