GUEST ARTICLE
The Puritan's "Christian"
Agenda?
One of the opinions most persistently and widely held among
American evangelicals today is that America had essentially
Christian origins. They rest heavily on an appeal to the
Puritan heritage as the most influential Reformation tradition
shaping American culture. If it were shown that the Puritans
who settled America did not establish truly Christian cultural
principles that were in some important ways perpetuated,
then a strong suspicion might be raised that the entire case
for a now-lost Christian America rests on rather nebulous
foundations. (See: The Search for Christian America,
p. 28.)
The fact is, the Puritans were the forerunners of today's Kingdom/Dominion/Reconstructionist
teaching. The Puritans believed that they
were carrying to America true Christianity as decreed
by God, especially as written in the Old Testament. They
believed too that they were on a divine mission to America,
a place specially appointed by God to be the "New
Israel," a theocratic "city upon a hill."
John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay,
assumed that he could transfer the principles of nationhood
found in ancient Israel to the Massachusetts Bay Company
with no need for explanation. This led the Puritans to interpret
Scripture in an ultimately pretentious way that gave their
own state and society the exalted status of a New Israel.
Old Testament law was directly, if not exclusively, incorporated
into the legal systems of New England. The Massachusetts "Body
of Liberties" of 1641 stated that "if any man after
legal conviction shall have or worship any other god, but
the lord god, he shall be put to death." Death was also
prescribed for witchcraft, blasphemy, murder, sodomy, homosexuality,
adultery, and kidnapping. Old Testament texts were copied
directly into the New England law books. The most notorious
cases of major miscarriage of justice in New England were
the Salem witchcraft executions. (See: The Search for
Christian America, pp. 34-35.)
The Puritans viewed themselves as God's special people,
replacing national Israel. Nowhere do the dangers of this
assumption become more clear than in the Puritans' treatment
of the native Americans. Since the Puritans considered themselves
God's chosen people, they concluded that they had the right
to take the land from the heathen Indians. The American Indians
were the "new Canaanites" in America's "Promised
Land." The fruit of Puritan theology was brutal. They
saw their mission as convert these "Canaanites" to
Christianity; failing that, it was acceptable to slaughter
them in the name of Christ.
For example, the Puritan massacres of the Pequot Indian
tribe on May 26, 1637, and again on July 14, 1637, were deemed
by the Puritans to be directed by God -- Captain John Mason
declared, "God laughed his Enemies and the Enemies of
his People to Scorn, making them as a fiery Oven ... Thus
did the Lord judge among the Heathen, filling the Place with
dead Bodies" (Segal and Stinenback, Puritans, Indians,
and Manifest Destiny, pp. 111-112, 134-135). Converting
the pagans for God was acceptable to the Puritans, but killing
the pagans for the Lord was also acceptable!
Defenders of the Puritans claim that it was the hostility
of the Pequots that led to their unfortunate demise. But
the Pequots were one of the most tranquil tribes in New England.
History reveals that their "hostility" did not
manifest itself until they were hunted like animals. For
argument sake, let's say that the Pequots were the instigators
of hostilities, virtual savages if you will (which they were
not). Does this justify hunting them down, slaughtering the
men, women, and children in their sleep, and then doing it
again six weeks later to finish the job!? (Not exactly "battlefield" victories!)
Moreover, the Puritans claimed it was in obedience to God
that these pagans were slaughtered!
Here the reasoning of the Puritans defies logic and a sense
of common decency, let alone Christian principles. Captain
John Underhill also wrote of the Pequot slaughter: "Sometimes
the Scripture declareth women and children must perish with
their parents ... We have sufficient light from the Word
of God for our proceedings." What an incredible testimony
for one claiming to be a Christian!
