it's not just the nazi among us, it's also the pilgrims

[donsu]

http://www.buzzflash.com/mailbag/06/02/mai06044.html

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Subject: Correction on the Pilgrim Fathers

It is a popular myth that the Pilgrim Fathers escaped persecution in England and arrived on Plymouth Rock, ultimately to found a free state there; but it's all wrong.

http://pilgrims.net/plymouth/history/

The Pilgrim Fathers did originate in England, where they were persecuted. They fled from there to Holland, which had Freedom of Conscience in its Constitution. However, once there, they wanted to persecute those who weren't Puritans, like themselves, and that wasn't allowed, and that's why they left, to found the ideal Puritan state in the British Colonies. They established their Puritan society, and within fifty years, were burning people at the stake. Which is why, again some fifty years later, a bunch of Liberals and Deists wrote the Constitution and the First Amendment, so that the Puritans and other religious nut cases couldn't ever again use government to enforce their religion on others.

Until Bush came, that is.

J. Hart
Netherlands
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[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Yes, very true

[JuniperLea]

2. Good post!

I'm of Pilgrim descent and I have had this argument with my family:)

I'm still proud of those gutsy women, members of my family, who took that trek across the ocean. That took real hangy-me-down parts;)

[BOSSHOG]

3. Its truly bizarre

that so many "Americans" have allowed themselves to be convinced that this is a "christian" nation. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are a free country, an idea which obviously is wrong and bad to radical christian clerics. They want freedom for only those who believe what they believe. That is UnAmerican and Unpatriotic. Please would a "christian conservative" chime in and set me straight. You are not being persecuted and you want to turn our country into a theocracy. Its just like 2+2=4.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

5. Even as a child

I understood that since we came here to ESCAPE persecution it makes sense that we don't allow persecution.

I never thought we were a Christian nation. Even at 10 I understood we had moved beyond that.

[KoKo]

4. And that Puritan strain still lives amongst us here in America.. We are

willing to persecute over and over again when the right climate comes along.

[Vidar]

6. The Puritans in England were persecuted largely for terrorizing the

country when they ruled for twenty odd years under Oliver Cromwell.

[Lars39]

7. Hence the importance of the Mayflower Compact.

The rest of the folks on board had gotten to know the Pilgrims pretty well by the time they arrived.
They knew that if they didn't hash it out then, they'd be under their heel once on land.

[Swamp Rat]

8. Yep, now they are making a comeback.