The Puritans left England because they despised the centralized control of the Anglican Church. We are expected to feel sorry for them. The trouble is, once ashore in America their own intolerance toward other religions made England look like the freedom express. The once-persecuted Puritans quickly became the persecutors. Puritan minister Nathaniel Ward wrote, “Anyone willing to tolerate another’s faith either doubts his own, or is not sincere in it.” Quakers who dared to enter Massachusetts (Puritan territory) were imprisoned, flogged, abused --and six were hanged; they were a “cursed sect of heretics.”
In the Puritan colony, church attendance was compulsory, dozing was not permitted during the three hour sermons, and neighbors were encouraged to spy on one another. In 1656 a Boston seaman spent two hours in stocks for “publiquely” kissing his wife when he arrived home after three years at sea. It was said to be “lewd and unseemly behavior.” The political power of the Puritan Church weakened considerably after the Salem witch trials --all the world could see where religious zealotry and control could lead. By their own religious intolerance, the Puritans had, themselves, become the very thing they abhorred.
Religious intolerance was also tried in the American South with the Anglican Church flexing its muscle. However, once it was discovered that there were not enough Anglicans to work the plantations, other folk were welcomed for the sake of profit. In 1634 Maryland was founded as a haven for Catholics. In 1649 Lord Calvert supported the passage of the (religious) Toleration Act --it didn’t last long; anti-Catholic feeling brought its repeal a few years later.
At last, intolerance gave way to tolerance as William Penn welcomed all into Pennsylvania. Thomas Jefferson was to say, “It does me no injury for my neighbors to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Upon that, he went on to write “Congress shall make no law respecting an established religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof.” The government was to stay out of religion and no one was going to get to use this government to promote his or her own religion. In this manner, all would be free to worship as they pleased --following their own consciences.
When writing to a Jewish congregation in Newport, George Washington summarized religious liberty as follows: No longer is it “to be spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed their natural rights. For ...the United States, which gives bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”
In contrast to nearly all European nations, which established themselves as Christian nations of one sort or another, the United States established itself with a clear separation of church and state. Yet, under such conditions, the Christian Church in particular has thrived. The reason is clear, a true Christian is a Christian by his or her own choice, not by force. There is no one faith that holds this nation; yet, all who live here may freely hold faith --and yes, as Jefferson put it “or not”. We’ve come a good long way. Perhaps, our end has been better than our beginning. What America will not tolerate is “religious intolerance.