Politics and Religion In The United States

Michael Corbett, Julia Mitchell Corbett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135579753
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Politica

This text examines the interaction between politics and religion in the United States from the days of the early colonial period through the 1990s. It sets the contemporary discussion of politics and religion in the larger context of the entire scope of US history, and traces significant themes over time showing students how the events of the 1990s have their roots in a long process of development.

PART I
Religion and History

CHAPTER 1

The Colonial Experience

If any man after legal conviction shall have or worship any other god but the lord god, he shall be put to death.

If any man or woman or woman be a witch, (that is hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit,) They shall be put to death.

If any man shall Blaspheme the name of God, the father. Son or Holy ghost, with direct, express, presumptuous or high handed blasphemy, or shall curse god in the like manner, he shall be put to death. —Selections from the Capital Laws part of The Massachusetts Body of Liberties of 1641 contained in the Colonial Laws of Massachusetts

Overview

The Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony listed twelve crimes for which a person could be put to death, and the first three (listed above) concerned religious matters. During its heyday, the Puritan system leaned toward the theocracy model discussed in the Introduction. In this colony, the Puritan churches controlled the government and Puritans were very serious about using both religious and political organizations to create their vision of society modeled on their religious beliefs. As we will see in this chapter, religion and politics were very much intertwined in colonial times, but there were substantial variations from one colony to another—ranging from a leaning toward theocracy in Massachusetts Bay Colony to establishment in some colonies to disestablishment in Rhode Island.

This chapter concerns religion and politics in the colonies prior to the American Revolution, and the next chapter will examine religiouspolitical linkages during the revolutionary era and the founding of the United States. To understand relationships between politics and religion in the development of the United States, we must first examine some important colonial roots. Religious and political experiences in the early colonies had an impact on the framing of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and state constitutions. These arrangements in turn affected the course of the history of the United States. As we have shown in the Introduction, religion and politics both can be sources of meaning and power in people's lives; this was very much the case in the colonies.

We will begin with the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and describe their legacy for political development. Next we will examine important developments in other British colonies, such as the growth of religious tolerance in Rhode Island, the pluralism of the middle colonies, and the weakness of religious establishments in the southern colonies. Then we turn to two important eighteenth-century forces that helped shape the future of politics and religion in the United States: the Great Awakening (a Calvinistic, evangelical religious revival—one that echoes today in Christian television broadcasts) and rational religion (focusing on reason). Here are some of the major questions to be approached in this chapter:

• What was the Puritan covenant and how did it influence the political development of the United States?
• What links were there between the Puritans' religious organization and their community's civil government?
• How did Congregationalism among Puritans contribute to the development of democracy?
• What was the view of Puritans concerning religious tolerance?
• How did Rhode Island start and how did it become a symbol of religious tolerance?
• How did religious pluralism develop in the middle colonies?
• What was the Great Awakening and how did it affect religion and politics in the colonies?
• What was rational religion and how was it different from traditional religion?
• How did rational religion and the pietistic religion of the Great Awakening join forces in order to support the American Revolution?

Throughout this examination, certain key issues are involved. As you read this chapter—and much of this entire book—keep in mind key issues that concern the proper relationship between:

• church and state
• the church and the individual
• the state and the individual
• different groups with conflicting religious beliefs.

Some Qualifications About the Examination of Colonial America

The colonies that we will examine eventually became the original United States. Thus, developments in these colonies have had the greatest influence in shaping the history of political-religious linkages in the United States. These colonies were all British, although New York was Dutch until 1664 and other immigrants (e.g., Swedish) preceded the British in some colonial areas. Further, the colonists were primarily Protestants. However, there were other, non-British or non-Protestant influences during this period that affected the development of the United States as we know it today.

First, when European settlers came to this country, it had already been “discovered” and was already occupied. At the time in which Europeans began to settle what is now the United States, there were millions of Native Americans who had already settled it. While the diverse religious views of Native Americans do not seem to have had a direct, pronounced effect on political-religious practices in the United States, it seems likely that the interactions of European settlers and Native Americans produced at least some effect on political-religious developments in the U.S.

Second, British Protestants were not the first settlers in the new world. Spanish Catholics led the way; the oldest permanent European settlement in the United States was in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565 by Spanish Catholics. Further, French Catholics were busy making settlements later in areas that eventually became part of the United States. Thus, while the British Protestant colonies became the original United States, French and Spanish settlements were added later. Further, settlers also came from other countries such as Germany, Sweden, and Holland.

Third, during the colonial period (and afterward) many thousands of black Africans of diverse cultural backgrounds were brought to this country as slaves. The interactions of European settlers with black slaves influenced the political-religious development of the United States. As we will describe further in Chapter 9, slaveowners sometimes used religion to bring about acceptance and compliance among black slaves; however, this religion also provided support for black Americans in their quest for racial equality (e.g., the crucial role of black churches in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s).

The Massachusetts Bay Colony: Puritans

Motives for the Colony

The Puritan colonists who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to the new world at least partly for religious motives. They came here from England in order to live their lives more in accord with their own religious views than had been possible in England.

