Frey’s column was published in the July 11 edition of the paper.
I appreciated Mr. Frey’s article on Puritans, politics and prayer.
His basic premise seems to be that because of the evils perpetrated by narrow-minded religious people, we ought to be thankful that we enjoy a society where the state and religion are separate.
However, at the same time he appears to use the customs of today and impose them on people of the past to show how they lacked today’s more enlightened approach compared to us.
To judge using today’s standards the actions of individuals, who lived hundreds of years ago, is counterproductive and to some degree to take the easy way out.
To be sure our society will one day undergo the same evaluation and to be also found wanting. Does this truly make sense? I think not.
The Salem Witchcraft Trials
The Salem Witchcraft Trials were the product of mass hysteria, which resulted in judicial murder. The actions of that community cannot in any way be justified.
The Salem Puritans did hang 19 women for witchcraft in 1692.
Here is the rest of the story.
During the trials one of Salem’s most noted ministers, Cotton Mather, spoke against the idea of “spectral evidence” or the use of dreams and visions as lawful testimony. Because of the rampant hysteria among his parishioners, his pleading was ignored.
Increase Mather, who was then president of Harvard University, supported this view. He wrote, “It would be better that ten suspected witches may escape than one innocent person be condemned.”
Later the Salem Puritans recognized this travesty of justice.
In January 1697 the community instituted a day of repentance, prayer, and fasting to remember the victims. In 1711 the colony ordered that compensation be paid to the heirs of the deceased.
They understood that what they had done was horribly wrong.
It would be refreshing to hear today’s politicians own up for their actions. Most hide through lying, or obfuscation, or making claims of misspeaking, and the like.
Freedom of Conscience
Freedom of conscience is foundational to freedom of religion.
The seeds for this idea were planted by an obscure Augustinian monk Martin Luther.
On April 18, 1521 he made this closing argument in his heresy trial as he sat in judgment before the most powerful monarch in Europe, Emperor Charles V.
Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.
I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.
Note that Luther asserted that his conscience was his final arbiter. His idea of having a personal conscience or belief system was revolutionary.
Although Luther did not realize this at the time, his view of conscience later led to religious toleration, and eventually to the freedom to have original and personally held beliefs free from State coercion.
His idea eventually became the bedrock for our constitutional right to the freedom of religion. (This thesis is thoroughly explored in the book Rebel in the Ranks, by Brad. S. Gregory.)
Nevertheless as Frey wrote two Quaker women, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, were severely mistreated by the Puritans in Massachusetts.
In light of today’s mores this treatment is intolerable.
However, the Puritans followed current thinking regarding religious tolerance. At the time the political authority had the right to determine the religion or the religious rights enjoyed by the citizenry.
Once again, at the time of the Quaker women’s arrival in 1656, the idea of religious freedom was still taking shape.
Separation of Church and State
I have argued above that the idea of having a separation between church and state took many years to develop. As Americans we are justifiably proud to have this idea enshrined in our Constitution.
Long before Jefferson and Madison a radical religious group called the Anabaptists had this seminal idea.
They believed that religion and State should be separate and that the State had no right to coerce religious belief.
In 1644 an Anabaptist minister, Roger Williams wrote, “An enforced uniformity of religion throughout a nation or civil state, confounds the civil and religious, denies the principles of Christianity and civility, and that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”
At the same time Christians as citizens of this Republic do have duties and obligations to express political opinions, to lobby their representatives, to influence society, and to vote.
Religious people of all persuasions as well the non-religious have these rights as citizens of our country.
In conclusion what the separation of church and state really means is that the State cannot coerce conscience by imposing a religious system on its citizens, not the other way round.
Religious Wars
Religious wars are a terrible blemish on the history of religion.
Do atheists have a better track record? No.
Stalin is said to have killed between 3 million to 60 million. He is reputed to have said, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
The Bottom Line
So what is the problem? What is wrong with us?
Both religious and non-religious people are capable of gross miscarriages of injustice and the most-wicked of atrocities. However, before we continue to throw stones.
Let’s step back a bit.
We all need a good dose of humility.
When asked to reply to a question posed by the Times of London which asked, “What’s wrong with the world today?”, the Catholic apologist G. K. Chesterton is reputed to have responded with the following:
Dear Sir,
I am yours, G.K. Chesterton.
The Apostle Paul wrote the following in the first century, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost.”
For which one of us is without sin so that we should cast the first stone?
No one.
This is why Jesus Christ arrived on our planet.
He came as a baby, taught like a Rabbi, died like a Man, and rose on the third day like God to save sinners like you and like me from ourselves.
By grace, he offers us the hope of a new world where hatred, bigotry, war, murder and death will be no more.
Jeff Graff,
Blacksburg
