Dear Friend,

Following my Thanksgiving meal, I began musing how the the Pilgrims, who were undoubtedly Christian and sacrificed a great deal in the name of their Christian beliefs, resembled many modern American atheists in interesting ways: 

• When they worshipped in secret in northern England the Pilgrims followed their conscience in the face of societal opposition and sometimes persecution.

• Because they believed God had preordained everything, there was nothing an individual could do during their life that would cause them to be saved (or damned), so they basically chose to live a moral life anyway (treatment of Indigenous people aside).

• The Pilgrims did not celebrate Christmas and Easter, believing that these holidays were invented by man to memorialize Jesus, and are not included in the Bible and therefore cannot be considered holy days. The legitimacy of the Pope, the Saints, bishops, and the church hierarchy were rejected, as was the veneration of relics.

• The Pilgrims considered marriage a civil affair to be handled by the State. Icons and religious symbols such as crosses, statues, stained-glass windows, and other worldly manifestations of religion were rejected as a form of idolatry.  

• The church building itself had no significance to the Pilgrims and was kept intentionally drab and plain. In fact, the Pilgrim's church was the bottom floor of the town's fort. The top floor held six cannons. The church room was also the town's meetinghouse, where court sessions and town meetings took place (probably America’s first church-state separation problem).

Not saying they were atheists of course, or anything close to that, but they knew church sanctimony when they saw it. Anyway, I hope you were able to enjoy time with friends, family, or community members this past week.