Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to You know that's an enormous leap, right?

Rhode Island.
Jacob — (archived)

Rhode Island is the birth of "Separation of Church and State".
In 1663, thanks to the work of a noted Baptist preacher who set up settlements there, King Charles 2 gave Rhode Island its colonial charter
with religious tolerance and separation of church and state
inserted into the charter.

[King Charles quietly did this out of sympathy for Catholics, who supported him, but who were kept from 'legal' public worship by Parliament's pro-Anglican legislation, persecuting other faiths and denominations... Ironically, Rhode Island did not become a haven for large numbers of Catholics until much later. "What a tangled web men weave!"]

If in 1664, you wanted to escape the Congregationalist/Puritan
persecution of other denominations, in say Massachusetts Colony,
where the Puritans controlled the local colonial government, you
could to Rhode Island to safely practice your faith.
Or if you lived in Virginia in 1664, and wanted to escape the
Anglican/Episcopallian persecution of other faiths, head to Rhode Island!"
Rhode Island's progressive colonial charter influenced
the creation of the US Constitution over a century later.

Now you know why "separation of church and state" was originally
meant to keep American governments from being controlled
by any particular denomination or faith to the exclusion and peril
of others.

So, whose doing the persecutions now? ACLU?

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (65 posts)