by Kimberly Huggins-Staudt

Created on: November 19, 2010   Last Updated: November 20, 2010

A look back into our nation's history shows that, when the people that eventually boarded ships, and set sail for America in 1620, and again in 1630, it was because they had become fed up with having no freedom of choice as it related to their religious practices. That included the choice to worship as they saw fit. According to a report in The Library of Congress, “......religion was, to quote Alexis de Tocqueville's observation, indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions.”

In Europe, at the time of The Pilgrims departure for The New World (1620), there existed a widely held and enforceable doctrine that there was but one religion and only one way to worship God. The majority of Catholics and Protestants alike subscribed to this dogma. Those that believed differently were branded as Heretics and often suffered atrocious punishments for their beliefs. Protestants were drowned, Catholic priest were disemboweled, and the list of horrors went on and on. This persecution is what led The Pilgrims to board The Mayflower and set sail for America.

Starting in the 1630's, the Puritans fled the religious persecution that had become rampant across Europe. Some came to America hoping for better opportunities, but the majority came as a direct and express wish to worship God as they saw fit.

The Puritans were English Protestants who wanted to purify the Church of England of unacceptable leftovers of Roman Catholic influences. Those that chose not to conform to the “accepted norms” of the Church was often punished and labeled by The Church as Seditionists. The punishments carried out were harsh, and included such things as property confiscation, imprisonment, physical torture, and branding.

Under circumstances such as these, it is no wonder that these believers would want to seek a land where they were free to practice their religion in ways that would not bring persecution down upon them. The Puritans were not unlike the the Pilgrims, who came to Massachusetts in 1620. The Puritans came looking for religious freedom. They believed the Church of England, while being the One True Church, need reforming.  Beginning in 1630 as many as 20,000 Puritans emigrated to America from England to gain the liberty to worship God as they chose.

The Pilgrims were English Separatists, that broken away from the Church of England because they did not believe it had done enough to bring about The Reformation. They first fled to Holland, before joining another group in South Hampton, England to emigrate to America.

The Puritans, on the other hand, left England any Europe believing that The Church of England was the one True Church, in need of overhauling.

Both groups left Europe and England with a desire to start over in America, where they had the opportunity to worship as they believed, to hold true to their faith.

The question has been asked: "Was America founded as a Christian Nation?" The answer is "Yes", as thousands of Christians came to America's shores in the 1600's looking for a place to call home where they were free to practice their religion, which, at that time in history, was Christianity.

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