Roger Williams and Separation of Church and State

[Freedom_from_Chains]

I was doing some background work last night concerning the fallacy of the Christian Rights argument that there is no separation of church of state in the ideology of the founding of America. I came across this information about Roger Williams, a dissenter of the Massachusetts Bay colony and later founder of Rhode Island.

In his essays, he talks about how oppressive and murderous the Christian religion is when it is commingled with the state, and how it denies people religious freedom and their choice of conscience. I found it an interesting read and thought I would post it for others.

"Roger Williams came to the New World in 1631 with much the same hopes as the first Pilgrim Separatists. His heart's desire was to see a pure church raised up, with no ties to the Church of England and its corruption, compromise, and oppression. Ironically that desire is what led to his banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony at the end of 1635. His outspoken zeal for "soul liberty" proved too radical for the Puritan leaders of the colony, who had brought with them the same spirit of religious intolerance from which they had fled."

(snip)

"Neither republicanism nor religious liberty can be found in any of the charters of the other colonies in which the church and state were united. It is therefore easy to determine the original source of those principles, which have protected our religious freedom and made America a refuge for the oppressed of every land. The nation's debt to Roger Williams is a debt that can never be canceled."

The Bloudy Tenent

His bitter experience of the English Reformation, from the acrid stench of men burning at the stake in England to his banishment from Massachusetts, caused Roger Williams to write his famous Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience in which he argued his case for something hitherto unseen in the Western world -- the complete separation of church and state. The Puritan society of Massachusetts, through the civil magistrates, attempted to force its religious conscience on all who lived there. This was consistent with the whole bloody history of Christendom since the reign of Constantine. Such persecution revealed to Williams "that religion cannot be true which needs such instruments of violence to uphold it."

"In the great struggle of his soul, Roger Williams finally came to the conclusion that the true church had long ago ceased to exist on the earth:"

The Christian Church or Kingdom of the Saints, that Stone cut out of the mountain without human hands, (Daniel 2) now made all one with the mountain or Civil State, the Roman Empire, from whence it is cut or taken: Christ's lilies, garden and love, all one with the thorns, the daughters and wilderness of the World.

Christianity fell asleep in the bosom of Constantine, and the laps and bosoms of those Emperors who professed the name of Christ."

A PLEA FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY by Roger Williams

[ewagner]

1. Great find

thanks for posting this.....it has great revelancy to what we're facing today....

[bobbieinok]

2. in 50s So Bapts praised R Williams as an 'early Baptist'

in the 60s the Northern Baptists (now the American Baptists) called their youth/college group the Roger Williams Fellowship.....(attended while in grad school in CA in the 60s)

[rogerashton]

3. He was a BAPTIST

was he not?

[triguy46]

4. for a good analysis of Roger Williams and separation...

Read
The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness by Isaac Kramnick, R. Laurence Moore

It clearly outlines why we are not a theocracy. Simply put, the issue
could not generate sufficient support, the votes weren't there. So if we are now held to a Judicial standard of what the framers wanted,
then can we not have what the framers wanted and fully got, a government that is not bound by the religious whims of a few?

[Kerrytravelers]

5. Thank You ! ! ! ! Thank You ! ! ! ! Thank You ! ! ! ! Thank You ! ! ! !

I will be print and distributing accordingly!