Steve Frey
This column is about some folks who lived north of here in Salem. No, not Salem, Virginia—think much farther north—Salem, Massachusetts.
The folks in that area in the past were known as Puritans. Puritans wanted to “purify” the Church of England, and they came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in search of religious freedom.
Their idea of religious freedom was pretty simple: You were free to practice your religion as long as it was Puritan and you followed the Puritan rules. They were strict, too—no dancing, dressing flamboyantly, celebrating holidays like Christmas—well, you get the picture.
They also had this thing about people who were different—especially women. Yeah, they seemed to be obsessed with burning witches.
They had a test to determine criminal innocence with a “dunking stool” where, if the woman drowned, she was innocent of being a witch, but if the woman survived, it confirmed that she was a witch because only a witch could survive and she’d be executed. Those clever Puritans!
They especially hated the Quakers. Quakers were all about peace, love and following the “inner light of Christ,” which was very different from the Puritan viewpoint.
Puritans believed in Pre-destination, that a select few would reach heaven, while the Quaker view of Christianity said everyone could get to heaven if they lived a good life.
Quakers believed in equality for women; Puritan society was male-oriented, and husbands were in charge of their wives.
Quakers were called “Friends,” while the Puritans were not so, well, friendly.
It just so happens that in 1656 on this very day, July 11, the first Quakers arrived in Boston. They were Englishwomen Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, and they were immediately arrested and jailed by the Puritan colonial government.
After five years of imprisonment and deprivation, they were deported to Barbados.
A double whammy: they had the wrong religion, and they were immigrants. Hey, that sounds eerily familiar!
Quakers continued to arrive, and they continued to be imprisoned and deported because of their religion.
Sometimes they were tortured and had special identifying marks burned into their skin (think of the Scarlet A.) and even had ears cut off. Those Puritans meant business.
But this wasn’t a good day in history for people with different religions period:
In 1740, all Jews were expelled from Little Russia by Tsarina Anne. Jews have been the subject of persecution by Christians for centuries.
In 1924 there was the Hindu-Muslim rebellion in New Delhi. Hindus and Muslims have a history of violent disagreement, especially in India.
In 1948 the first air raids on Israel took place. Israel and its Muslim neighbors have a history of warfare about land and religion that still exists today.
In 1971 the Irish Republican Army set off a number of bombs in Belfast. Protestants and Catholics use the same Good Book, but in Northern Ireland, they took years to stop killing each other.
In 1995, 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men were massacred when Bosnian Serbs (Christians) overran the UN “safe haven” of Srebrenica.
No, July 11 has not been a good day for religious freedom or unity.
Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews—every religion—has persecuted the “other,” people different from themselves. It even continues today in our own country. Remember the white supremacists’ chants about Jews in Charlottesville?
This all brings us to the beauty of the U.S. Constitution.
No longer are Catholics and Jews hunted down by KKK groups. No longer are people denied employment, refused a home in a particular neighborhood or denied an opportunity to join a country club or a social group because of religion.
We recognize the importance of the inclusion of everyone in all activities. We appreciate the need to find ways to unite people and not divide by our actions and words.
Gee, can you imagine if the Puritans were in charge today? You’d have to adhere to the Puritan tenets or be deported to Mexico or elsewhere. You’d have Puritan prayers read to open government meetings.
Women would have to adhere to religious rules and not have control of their own actions or be tried as witches (talk about witch hunts!), and for heaven’s sake, make sure you don’t wish someone a Merry Christmas!
Can you see Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Jainists, atheists etc. who don’t have a God-figure as such, having to listen to a Puritan prayer in a government meeting (well, honestly, they wouldn’t be there, since Puritans only believe their religion is the one true path)?
The Founding Fathers seemed to recognize the predicament when they prohibited the establishment of religion in the First Amendment of the Constitution.
They understood what happened with the Church of England and the government establishment of religion and, of course, the persecution that followed.
Here are some comments by a few of them:
James Madison: “The civil government functions with complete success by the total separation of the Church from the State.” He also said that “religion & government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”
Samuel Adams: “In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced, and both by precept and example inculcated on mankind.”
Isaac Backus: “God has appointed two kinds of government in the world, which are distinct in their nature, and ought never to be confounded together; one of which is called civil, the other ecclesiastical government.”
And Thomas Jefferson: “…legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State.”
Yes, the Founding Fathers seemed to have a firm grasp on the concept of keeping religion from seeping into government functions or government controlling religion.
And that is why we do not suffer under Puritanical rule or other religious control today. We can all happily profess our own faiths in the church of choice or no church and bring to the community our guiding values, while still respecting the differences in our beliefs that make us Americans.
Those original Quakers in Massachusetts, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, probably wished that the Puritans felt the same way on July 11 in 1656; however, it would take over a 100 years before religious freedom would exist because of a pretty unique document—the U.S. Constitution.
It still speaks to us today.
Steve Frey is a writer and CEO of Ascendant Educational Services based in Radford.
