The Wordy Shipmates, Chapters 16-20 Response

Harry Vane, who appears in Vowell's writing first in chapter 16, is a great example of who people would give up everything they had going for themselves, in favor of a Puritanical lifestyle. For anyone to give up their lives in pursuit of what they feel is better is an example of great dedication, and even more so when they have as much going for them as Harry did. It is also not a coincedence that the two years Harry spent in his new settlement were the most eventful years that had ever occured.

Roger Williams is still around, and is as much a separatist as ever. The church deals with him the same way they deal with all their problems; by banishing him. After all, he was making suggestions. New ideas. Bad Williams. I wonder why none of the church members couldn't just have said: "Can't we just leave him and his followers alone and be happy that they burn in hell?" After all, the Puritans wanted heaven to be difficult to get into, and the best thing that would happen by converting Williams is that in 30 years they would be having tea with Williams in heaven, and I would imagine that a separatist in heaven would be quite disruptive. The good news for Williams is that after being tossed about in the winter cold for a while, he stumbled upon Rhode Island, where he got settlement permission from the natives there, and where he led his own free spirited, religously free town.

It is curious as to how the Puritans thought that they had the right to convert the Natives religiously. Afterall, the Natives intertwined their religion into life as much as the Puritans did, and they had been worshiping their gods just as long as the Puritans had been worshiping Jesus, if not longer. The Natives had just a much of a right to press their religion on the Puritans. In fact, I am sure that when the topic came up, it went something like this:

Puritan #1: "And then , you see, Jesus arose from the dead."

Puritan #2: "Now do you understand?"

Native #1: "..."

Native #2: "Uh... So you are saying that he came back to life, right?"

Puritan #1: "Yea, thats right."

Native #1: "After being nailed to a cross, beaten, left to die, then buried in a cave?"

Puritan #2: "Yep."

Native #1: "O.K., well, I am having a little trouble believing this, largely on the part that ressurection of the dead is impossible."

Native #2: "Yes, where did you say that your religion derived from again?"

Puritan #1: "Well, you see, Jesus had these desciples, and the bible is the desciples' accounts."

Native #1: "So we could right a book about our religion and in 1,753 years people would take it as their own?"

Puritan #2: "Well, no. You are not desciples of Jesus, you see."

Native #1: "But why do we need to be? Surely their was religion before Christianity, how can you say that you are right on the matter? The same questions must have arised many years ago when Christianity was formed. So we could be just as right, if not more so, than you are."

Narrator: (Puritan #1pulls out muzzle loader, shoots Native #1 in the face)

Puritan #2 to Native #2: "Sooo.... Are you ready to accept our lord Jesus Christ as your savior?"

Native #2: "Are you going to kill me if I don't?"

Puritan #1+2: "Probably."

Afterall, the general Puritanical/ Christian approach has been to kill those who get in the way of the church. In the Pequot war, the English are both wronged and disrespected by the Pequot, and therefore siezed the opportunity to go on a mission of justice, ie; War. They also helped themselves to any personal belongings they saw fit. The English used the Pequot as an example. You don't cross us, and if you do, we will kill you.