Shock of the Old--The Pilgrims voice

[whirlygigspin]

The American Prospect
By Garance Franke-Ruta
Issue Date: 11.1.03

"Win or lose, Howard Dean has become town crier for a liberalism that long predates FDR"---long long before.


"Dean is, without a doubt, an odd vessel for the quasi-religious fervor he has inspired. He almost never mentions God in his stump speeches and he rarely goes to church himself. Nevertheless, his rhetoric -- like his campaign structure -- is deeply grounded in the social practices of a branch of radical Protestantism whose tenets still wield power in the structures of Vermont's government. The Pilgrims who gave America its foundational governing documents and ideas -- ideas that Dean now routinely references -- created a society based partly on the anti-authoritarian religious principles of Congregationalism, their religion (and, since the early '80s, Dean's)."

--snip--

"Congregationalism, the dominant religion of colonial and early federal life, had by the 20th century become an obscure New England denomination about as relevant to modern life as covered bridges. Yet the legacy of the Congregationalists -- and their Unitarian descendants -- is one of the most powerful forces in the history of the American North. It was Congregationalists who landed the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock in 1620. Their descendants founded America's elite colleges, such as Harvard and Yale, and some of its most liberal ones, such as Oberlin and Amherst. Where the South bred agrarian populists and Baptist revivals, the North churned out Unitarian and Congregationalist ministers."

read the whole article:

http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/10/franke-ruta-g.html
By Garance Franke-Ruta

[realFedUp]

1. huh?

Someone more knowledeable than I can explain the tie in
between Dean's popularity and Congregationalism.

[Gin]

2. God need not be mentioned...fair treatment represents the God

force in the Universe. He speaks of fairness.

A person who invokes the name of God for self serving purposes...raises red flags in my mind.

I like how Dean thinks, and speaks. He will get my vote.(by God)

[DivinBreuvage]

3. From the reading I've done,

The first New Englanders (I mean the European immigrants) were distrustful of royal authority long before they came here (they had settled in Holland some years previous because they couldn't deal with life under the English monarchs), and even in the early days of the settlements the Crown had sporadic trouble keeping them in line.

Contrary to popular belief, however, in many ways they were actually rather progressive for their time. I was surprised to learn that in general they:

believed that it was essential to educate every citizen, not just the wealthy or well-born;

recommended love and gentleness as the best way to discipline children, with the "rod" to be used only as a last resort;

viewed the pleasures of eating, drinking, playing, and sex as positive boons to humankind insofar as the temperate enjoyment of them fortified one for more vigorous service to God;

held that cruel or neglectful husbands, parents, or masters were as big a threat to the spiritual health of the community as disobedient wives, children or servants, and made a serious effort to punish such in the courts.

One issue on which they were not progressive, of course, was religion, expelling dissenters like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchison and scourging or even executing Quakers. This is partly due to the fact that having lived for so long as small, tight-knit groups of social equals they were intensely community-minded, and believed that an individual who lived an ungodly life would bring divine wrath down not just upon himself and his family but upon the community in which he lived. (On the positive side, if the community was righteous it would enjoy God's blessing and everyone would benefit materially.)

In "Everyday Life in Early America" David Freeman Hawke draws an interesting contrast between small, stable New England towns which fostered civic awareness and community spirit, and the early southern plantation system where the idea was to use up a piece of land growing cash crops and then move on. The New England Puritans developed a stable, prosperous society with a strong public education system; the Virginia planters didn't.

By the time of the Revolution New England was regarded as the hotbed of rebellion, the home of the most radical and energetic revolutionaries. For a long time the British believed that if they could only isolate New England from the rest of America the Revolution would wither on the vine. Continental Army officers from the middle colonies and the south discovered that it was much harder to get New England troops to follow orders than other soldiers.

During the slavery crisis and the Civil War New England, and especially Massachusetts, were frequently blamed as having done most in the north to cause trouble because of their radical abolitionism.

We all know that even today New England has the reputation of being the most liberal region of America.

I've always loved New England precisely because of that history and that reputation, God bless you all! I dream of living there one day.

Françoise

[dwckabal]

6. Ahh, but don't confuse

the Puritans with the Pilgrims (Separatists), a mistake that a lot of people make.

[DivinBreuvage]

7. Thanks, dwckabal.... a quick question for you...

I've heard this caution before but still haven't learned to keep it in mind, probably because I'm not entirely clear on the distinction between the two. I'll take a closer look at it, but in the meantime I'd appreciate any info you could share.

Also, apart from my error in stating that the Puritans lived in Holland (which I don't believe invalidates the rest of the paragraph), do you notice anywhere else I was mistakenly talking about Pilgrims?

Thanks,
Françoise

[whirlygigspin]

4. this may help (to:realfedup)

from the article:

"It all comes out of the Vermont political tradition centered on the small town. "Congregational government puts power in the hands of the people to determine what they want at a scale that people can relate to,"
-snip-
"prized by both the church and by the secular structures of the state of Vermont, so that in many ways a similar pattern of participation exists both in the church and the civil society. Vermont hasn't abandoned it."

--The people powered Howard theme...you have the power...et cetera.
"anti-authoritarian principles" appeal to the left as well as libertarians and independents and those who beleive in participatory democracy.

(I think that may explain part of the popularity) how's that?

[izzie]

5. Well Dean does seem like a good man more than the 'Bible group"

But then I am a member of the Congregational Church and the family have been since before they went to Holland and then came here. They were the people who signed the Mayflower compact and they would never have made it without the whole 'village' pulling together,It may take a village, as the saying goes. I do like the way Dean thinks and this may be why. Same thoughts have been drilled in to him as to me.It is also true that the first to settle in a place sets up laws and so those beliefs are sort of in our country just because we got here first. No it does not make them right but they are just their when others come behind you.