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History is a bitch, ain’t it? [1]

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Date: 2022-12-07

The beauty of clouds makes my soul sing. [photo: Jan Kopřiva https://unsplash.com/@jxk]

As someone who spends perhaps an inordinate amount of time immersed in historic documents, I often come across the odd comment. A recent one declared that the Pilgrim Fathers built a hospital before they built a church. Since it isn’t true, I won’t cite my source—but I did pause to do some research.

The oldest hospital, according to Pilgrim Hall, was built in the early 1770’s. Even then, it was a “pest house convenient for the Reception of any Person or Persons that may be taken sick with the small pox in this Town.”[1]

As far as buildings go, a church was founded in Salem in 1629, well before the pestilence house. But, for argument’s sake, early churches met in people’s homes. A church and a church are not necessarily the same and some churches still meet in private homes and have no building.

This led me further down a rabbit hole that I have visited a number of times. I have had numerous discussions about why the pilgrims left England. I have heard repeatedly that they left so they could worship. That kind of depends on how you define worship. The Church of England legally demanded that everyone worship—but only according to the Church of England. But, how do you prove that anyone is worshipping?

The pilgrims actually left because they did not want to worship—at least not at the altar of the Church of England. Rebecca Beatrice Brooks with the History of Massachusetts Blog, spells everything out with the greatest of clarity. As she explains, the pilgrims were religious Separatists. They were part of the Puritan Movement focusing on eliminating the CE’s corrupt doctrine and practices.

Some practiced separation from all other religious communities, in spite of having left England for being on the receiving end of exclusion, by the Church of England.

They were really into being separate. Brooks points out that the Separatists advocated for a separation of church and state. Perhaps we should memo the people who want to eliminate separation.

Giving up, the Separatists risked treason, by illegally leaving the England without the king’s permission, and moving to Leiden Holland, in 1607. These pure Separatists chose to illegally leave, by illegally bribing ship captains to help them leave. So, from early on, the Separatists didn’t mind breaking laws.

But, life was rough in Holland where, like it is for migrants around the globe today, they could only find employment in the most grueling jobs. War with Spain was on the horizon and Holland might not be so welcoming to the Separatists if that happened, so in 1620 they set sail for North America.

Not everyone who arrived was a Separatist. But, from the beginning, these new arrivals did not see eye to eye on religious issues, including holidays. The Separatists—the most devout of the most devout christians—were appalled by Christmas and Easter, for their pagan roots.

When Gov. William Bradford considered it inappropriate to play games or to “revel” in the streets on Christmas. He declared that “If they made the keeping of [Christmas] a matter of devotion, let them keep their houses; but there should be no gaming or reveling in the streets.” Sounds a lot like forcing English citizens to worship with the Church of England. So much for that Christmas day football game, eh?

"If they made the keeping of [Christmas] a matter of devotion, let them keep their houses; but there should be no gaming or reveling in the streets."

In 1632, Roger Williams left Massachusetts Bay Colony over disagreements about religious beliefs. Brooks points out that the Massachusetts Bay Colony demonstrated their Separatist christian stance by whipping, hanging, or at least banishing Quakers, fellow christians, who had arrived.

Hoping for perhaps more pure and pious congregates and neighbors, Roger Williams arrived at Plymouth. But he didn’t stay there long. Alas, even they were not pure enough for his taste.

The Plymouth Colony settled for fining, whipping or banishing their fellow christian Quakers, but stopped short of actually killing them. Nevertheless, Plymouth Colony attempted to govern both state and religion.

Fortunately, the Massachusetts Bay Colony merged with the Plymouth Colony, ended in 1691—ironically, when it became a royal colony. So, back to separation of church and state and long live the Quakers. England was now ruling the newly minted royal colony, yet England implemented separation of church and state.

The reason history is so very important is so that we do not forget. The United States has tried a myriad of legal solutions. States have separate laws. Counties and parishes have their laws. Municipalities have their laws. We revise laws. We strike laws. We add new ones.

The Experiments

Along the way, a number of self-governing community experiments have been allowed to flourish. Unless you are like me and find them fascinating you might not even realize how many self-governing communities the U.S. government has permitted. I have visited four. Some are religious-based, meaning residents probably come because they want to be immersed in that religion. If you don’t agree, you leave (otherwise it is a cult rather than a community). Most permit, or at least tolerate, personal spirituality.

I’m not aware of any that ban religion. It’s really difficult to control spirituality.

NOTE: I refer to christianity only because that is the religion I know best, coming from a fundie family.

Recently someone commented, in a Zoom session, that they were surprised to find so many churches in their new hometown. It’s not surprising. Spiritual groups have proven they cannot get along.

A quick search on Churchangel.com for Baptist churches turns up:

The Baptist denomination is the largest free church denomination in the world with over forty-three members around the world. However, nearly thirty-three million Baptists live in America. The origins of Baptist churches can be traced back to John Smyth and the Separatist Movement in 1608.

NOTE: This is just a random selection of the vast number of denominations and is not intended to focus on Baptists.

Many denominations can’t even get along with themselves. There are Baptist churches and Free Will Baptists (who split over slavery). There are also Independent Baptist churches. There are “directional” churches of every ilk like Northwest Church, or Northwest United Methodist Church, or Northwest Church of Christ. Then there are the trendy names like Willow Creek Community Church, Church of the Living Rock, or just RockChurch.

Then, every denomination has its “numbers.” There is the First Baptist, Second Baptist, Third Baptist, Fourth Baptist, Fifth Baptist, Sixth Baptist, Seventh Baptist.... You can Google “the numbers” for every denomination.

Sometimes a church relocates because they no longer serve the current, or new-resident, population. That’s code for a traditionally white church whose members have participated in white flight.

What have we learned?

But, tercentenary truth is people don’t get along. Non-native Americans have had 300 years to give it our best effort. We’ve done a really poor job. Ask the Natives and new immigrants.

Hopefully we never go back to the days of hanging or flogging someone for not going to the right church. It might be laughable to even consider eliminating separation of church and state except for the tradition of violence. There is enough violence as it is. Black churches are still torched, in the name of your flavor or direction of religion.

I must, really must, pause to ponder this. There does not ever seem to be a case of a place of worship, in the United States, that has been torched by a non-religious person. Am I right?

The framers of the US Constitution knew—they knew—such extremes of hangings had been happening from early on, BY religious people of other people who may, or may not, have judged them spiritual enough or who don’t believe in a spiritual life.

What is a spiritual life anyway? If the sight of a pretty cloud makes my heart sing, that’s spiritual. Right?

Granted, some of the most effective social activism has come out of christian groups. Thank you so much for that.

Keep your religion

The upshot of all this is a 300-year-old American lesson on government. We will support your right to keep your religion. But, please don’t go back to hanging people. ‘kay?

But, you’ve already proven you can’t get along with people, or you’ve grown out of touch, so you went off and started another group just because you’re cantankerous and disrespectful and judgmental. If a First Church of Anything moves or starts a new church in a new suburb, wouldn’t you still call it First Church of Anything?

You are intolerant. History proves it. You can keep your religion. We will grant you that. But, we will never allow your religion to govern the United States.

Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies seem so very long ago. Yet, here we are.

Leave American government alone.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/7/2140577/-History-is-a-bitch-ain-t-it

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