Quote:
Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
The 'Pilgrims' (actually Puritans) came here to escape "persecution" by the Church of England. They weren't actually being persecuted, just not allowed to have the same rights as the 'Official' Church.
They then turned around and did exactly the same thing in Massachussetts. Other colonies did the same thing, which is why we emphatically refuse to allow an official State Church. All the states have since followed suit, even Utah.
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I am aware of this "rift" in American history, between the motivation of the pilgrims to escape European supression - and the spirit that is expressed in America's founding papers and the writings of the early leaders.
Maybe this rift - I don't know a better word for it - is the reason why in America religious and antireligious seem to clash more bitterly than over here. The old debate: was America founded as an explicitly Christian or religious country, or not? By referring to the Pilgrims, you can say: the first hundreds wanted that. By referring to your historic and legal papers, you must say: no, it wasn't. Later that got confirmed again in the infamous treaty of Tripolis.
For us non-Americans it is sometimes difficult to understand why in America these two camps seem to clash so fanatically. However, with the arrival of Islam in Europe, we have shifted into a similiar situation, just that the conflict here is not between Christian fundies and atheists, but between Muslim supremacists and Western secularists. You will get that conflict breaking out in America as well, sooner or later, once a critical population mass of Muslims has been acchieved and their pro-Sharia demands necessarily will collide with secularism.