I responded to your assertion that: "I'm sorry but this country was founded on the ideals of the Enlightenment and not 'Christian liberty'" refuting that false assertion.
In response, you have somehow become sidetracked about Jamestown and Puritanism I suppose because you falsely believe the founders of Jamestown were not religious and this will somehow bolster your false assertion that Christianity did not play a role in the formation of the United States as a nation.
European settlers came from a variety of religious groups (e.g. the Dutch of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of Pennsylvania, the English Puritans of New England, the English settlers of Jamestown, and the "worthy poor" of Georgia).
Just because Jamestown was settled by Anglicans does not equate to them not wanting their Christian beliefs to affect their community. They certainly did as the evidence clearly shows.
The Church of England religion was central to the lives of the Jamestown settlers. Near the end of the voyage on April 29, the colonists erected a cross and gave thanks to God on a point of land they named Cape Henry in honor of the eldest son of King James.
Captain John Smith tells of the settlers landing at Jamestown in 1607 and erecting a crude temporary structure to use for church services. It was made from a sail stretched among the boughs of trees, sides of rails and benches made of unhewed tree trunks. The altar was made by nailing a log to two neighboring trees as a cross bar. Later that year, the settlers built the first real church building.
You need to understand that each Anglican settler was required to attend Anglican services or be punished. The Poles did not have to as they were Roman Catholic.
The puritans also settled in Virginia.
The historian Perry Miller has done seminal work on the American Puritans. One chapter in his book,
Errand Into The Wilderness, concerns Virginia:"When Lord De la Warr (Thomas West) arrived, just in time to save the colony, his first act even before his commission was read, was to hear 'a sermon made by Mr. Buck.'" (page 103, fifth printing 1976)
"The legend of Pocahontas is a classic of American mythology, but John Rolfe's own version of his love for the Indian maiden is less widely known. Rolfe cannot for a moment entertain the thought of this marriage unless he is certain that he is 'called hereunto by the spirit of God,' no matter how much he fancies himself in love."
"To discover a courtship conducted in this spirit is to realize that Virginia and New England were both recruited from the same type of Englishmen, pious, hard-working, middle class, accepting literally and solemnly the tenets of Puritanism." (pages 107-108, fifth printing 1976)
Of course, Puritans settled in Virginia. The first English plantations along the south shore within present-day Isle of Wight were established by Puritan colonists, beginning with that of Christopher Lawne in May 1618. Several members of the Puritan Bennett family also came to settle the area, including Richard Bennett who led the Puritans to neighboring Nansemond in 1635, and later became governor of the Virginia Colony.
What a shame. I ask for sources and you can't provide them and then continually make false accusations and try to misrepresent my views. SHOW ONE REPUTABLE SOURCE THAT PURITANS WERE THE PRINCIPLE FOUNDERS OF JAMESTOWN.
