Yep, sonnyboy, do a google search on the puritans and quakers. They tortured the hell out of poor, pacifist quakers, and killed them. The puritans were jerks. BUT, as someone else said, not the only "founders" of our country. If that were the case, folks like Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington would've hardly gotten anywhere with their ideas.
The Fanatics Who Founded America.
by Englishman 30 Replies latest jw friends
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sonnyboy
They tortured the hell out of poor, pacifist quakers, and killed them.
We learned about some of their torture techniques in HIS101. I believe one involved putting hot coals in small iron containers and hanging them from the genitalia as well as other body parts, slowly roasting them.
They were an imaginative bunch!
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nilfun
In their fundamentalist theocracy pubs would be closed,
maypole dancing and gambling would be banned, men and women would be forced to dress in a sober and godly way and, above all, the Bible would become the foundation of civil society.You know what they say -- the more things change...
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lawrence
Englishman-
Thanks for the post. Having attended Boston Latin School (established in 1635 as the 1st American public school) I was fed the history of the forefathers, unfortunately it was amazingly "white washed." One would have considered many of these pioneers "gifted" had it not been for further personal research. Yes, crazed in "Godly Manifest Destiny", autocratic, and truly vicious.
Nilfun - well put.
Gill - I too pray before meals. Imagine that, even in public. The Creator deserves praise, if only head bowed, in silence.
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Robert K Stock
sonnyboy is right to point out that the Puritans of New England were just one group in an isolated area and not the founders of America as a whole. His state of Maryland was a haven for persecuted Catholics. Pennsylvania was a haven for Quakers. Georgia was a created as a place for England to deport its criminals.
Only the colony of Rhode Island founded by Roger Williams had true religious freedom.
America is a blending of many different points of view and has been since before 1776.
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avishai
Unfortunately many of us here in the states perpetuate the myth that the puritans "founded" the good ol' US of A. Shoot, the spanish had colonies here in California and in Florida WAYYYY before those losers came here. Not that those guys were any nicer.
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Eyebrow2
yes, good old St. Augustine...isn't that the oldest, longest continually inhabited settlement in the US?
It is too bad the Vikings couldn't set up shop here...there were a little more interesting...but noooo...they just stop by. so sad. I love big blonde burly men.
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sonnyboy
Shoot, the spanish had colonies here in California and in Florida WAYYYY before those losers came here.
It's a little known fact that there were Spanish colonies in the Chesapeake Bay of Maryland in the mid 1500's, and France had settlements here before Jamestown was established.
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Mulan
Yes, the Puritans were a nasty bunch, but as someone already said, they were just one group who founded this country. The men like, Jefferson, Franklin and the like, set up the Constitution to protect us from religion, not the other way around...............they didn't want religion to control the decisions. So much for that idea.
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jaffacake
we did have Prohibition in America in 1920 where for over 10 years you could not legally buy and drink alcohol
Which didnt stop the FDS smuggling in booze for Rutherford across the Canadian border. The FDS even changed its understanding of Romans 13 so it could deny the teaching of subjection to earthly authorites. Then they could defend their breaking of prohibition laws, with a clear(ish) conscience.
But just think of how many faithful witnesses languished in prisons around the world for the alternative service doctrine, linked to that Romans 13 new light, until it was changed back decades later. Good people in proison for years as a result of Rutherford opposing prohibition due to his alcoholism. Very sad.