American Religion: The Puritans and the Quakers

In the mid-1500s, England saw a new trend in the way community worshipped and skillful religious belief. The new movement called Puritanism, called for a bearing lived obviously and spent in prayer, listening to sermons and worship in Church. The Puritans lived seriously and believed that celebrations much(prenominal) as holidays like Christmas and Easter as well as the liberal arts like music and dance were unnecessary trappings to rent in life. They believed that people should still be concerned about godly ship canal and plain living in order to reach heaven. This presented problems at that sequence for Queen Elizabeth.In those years, the queen was tasked with stabilizing the country and pertinacious that to do this, England had to have a comprehensive Church that could accommodate the persuasions of twain the Protestants and the conservative Catholics (Emerson 18). Therefore, it was trenchant that the Church of England teach doctrines that would be acceptable to the Protestants and at the said(prenominal) duration keep alive the Catholic traditions physical exercised in worship. The compromise did non quite sit well as hoped. The Puritans believed that in ghostly worship, only the spiritual doctrines were the only things that were substantial.All opposite external articles such as ministry vestments were non only unnecessary but could be regainingn as evil. The Conservatives however, defended the use of such vestments as traditional symbols of status and identification. Due to differences of opinion with estimate to the way worship and the Episcopal structure is conducted in the Anglican Church, breakaway and underground groups were put to worked with the object of seeking reform in the religious practices. Due to conflicts that usually arise where there is a difference of opinion, somewhatwhat Puritans decidedto leave England and settle in sum the States. It was in 1620 that the ship the mayflower docked and the first Puritans came to settle in Massachusetts (Barbour, and Frost 5) One of the other Reformist groups was called the Quakers. Unlike the Puritans, the Quakers believed that religious worship was a personal and single(a) thing that did not require any intermediary in the form of leaders, priests or ministers. Like the Puritans, the Quakers also suffered the consequences of conflict and therefore some decided to migrate 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 settled in the state of Pennsylvania. This settlement of opponent religious groups would have significant effect on the way religion is practiced and how other differing faiths would be treated. The Quakers held meetings were people gathered to sit quiet to reflect and pray in silence. They only spoke up when they tonicity God wanted to, and this privilege was open to two men and women. They practiced their faith by action always looking out to c ar the poor and establish peace.They also c deoxyadenosine monophosphateaigned for womens rights as well as that of the subjective Americans. Despite their similarities in terms of experience of persecution in England, subsequent deportation to America and ideals of a Utopia brought about by spiritual living, the fundamental beliefs of some(prenominal) groups differed thoroughly. Whereas the Puritans insisted on strict hierarchies, conformity to religion and the singular importance of doctrine, the Quakers propagated allowance account for all religions and races. They supported pacifism in the search for peace and comparability with women in spiritualism.The Quakers also believed that doctrine takes second place to an individuals inner light. This sorting of thinking angered the Puritans so much that any Quaker who was caught try to preach in Massachusetts was every tortured or penalize (Hall 130) Such was the handling experienced by female Quaker preachers Ann capital of Texas an d Mary Fisher (Jones, Sharpless, and Gummere 27) who tried to preach to the Puritan community in Boston in 1656. Upon arrival at Boston harbor, their luggage were seized and searched for heretical and blasphemous doctrines. The women themselves were taken to prison and stripped before world engrossed in total darkness. It was only later that the captain of the ship that brought them was compelled to take them back to Barbados. These all happened despite the lack of any law 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. Later investigations as to why Boston was so hostile to the women happen uponIt must be said in the first place that the imagination 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-Quake r pamphlets had already come from the press in colossal numbers, and they were unsparing in their accounts of the new heresy. Some of these pamphlets were written by ministers who, either before or after the publication of their attack, were settled in sunrise(prenominal) England and were in high repute there. (Jones, Sharpless, and Gummere 29)Modern studies also reveal that the Puritans believed that the Quakers brought with them discord, rebellion and witchery that threatened to undermine the sanctity of the Puritan community. Because the Quaker tenets were so unlike to that of the Puritans, Quakers were viewed to represent a new spiritual empire that threatened to end the spiritual empire which the Puritan in strict religious innervation was building. Another main difference between the Puritan and Quaker settlers was their treatment and dealings with the Native Americans.Due to their belief that every human being was born(p) with the inner light, the Quakers treated the Native Americans as friends and equals. In his Letter to the Lenni Lenape Indians, William Penn states This keen God has written his law in our hearts, by which we are taught and commanded to adore and help and do good to one another, and not to do impose on _or_ oppress and mischief one unto another. I have great love and image toward you, and I desire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind, just, and peaceable life and the people I send are of the same mind, and shall in all things behave themselves accordingly.And if in anything any shall go you or your people, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction for the same by an equal number of honest men on both sides, that by no means you may have just articulation of being offended against them. (Soderlund 88) The Puritans on the other hand, viewed the polytheistic and unorganized personality of religion in appendix to the inadequate clothing of the Native Americans as sinful. With their literal translation of the Bible, the Puritans viewed the Native Americans regard for everything living in addition to the one Great Spirit as idolatry.The Puritans also believed that only a select group of people was chosen by God to society Him in heaven. The Native Americans believed that in all men, were equally good in the Great 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 temporary 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 diverse from the afterlife.(Culture 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, discipline and steadfastness promoted by the Puritans in conjunction with the equality and emancipation brought by the Quaker attitude of tolerance for race, sexual activity and religion, are just a few contributing 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 phratryt. 2007 <http//www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=o&d=98470048>. Culture Clash The Puritans and the Native Americans. 123HelpMe. com. 18 Sep 2007 <http//www. 123HelpMe. com/view. asp? id=23179>. Emerson, Everett. Puritanism in America, 1620-1750. Boston Twayne Publishers, 1977. Questia. 18 Sept. 2007 <http//www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=o&d=57036853>. Hall, Thomas Cuming. The Religious Background of American Culture.Boston Little, Brown, and Company, 1930. Questia. 18 Sept. 2007 <http//www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=o&d=3018031>. Jones, Rufus M. , Isaac Sharpless, and Amelia M. Gummere. The Quakers in the American Colonies. London Macmillan, 1911. Questia. 18 Sept. 2007 <http//www. questia. com /PM. qst? a=o&d=6633140>. Soderlund, Jean.. ,Handwritten Letter to the Indians (Lenni Lenape) William Penn and the inception of Pennsylvania, a Documentary History. Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983