Prior to the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church was the church in Europe. During the sixteenth century, men such as Luther and Calvin brought about the Protestant Reformation. Following the Reformation, some countries (e.g., Spain) were still Catholic and some became Protestant. In England, for personal rather than religious motives. King Henry VIII broke relations with the Catholic Church, established the Church of England (the Anglican Church), and made himself the head of this church.

The Puritans were Protestants who wanted to purify the Church of England. While some Puritans (e.g., the Pilgrims) wanted to separate from the Church of England completely, the Puritans who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony wanted to continue their formal affiliation with the Church of England while at the same time practicing their own beliefs about what this church ought to be. During the hostile reigns of James I and Charles I, many Puritans decided it would be better to go elsewhere to practice their beliefs. Thus, Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630; over the next decade, more than twenty thousand Puritans migrated to this colony.

The Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were congregationalists. Various settlements in this area had their own churches, each of which was based around the congregation. Each congregation selected its own minister and made its own decisions, within limits. All congregations were tied together by an overall structure and a fairly uniform set of beliefs and practices; no congregation was free to break off from the others.

The Covenant

The Puritans saw themselves in a very special light. In the biblical exodus, Jews escaped from Egypt to travel to a new land promised to them by God. The Puritans saw themselves as the new chosen people and the new world was the new Israel; the old world was the old Egypt from which they were escaping. They made a covenant with God: if God took them safely to the new world, they would build a society governed by divine laws. John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, likened the colony to a “City upon a Hill” with the eyes of the world upon it. The Puritans would set an example for the world. This kind of thinking has persisted in the United States: Americans often view themselves as having a special mission to serve as an example for the rest of the world.

Given the conspicuous position of the Puritan experiment in the eyes of the world, God would punish the colony severely for transgressions. The covenant was an agreement of the colonists with each other and with God; thus, this contract obligated the whole community. This covenant was to be reflected in both religious and political organizations. While separate institutions, the church and the state were each to support and protect the other. Church attendance was required for everyone, and everyone contributed to the financial support of the church.

This concept of a covenant among people became very important in the later political history of the country. When the Founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, the concept of a social contract was crucial: individuals entered into a contract with government in which they gave their consent to be governed in return for protection of their inalienable rights. This social contract was very different from the Puritan covenant and it was based on the writings of John Locke rather than the ideas of the Puritans. However, two points are in order. First, covenant theology preceded the work of John Locke and probably influenced his thinking about the social contract between citizens and the government. Second, the covenant theology of the Puritans had prepared people to think in terms of a social contract. The covenant theology prepared people to think of commitment to agreements and obligations to God and other members of the community in return for certain benefits for all within the community. The social contract shifted the emphasis to a covenant between the individual and the government.

The Elect and Citizenship

In the Puritan covenant, church members elect the government. Thus, there is a democratic tendency here. Cowing (1971: 39) notes that there were three classic forms of church organization (episcopal, presbyterian, and congregational) and that many people associated these three (respectively) with monarchy, republicanism, and democracy in the secular world. The idea that the congregation is the basic source of governance for the church definitely has implications for later notions of democracy. However, only the full-covenant church members could elect the government and full-covenant church members constituted only a small fraction of the population—no more than one-fifth of the population (Miller and Johnson, 1938: 191), and perhaps only about 8 percent (Reichley, 1985: 56), or maybe even only 6 percent (Fowler 1985: 14).

In order to be a full-covenant church member, a person had to demonstrate spiritual regeneration. Based on Calvinism, the Puritans believed that some people—the elect—had been selected by God to receive regeneration and that others had been passed over. This was God's choice and it had nothing to do with the behavior of the individual. A person could not earn salvation through good works; God elected people to receive grace regardless of their actions; once they had received spiritual regeneration, they lost any liberty except to do God's will. Those who had received grace became a community of living saints and were under a sacred obligation to act accordingly.

Even though the members of the church were saints, this did not mean that they were without sin. The depravity of human nature—based on the concept of original sin—is a constant theme in Puritan thought. Puritans believed that people are sinful by nature and that no one can escape sinfulness; thus, human behavior is tainted by sin. However, the Puritan covenant community was to follow divine law as much as was humanly possible.

Everyone in the community was a member of the congregation and must attend church and support the church. Only those who went through the arduous process of demonstrating their spiritual regeneration could become full members of the church—and thus gain a say in the civil government as well. The civil government had authority over everyone in the community, but it was controlled only by those who were full church members.

Puritan Intolerance

The Puritans believed that they had a mission, and they wanted to keep their efforts on track; thus, they enforced strict conformity to their beliefs. Efforts to maintain this religious conformity resulted in intolerance, persecution, and exile (Gaustad, 1990:65). In addition to conformity in religious views, Chidester (1988: 34) points out that everyone had to attend church, people had to live in a family setting rather than singly, everyone had to learn to read in order to read the Bible, their personal behavior and dress were carefully regulated, and they were expected to monitor each other's moral behavior. Chidester (1988: 34) concludes that as a result of this tight network of social relationships, any departure from the established pattern was regarded as a danger to the entire social fabric.

The Puritans did not believe in religious tolerance; on the contrary, the Puritans rejected the idea of religious tolerance (Miller and Johnson, 1938; Miller, 1989; Reichley, 1985; Chidester, 1988). They believed that only the truth shou...