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Path: utzoo!decvax!dartvax!chelsea
From: chelsea@dartvax.UUCP (Karen Christenson)
Newsgroups: net.singles,talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Puritan Ethics
Message-ID: <5169@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 22-Sep-86 12:04:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: dartvax.5169
Posted: Mon Sep 22 12:04:56 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Sep-86 00:25:11 EDT
References: <2745@pogo.UUCP>
Reply-To: chelsea@dartvax.UUCP (Karen Christenson)
Distribution: na
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 56
Xref: dartvax net.singles:13367 talk.religion.misc:128
Summary: 

In article <2745@pogo.UUCP> daveb@pogo.UUCP (Dave Butler) writes:
> [we've been praising the Puritans and their contributions; how's about
>    THESE apples:]
>The following quote is from Allen Sherman's _The_Rape_Of_TheA*P*E*_:
>
>	    By the time the Mayflower arrived, America had already been 
>	going down the uptight staircase for eight years - since 1612,
>	when the Jamestown Code was written. The spelling was abominable,
>	but the meaning was clear:
>[sodomy and rape punishable by death, and fornication is outlawed]
     The guys at Jamestown weren't Puritans.  (I'm not sure they even HAD
religion. :-))

>    The Puritans weren't just fooling around either. There is a
>famous story of a sailor, returned from a threeyear voyage. When 
>his wife came to the door, he hugged her right there on the doorstep. 
>Unfortunately it was Sunday, and they were observed. He was thrown in
>the stockade for three more years.
     Great story, but is it true?

>    Condemned prisonors, standing on the gallows with their necks 
>already in the noose, were forced to listen to morality sermons.
>One such was delivered by a hellfire preacher named Jonathan Edwards,
>of Northampton, Massachusetts:
> [quote from what might be "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God", but 
       basically "God thinks you're loathsome scum"]
     Jonathan Edwards was part of the first Great Awakening, which actually
only took root along the Connecticut River valley.  It was a derivative of
Puritanism, but *not* Puritanism, taking place at least a hundred years after
the colonization.  What I think of as REAL Puritanism died out after the
first few generations.

>    After reading that, aren't you glad the Puritans escaped to America
>so that they could spread their special version of "love" and "freedom"?
     Hello, and welcome to Stereotypes 101.  Not your fault, Dave; Puritans
are maligned by everyone except some history majors (like me) who've put them
into context.  Which context?  The Protestant Reformation, of course.  We're
still (at this point) operating on the idea of there's one true church.  The
Protestants think the Catholics have got it all wrong and THIS is what it
should be like.  The movement divides into two camps:  reform the current
church and the current church is too messed up so let's just pull out and
start fresh (the Separatists).  The Puritans were a part of the Separatists.
They came to make a model community (the City on the Hill), not to spread
love and freedom.  Then they could say to the folks back in Europe, "See?
This is how it's done.  Your turn."  Religious freedom and tolerance weren't
acceptable concepts *anywhere* until after Europe suffered the Thirty Year's
War.  Then they decided that maybe it wasn't worth it.  American Puritans saw
this as a major betrayal of the cause.

>				Enjoyed this Immensely,
     Me, too.
>				Dave Butler

						Karen Christenson
"Mostly harmless."				...!dartvax!chelsea
			Have an adequate day.