Quakers remind us that an idea we were all taught in school—that America was founded on religious freedom—is a myth. In Puritan New England, being a Quaker was a hanging offense. The Puritans, like so many Christians today, believed in religious freedom only for themselves. Worth remembering also that the best exemplar of the ideal that we CLAIM to hold—Roger Williams—was a dissenter who was expelled.
Now, as then, if the Christians who hold power hate your religious beliefs, it probably means you're doing something right.
Not necessarily speaking "for" anyone, but I guess I'm speaking to a common experience in public schools for Americans of my generation (I'm 67 years old). All the way through high school, the message repeated in school and in popular culture that English colonists came here for religious freedom.
In my college history classes, the message from professors became a little more nuanced. The founding of Jamestown, which predated Plymouth Colony by more than a decade, had nothing to do with religious freedom. But it still seemed to be pretty well accepted that religious freedom was the driving impulse behind Massachusetts Bay. It wasn't until I read John Barry's excellent book, Roger Williams and the Making of the American Soul, that I learned the fuller story about intolerance against Quakers. That's not a story I ever heard in school, nor was it familiar from school among anyone else I knew.
So it's also in another "democracy" that people are suddenly detained for exercising long-held freedoms. What is behind this? What are those with power afraid of?
Opinion, examined or unexamined, runs things. "Oligarchy" doesn't name all corruption, but...to your questions...I think oligarchy names more than a few of the drivers behind these moves. Once opinion (which runs things) becomes common consensus, on climate catastrophe and Gaza, for instance, malfeasance is exposed and billionaire terror operatives and their hirelings have to slow their roll or....face consequences. I think we all have power, but those whose power is militant denial (empire) are afraid of change and consequences. Those who order (or carry out) raids on places of worship are doing what they're told for fear of upsetting someone higher up the chain who ordered the orders. It's fear at the alleged top and all the way down.
Woah, this is nuts. I read the link, but is there any more to this story?
After being arrested and jailed in Wales (for being Quakers), my ancestors came to Pennsylvania (the great religious experiment) in the hope of religious freedom. I also just recently started attending my local Quaker meetinghouse in my home state of NJ. For my whole life, I have only known evangelicalism. But at present, I cannot continue to wholeheartedly follow Jesus in evangelical spaces. The Quakers have welcomed me.
Quakers remind us that an idea we were all taught in school—that America was founded on religious freedom—is a myth. In Puritan New England, being a Quaker was a hanging offense. The Puritans, like so many Christians today, believed in religious freedom only for themselves. Worth remembering also that the best exemplar of the ideal that we CLAIM to hold—Roger Williams—was a dissenter who was expelled.
Now, as then, if the Christians who hold power hate your religious beliefs, it probably means you're doing something right.
Randy, may I ask you a question?
Of course. Please ask.
When you say "we," who are you speaking for?
Not necessarily speaking "for" anyone, but I guess I'm speaking to a common experience in public schools for Americans of my generation (I'm 67 years old). All the way through high school, the message repeated in school and in popular culture that English colonists came here for religious freedom.
In my college history classes, the message from professors became a little more nuanced. The founding of Jamestown, which predated Plymouth Colony by more than a decade, had nothing to do with religious freedom. But it still seemed to be pretty well accepted that religious freedom was the driving impulse behind Massachusetts Bay. It wasn't until I read John Barry's excellent book, Roger Williams and the Making of the American Soul, that I learned the fuller story about intolerance against Quakers. That's not a story I ever heard in school, nor was it familiar from school among anyone else I knew.
Copy that.
So it's also in another "democracy" that people are suddenly detained for exercising long-held freedoms. What is behind this? What are those with power afraid of?
Opinion, examined or unexamined, runs things. "Oligarchy" doesn't name all corruption, but...to your questions...I think oligarchy names more than a few of the drivers behind these moves. Once opinion (which runs things) becomes common consensus, on climate catastrophe and Gaza, for instance, malfeasance is exposed and billionaire terror operatives and their hirelings have to slow their roll or....face consequences. I think we all have power, but those whose power is militant denial (empire) are afraid of change and consequences. Those who order (or carry out) raids on places of worship are doing what they're told for fear of upsetting someone higher up the chain who ordered the orders. It's fear at the alleged top and all the way down.
Good God.
Woah, this is nuts. I read the link, but is there any more to this story?
After being arrested and jailed in Wales (for being Quakers), my ancestors came to Pennsylvania (the great religious experiment) in the hope of religious freedom. I also just recently started attending my local Quaker meetinghouse in my home state of NJ. For my whole life, I have only known evangelicalism. But at present, I cannot continue to wholeheartedly follow Jesus in evangelical spaces. The Quakers have welcomed me.