American Religion: The Puritans and the Quakers

In the mid-1500s, England saw a young trend in the federal agency passel pietismped and ripe pietism. The new movework forcet cal lead puritanism, c tout ensembleed for a life lived right now and spent in beger, listening to sermons and worship in Church. The Puritans lived seriously and believed that celebrations such as holidays like Christmas and Easter as nearlyhead as the arts like legal injuryony and dance were unnecessary trappings to restrain in life. They believed that people should whole be concerned well-nigh godly slip appearance and plain documentation in localize to reach heaven. This opened problems at that date for business leader Elizabeth.In those years, the queen was tasked with stabilizing the country and determined that to do this, England had to prolong a oecumenical Church that could accommodate the views of both the Protestants and the cautious Catholics (Emerson 18). Therefore, it was decided that the Church of England teach doctrine s that would be acceptable to the Protestants and at the same time keep alive the Catholic traditions exercising in worship. The compromise did not sort of sit well as hoped. The Puritans believed that in unearthly worship, besides the spiritual doctrines were the only things that were distinguished.All other external articles such as ministry vestments were not only unnecessary that could be taken as evil. The Conservatives however, defended the use of such vestments as traditional symbols of location and identification. Due to variations of opinion with regard to the means worship and the Episcopal structure is conducted in the Anglican Church, separatist and underground groups were create with the object of seeking re coordinate in the religious practices. Due to contests that usu whollyy bear where there is a difference of opinion, near Puritans decidedto leave England and settle in gatherture the States. It was in 1620 that the ship the Mayflower docked and the be ginning Puritans came to settle in momma (Barbour, and freeze 5) One of the other Reformist groups was c anyed the tremblers. conflicting the Puritans, the Quakers believed that religious worship was a personalised and individual thing that did not affect any intermediary in the form of leaders, priests or ministers. Like the Puritans, the Quakers overly suffered the consequences of conflict and therefore some decided to transmigrate and settle in America as well.It was in 1677 that a group of Quakers led by William Penn set foot on North American soil and colonised in the state of Pennsylvania. This settlement of argue religious groups would have significant aftermath on the way religion is just and how other differing faiths would be treated. The Quakers held meetings were people equanimous to sit quietly to reflect and pray in silence. They only spoke up when they feel God wanted to, and this claim was open to both men and women. They practiced their faith by action forever and a day looking out to help the piteous and establish peace.They also campaigned for womens rights as well as that of the indigene Americans. Despite their similarities in terms of experience of persecution in England, sequent emigration to America and ideals of a Utopia brought about by spiritual living, the fundamental beliefs of both groups differed thoroughly. Whereas the Puritans insisted on strict hierarchies, conformity to religion and the singular importance of doctrine, the Quakers propagated tolerance for both religions and races. They supported pacifism in the depend for peace and equality with women in spiritualism.The Quakers also believed that doctrine takes second post to an individuals home(a) light. This kind of thinking angered the Puritans so much that any Quaker who was caught hard to preach in Massachusetts was each tortured or executed (Hall 130) such(prenominal) was the treatment experienced by young-bearing(prenominal) Quaker preachers Ann Austin and Mary fisher cat (Jones, Sharpless, and Gummere 27) who tried to preach to the Puritan corporation in Boston in 1656. Upon reach at Boston harbor, their luggage were seized and searched for dissident and blasphemous doctrines. The women themselves were taken to prison and stripped before being confined in total darkness. It was only later that the tribal chief of the ship that brought them was compelled to take them back to Barbados. These all happened despite the lack of any police declaring being a Quaker as illegal. Governor Endicott who was away from Boston at that time even said that had he been there, the women would never have been freed without some whipping. subsequently investigations as to why Boston was so hostile to the women revealIt must be said in the first place that the judgment of the officials, and particularly of the ministers, in the Massachusetts Colony had been seriously prejudiced by rumours and accounts that had preceded the arrival of the two women. Anti-Quaker pamphlets had already deign from the press in great numbers, and they were unstinting in their accounts of the new heresy. Some of these pamphlets were pen by ministers who, either before or after the publication of their attack, were settled in New England and were in high entertain there. (Jones, Sharpless, and Gummere 29)Modern studies also reveal that the Puritans believed that the Quakers brought with them discord, rebellion and witchcraft that threatened to undermine the sanctity of the Puritan community. Because the Quaker tenets were so opposed to that of the Puritans, Quakers were viewed to range a new spiritual pudding stone that threatened to overthrow the spiritual conglomerate which the Puritan in strict religious fervor was building. Another main difference between the Puritan and Quaker settlers was their treatment and dealings with the essential Americans.Due to their belief that each hu worldly concern being was born with the upc ountry light, the Quakers treated the Native Americans as friends and equals. In his Letter to the Lenni Lenape Indians, William Penn states This great God has written his law in our hearts, by which we be taught and commanded to love and help and do serious to one another, and not to do harm and mischief one unto another. I have great love and regard toward you, and I desire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind, just, and peaceable life and the people I conduct ar of the same mind, and shall in all things behave themselves accordingly.And if in anything any shall ball over you or your people, you shall have a exuberant and speedy satisfaction for the same by an equal number of honest men on both sides, that by no means you may have just occasion of being offended against them. (Soderlund 88) The Puritans on the other hand, viewed the polytheistic and unorganized record of religion in addition to the incapable clothing of the Native Americans as sinful. W ith their echt translation of the Bible, the Puritans viewed the Native Americans regard for everything living in addition to the one vast Spirit as idolatry.The Puritans also believed that only a select group of people was chosen by God to join Him in heaven. The Native Americans believed that in all men, were equally substantially in the enceinte Spirits sight. The difference between the Puritan and Native American view of sin didnt help either. While the Puritans looked at man as evil, and life was only a short transit before the more important and worthy life with God, the Native Americans believed that man was made up of both good and evil and that life in the present was no different from the afterlife.( socialization Clash The Puritans and the Native Americans) Both the beliefs fostered by the Puritans and the Quakers contributed greatly to ideals of America as it is today. The value of hard work, chastening and steadfastness promoted by the Puritans in connection wit h the equality and emancipation brought by the Quaker attitude of tolerance for race, gender and religion, are just a few bring factors that has made America society the way it is today. Works Cited Barbour, Hugh, and J.William Frost. The Quakers. New York Greenwood Press, 1988. Questia. 18 familyt. 2007 . Culture Clash The Puritans and the Native Americans. 123HelpMe. com. 18 Sep 2007 . Emerson, Everett. Puritanism in America, 1620-1750. Boston Twayne Publishers, 1977. Questia. 18 Sept. 2007 . Hall, doubting Thomas Cuming. The Religious Background of American Culture.Boston Little, Brown, and Company, 1930. Questia. 18 Sept. 2007 . Jones, Rufus M. , Isaac Sharpless, and Amelia M. Gummere. The Quakers in the American Colonies. London Macmillan, 1911. Questia. 18 Sept. 2007 . Soderlund, Jean.. ,Handwritten Letter to the Indians (Lenni Lenape) William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania, a Documentary History. Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983