Note: I really don’t know much about this and haven’t done much research…these are my thoughts based on what you get taught in school, so.

Nobody likes the Puritans.

In my state, the order of the history curriculum ensures that you learn that first in fourth grade, then in eighth, but I’m sure other areas of the US have a different timeline. If you live in Massachusetts, I’m sure you get it in your state history class too.

Yeah, we’ve learned (a couple of times) about how the Massachusetts Puritans escaped England in search of religious freedom—then developed a religious community from which you could be exiled simply for practicing another form of Christianity. I mean, how much more hypocritical can you get?

It’s not a great legacy to leave—from what I’ve seen, pretty much everyone hates them.

Or, everyone except a ton of Christians, apparently? While from one side I’ve been getting the message preached at me that the Puritans were just utter bags of hypocritical crap, I’ve had pastors and parents and religious authorities telling me about their incredible contributions and how we should emulate their religious fervor. I’ve always been a bit sceptical. Like, you can say that now, but when you travel back in time to sing their praises and they see your wife wearing pants or something and run you out of town, you won’t be so enthusiastic.

And yet, I find myself even more sceptical of the anti-Puritan propaganda (okay, that’s not really what it is, but still) I’ve been fed at school, especially when I can tell it’s poorly researched and inaccurate. I had a very enlightening experience several months ago when I was forced to listen to an educational song about the Massachusetts Puritans sung to the tune of the original, 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme. (I can’t decide whether to pity or laugh at the man who creates these for a living, but I’m certain he has an empty and purposeless life.)

“We’re not flawed!” The man shouted in a cartoon-y voice, replacing the part of the song where Raphael is supposed to say, “Hey, get a grip!”.

Wow.

Talk about missing the point.

Not to say that individual members of that community couldn’t have had this mindset, but the reason for the Massachusetts Puritans’ strict society wasn’t that they thought they weren’t flawed—it was because they knew they were. This man seemed to have the assumption that if religious people followed a large set of rules, it was always because they thought everyone in their community was perfect—and were of course creating the rules to control…someone else, not even under their authority. Obviously.

Because that makes sense.

Clearly, a lot of people criticize the Massachusetts Puritans and the way they incorporated very specific religious restrictions into their law and society before taking the time to learn anything about them or even ponder what a human might reasonably do or think. And, while they certainly had issues, I find that people often take for granted that their having laws based on their religion was some kind of heinous evil and greatly reduced people’s freedoms…when it’s more complicated than that.

The Massachusetts Puritans were part of a group made up of people with similar beliefs, who all wanted to live in the same type of community. They left England together and shared the same story. It was a long, perilous journey to the New World—not something people would make to join a society whose customs they dislike—and they created a small town composed only of people who had agreed to be there (by deciding to travel over with them).

If my family and I lived in the wilderness alone, we would live by the rules of our family. If I chose to move to a little socialist commune and share all my resources and all that, I would live by the rules and customs of that society.

Just because a government structure (like socialism or the government of the Puritans in Massachusetts and all their religious rules) wouldn’t work in a massive nation doesn’t mean it could never work at all.

You’d be surprised how many things can work just fine in a small group of people who agree to it.

Yeah, the Puritans had some weird theology. And yeah, they did…exile people for preaching different forms of Christianity. But the people preaching those beliefs or practicing illegal things had agreed to be part of a Puritan community, and agreed to Puritanism.

They made the choice to experience great difficulty to be part of that community, and even had a hand in creating it.

Just because the rules of a tiny village aren’t the same as the governance of the United States of America doesn’t mean there’s nothing good about them. Different societies have different ways of functioning, and that in itself is okay.

As long as people have a choice in being part of a community, and can leave when they choose (more and less possible at different times…), there’s nothing wrong with that—at least, assuming the laws aren’t immoral and don’t have immoral punishments.

Let’s not be so quick to judge history.

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