Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
But, speaking of gaps: look at the alternative. Elsewhere, at the same time, ecclesiastical/political powers in other societies were randomly choosing people for human sacrifice to make the gods happy so that it would rain. And so forth. The society established by the Pilgrims, while quite imperfect, was arguably more Christ-oriented and Christ-like than many, if not most, of their peers.
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If we are talking about degrees and the whole world then of course there is always somewhere better or worse. But in the context of the Pilgrims their knowledge base at the time was what was going on in England and to a lesser degree the Continent and especially the Netherlands. So we are really talking about a "Christian" context. They left a "Christianized" country. England was a country completely engrossed in Christianity. They were not offering human sacrifices to make the gods happy, etc. Even the coronation of their kings and queens was done (and still is) in a church. The King James version of the Bible was being translated. The name of Christ was completely interwoven into their political process and national narrative.
So what was the problem? The state/country favored a certain church i.e. the Church of England and it gave the clergy of this church a lot of power and they used this power to persecute dissenters i.e. other Christians who disagreed with them. Once the Pilgrims got to MA they did the very same thing. Was MA more "Christian" than England. Not really they were just a different brand. Was MA more Christian than tribes offering children as sacrifices to their gods in central Africa? Of course!