Thought of the Day 06.22.10

One narrative secularists like to tell about this country is that the early colonists were horribly intolerant religious fanatics who did crazy things like execute witches in Salem. This is why we must not allow religious people to run things.

But another narrative they like to tell about this country is that the people who came here were fleeing religious oppression in order to set up an open society based on tolerance. That’s why religious diversity is a core part of America’s historical identity.

For obvious reasons, they don’t normally tell both of these stories right next to each other. So what really happened?

Although they were fleeing religious oppression, the early settlers came here not to form open societies, but extremely closed ones based on their ideas of “purity.” The freedom they sought was the freedom to be far more strict in their particular way than Europe would allow. The notion of tolerating first other Protestants, then Jews and Catholics, and eventually any religion (or even none at all) came much, much later.

What all of this means for us is of course up for debate. But the point is that you can’t tell who has history on their side until you at least tell the story correctly.