There is a book titled NEW ENGLAND FRONTIER: Puritans and Indians 1620-1675 by
Alden T. Vaughan. It was originally published in 1965 (Little Brown & Company,
Boston/Toronto), and revised as recently as 1995. Vaughan, an admitted friend
of the Puritan colony, makes a well documented case for the efforts of the
Pilgrims (Separatists) and early Puritans to win the Indians to Christ. The
book contains three chapters detailing the Puritans successful missionary endeavors
during those early years. For example, the first Bible printed in the Western
world was the Indian Algonquin Scripture. Harvard University (1636) was founded
not only to train whites to become ministers of the Gospel, but there was also
for a time a training program for young Indian men to minister to their people.
At least six Boston area communities, thriving today, were started by Christian
Indians. The famous island, Martha's Vineyard, once was the site of Indian
Christian congregations through the missionary endeavors of the Mayhew family.
Dartmouth University had its beginning through the efforts of a Connecticut
Puritan to train Indian young men to preach the Gospel.
But Vaughan's book also reveals just how brutal the Puritans
were in their dealings with the Indians -- specifically,
Chapter V, "The Pequot War, 1637." What is amazing
about the account in this chapter is the frankness with which
the author recounts the events and the Puritans part in them.
The carnage and the Puritan justification for participation
therein is quite revealing -- self-defense is one thing,
but outright purposeful slaughter is, to say the least, questionable
Christian behavior (from 1965 edition):
(1) pp. 127-128
-- The so-called Christian response of "merciless revenge" was
carried out "vigorously" by Captain John Endicott
-- "Dissatisfied by the paucity of Indian casualties,
the English soldiers heartlessly 'destroyed some of their
dogs instead of men.'";
(2) pp. 132,
141 -- The Puritans demanded and accepted, as signs of loyalty
and sincerity from allied Indian tribes, the body parts of
their common enemies (see also p. 142, where the Puritans
viewed these indications of loyalty as a sign from God and
an answer to prayer);
(3) p. 143 --
When embarking on an expedition of Indian hunting, the Puritans
entreated the Lord to direct them in their pillage and slaughter;
(4) p. 136 --
Concerning the Indians, the Puritans viewed themselves as
the enforcers of "law and order" due to their view
of themselves as God's "New World Zion," a reconstructionist
view of history, to say the least (see also p. 138, where
the Indians are viewed as "Satan's horde," thus
justifying their slaughter);
(5) p. 141 --
The Puritans were not content to merely kill their perceived
enemies; they saw fit to murder and savagely mutilate them
-- they literally "tore him [a captured Pequot] limb
from limb. Captain Underhill ended the victim's agony with
a pistol shot. The body was then roasted and eaten by the
Mohegans.";
(6) pp. 144-145
-- In one of the Pequot massaquers of 1637, not only was
the Indian village set on fire, those men, women, and children
not fortunate enough to be burned to death were gunned down
as they tried to escape the flames. Captain Mason "gave
full credit to God" for the slaughter, while Captain
Underhill claimed the Pequots had sinned against God and
man, and thus, "We had sufficient light from the word
of God for our proceedings"!
(7) p. 148 --
Not content to take prisoners, the Puritans "exterminate[d]
the remnant"; those they were unable to capture themselves,
they delegated the killing to civilians, requiring the heads
of the targeted Indians as evidence of their deaths (see
also p. 149);
(8) p. 150 --
Pequots not slaughtered were taken captive and sold into
slavery to friendly Indian tribes.
Some teach that one cannot know the motives of the Puritans
nor judge their hearts. But the Puritan's own words and actions
are devastating to their claims of practicing Biblical Christianity.
This we can judge (John 7:24). The Bible is clear that one's
actions are an indication of heart condition. It is difficult
to imagine what could be going on in the hearts of a professing
Christian people that would drive them to murder other human
beings, and then claim that God directed them to do it!
The actions of the Puritans toward the Indians are an excellent
indication of how reconstructionist
eschatology will lead one into ungodly behavior
-- one's eschatology will always affect one's worldview.
The Puritans misguided view of God's calling for them led
them into a worldview alien to that of the apostle Paul's
-- i.e., to be sojourners and peacemakers.
Dave Hunt
Biblical Discernment Ministries - 6/98
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/amr/puritan.htm
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