How did we get to where we are today?

I just finished Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul by John Barre (he wrote the definitive history of the influenza pandemic of the 1910s). While a biography of an early 17th century backwoods preacher may not sound very relevant to our world, I can assure you there is NOT a more relevant book out there. I was raised in a tradition that regarded him as a hero for Baptists. Boy, was I surprised to get the bigger picture.

Williams was born and raised in England before and during the turbulent years before and during the reign of good old King James---yes, that flamboyant, bisexual King James of the KJV of 1611 who demanded a certain translation of Romans to justify his assumption of the divine rights of kings!!!!!  Williams was also a tight friend of Oliver Cromwell!!

Williams studied the law with Edward Coke, one of the greatest jurist in English history, who incidentally regarded Thomas Littleton as his greatest predecessor (sorry for the family plug there!). Williams was a "Puritan" who came to Mass. Bay Colony in the 1620s. He soon fell out with them (I will spare the details for those who wish to pursue), and ultimately attained the charter from King Charles for the Plantation and Commonwealth of Rhode Island. Its better than a Dan Brown mystery!

But here's the point and relevance. The two giants of the period, friends then adamant adversaries, who shaped the world you and I live in, were John Winthrop and Roger Williams. They had diametrically opposing views of church, state, democracy, and freedom.

Yes, Puritans left England seeking religious freedom---then immediately turned around to deny it to everyone who disagreed with them. They sought "a city on a hill" in which community, demanded by a Christian state, conformity imposed by government compulsion in which only church members could vote, and opposed the Church of England as too popish. Winthrop demanded godliness that he insisted was attained and practiced in community. No one was allowed to follow their own conscience. Massachusetts, under this church/state would go on to banish Anglicans, Baptists, and any dissenters. They even hung Quakers! But you get the point; his was a state based on the church with morality imposed.

Williams, on the other hand, believed that government is secular and does NOT and is NOT advanced by biblical passages. He decried the insertion of biblical strictures on the civil code. As he opposed conformity, he was willing to doubt, even himself. He urged debate and saw the church as corrupt, tainted. He demanded that worship be individual. Before you Libertarians hoist him on your shoulders for promoting individualism, freedom, and nonconformity, we must also acknowledge that he was NOT antinomian and adamantly opposed anarchy. Williams' gifts to the American experience were separation of church and state (he invented the phrase about wall of separation that Jefferson borrowed), the seeds of democracy (that Winthrop could not tolerate), equality under the law (this was his argument with kings in England), promoted liberal arts education (while employing Bacon's scientific method), and the concept of "soul liberty." While the last is a historic Baptist principle, truthfully Williams was a member of a Baptist congregation was less than a year! There went another of my early childhood myths!

It is a page burner if you like history and political philosophy.   Enjoy.