by Dr. Michael Smith

Created on: September 24, 2009

(My purpose in this series is to find the elements of the un-romanticized story of what we know of Pilgrims, and discover what they believed, thought, and felt and realize something of ourselves and the dangers we face in the twenty-first century in our interaction with this world. One of the great problems with history is the idea of writing truth. We are limited by our own views of what history ought to be and tend to read into the historical narrative our own views and make them fit a story which happened now more than 300 years ago. Hopefully, as a reader you will not be too antagonized by some realistic, unvarnished truth. As I have said many times, sadly, there is not much demand for truth today. MAS

As we approach the annual celebration known as Thanksgiving, a word should be said about these people we know as the Pilgrims. You see, as Americans we have a tendency to romanticize certain historical events and as Benjamin Franklin said, create a civic religion. Our forefathers are enshrined as the keeper of the divine idea that became America. Only in recent years has history moved away from the idea of a central narrative associated with nation building to consider the multitude of narratives that make up the story of America. America in not one storybut many stories, and varied. The Native American, the African slave, women, and a host of other marginalized groups, which have suffered omission from the historical narrative, have finally reached a point of at least some consideration. Consider some facts about Pilgrims that you may not realize is part of the real story.

Who were the Pilgrims?

The Pilgrims were a grassroots group of dissenters within the Anglican Church. They stayed in the Anglican Church and sought to reform it from within until conditions led them to become separatists. They rejected the elements of popery held over from the days when Roman Catholicism was the established religion of England. The break with Catholicism came when Henry VIII was denied a church divorce from his wife, resulting in the king establishing his own religion, with him as the head.

The Puritans' main concern was that the judgment of God would be brought on a country which did not enforce God's laws. The rule King James I (of King James Bible fame) concerned them because he half-heartedly sought to enforce existing laws, which they felt could dekay the pending judgment. Under James and his predecessor, Elizabeth I, parliament rose in power and the Puritans believed

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