The net has been filled lately about how christian church was the
driving force behind the making of America and how the Puritan ethics
made this country great. How they escaped from tyranny and persecution
to come over here. With all this talk about how all the puritan came over
to escape persecusion, its humorous to note that they immediately set up
their own set of persecusions. The following quote is from Allen Sherman's
_The_Rape_Of_TheA*P*E*_:

            By the time the Mayflower arrived, America had already been
        going down the uptight staircase for eight years - since 1612,
        when the Jamestown Code was written. The spelling was abominable,
        but the meaning was clear:

                No man shal commit the horrible, and detestable sins
                of Sodomie upon pain of death; & he or she that can
                be lawfully convict of Adultery shall be punished with
                death. No man shall ravish or force any woman, maid
                or Indian, or other, upon pain of death, and ... he
                or shee, that shall commit fornication and evident
                proofe made thereof, for their first fault shall be
                whipt....

            The Puritans weren't just fooling around either. There is a
        famous story of a sailor, returned from a threeyear voyage. When
        his wife came to the door, he hugged her right there on the doorstep.
        Unfortunately it was Sunday, and they were observed. He was thrown in
        the stockade for three more years.

            Condemned prisonors, standing on the gallows with their necks
        already in the noose, were forced to listen to morality sermons.
        One such was delivered by a hellfire preacher named Jonathan Edwards,
        of Northampton, Massachusetts:

                The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as
                one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the
                fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. You are
                ten times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful
                and venomous serpent ... if you cried to God to pity
                you, He will be so far from pitying you in your doleful
                case, or showing you the least regard or favor, that
                instead of that He will only tread you underfoot.

            After 20 minutes of that, it must have been a pleasure to
        be hanged.

    After reading that, aren't you glad the Puritans escaped to America
so that they could spread their special version of "love" and "freedom"?
If that was an example of what the Puritans contributed to America, I feel
we could have done well enough without thankyou. Because of the subject
matter I thought net.singles would get a kick out of it too, by if you
going to make a strictly religeous commentary on this, post it to just
talk.religion.misc and I promise to do the same.

                                Enjoyed this Immensely,

                                Dave Butler

    Remember: Silly is a state of Mind, Stupid is a way of Life.