The Puritan Hard Drive
"Let me tell you how absolutely fantastic the Puritan Hard Drive really is. This is a
treasure trove for a local church pastor. The search ability is beyond my expectation."
Pastor Scott Brown Director, National Center for Family Integrated Churches
Click Here
Yikes! I'm not a fan of the Puritan mindset. I don't think the people accused of practicing "witchcraft" in Salem, Massachusetts during the summer of 1692, even though most of them were Christians, were very thrilled with it either. The Puritans, many of them were Christian fundamentalists who essentially lived in mini-theocracies when they came to the United States. They were very intolerant towards people who did not conform to their bizarre standards and would oppress these "others". I'm glad that the Founding Fathers of the U.S. created a Constitutional law that people were able to have the freedom to decide their religious, spiritual or lack of religious beliefs for themselves. I wouldn't want to live around Puritans. That " Christian Nation" crap that the Puritans held to reminds of what fundamentalist Christian members of the Republican Party, the Dominionist movement and the GOP do. It reminds me of how the Jehovah's Witness view themselves as being a little "theocratic" community despite not being involved in politics, kind of like how the Orthodox Mormons refer to the LDS Church as "Zion" and have historically believed that a Mormon male with become the President and within a short time after being in the White House, he will turn the country into a LDS theocracy. I don't see any god behind these religious institutions or religiously-motivated political movements, certainly not a loving, compassionate or just god.
It sickens me how people like the Amish can be such hard workers, a religious group of people who have faced persecution, yet shun their loved ones for leaving the denomination. It's not surprising that most young adults agree to become baptized into the denomination after going through the Rumspringa ritual where they leave the Amish community for a year to decide on whether or not they want to continue on as a member of the denomination. Secluding themselves from society as much as they can is just really cult-like. JW's do the same thing, except for when they go door-to-door to spread the "word" of Yahweh/"Jehovah". The Puritans demonized outsiders. They condemned celebrating Christmas because of it's pagan religious origins and having a Christmas tree was a punishable crime. Well, most people today don't celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday except for Christians ( despite the fact that Jesus was not born on December 25th. I think members of the denominations in the Orthodox movement celebrate Christmas in January instead) and members of the Neo-Pagan movement.
The Puritans, especially the fundamentalist ones believed that if you weren't a Christian, particularly a fundamentalist Puritan Christian, then you had no right to live in this country. The Religious Society of Friends ( Quakerism), the Amish, the Unitarians, and Baptists etc., were all persecuted heavily by the Puritans. I was involved with the Quakers and Unitarian-Universalists at one time, I will occasionally visit a liberal Quaker meetinghouse or a Unitarian-Universalist Church congregation even as an atheist. Some of the most positive experiences that I have ever had with organized religion were with the liberal Quakers and the Unitarian-Universalists. I think that the Merrymount colony group in the 1600's was a safe place for persecuted persons and it included LGBT persons, atheists and interracial couples.
Yes, even back then, can you imagine? Even then, you had peoples from diverse backgrounds who were outcasts and faced persecution who created communities together where they could live in peace, be true to themselves and practice their religion as they chose, if they had one. I'm glad that there were people like the Merrymount colony out there back then because it seems to me that it gave rise to the diverse country that we have today. Persecuted persons, social outcasts and minority groups always find a way to keep on living and to find each other. I think they are a part of what makes America to be a country that I am proud to live in despite whatever flaws it may have. I love living in a country that holds to the ideas of freedom, civil rights, equal opportunities and democracy. You certainly didn't get that with the Puritans.
I also cherish having the right to intellectual freedom and the freedom of inquiry, the ability to be skeptical and to question. You don't get that with fundamentalist Evangelicals, fundamentalist Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Orthodox Mormons, Fundamentalist Mormons, Christian Scientists, Roman Catholics, Amish, Conservative Mennonites, Nazarenes, Seventh-day Adventists, Orthodox Jews, Conservative Jews, fundamentalist Hindus, fundamentalist Buddhists, fundamentalist Bahai's, fundamentalist Orthodox denominations ( Russian, Greek etc.) fundamentalist Muslims, extremist Muslims, Church of God, Church of Christ, Church of God in Christ, African Methodist Episcopal, fundamentalist Episcopalians, fundamentalist Lutherans, fundamentalist Presbyterians, fundamentalist Methodists etc.
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