It was founded explicitly as a Christian nation in 1620 by the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock who sailed here on the Mayflower.
No, stupid, the pilgrims are not the same as the founding fathers
and the Pilgrims of the Plymouth colony were different than the Puritan founders of the Mass Bay Colony who were different than the Roger Williams who was kicked out, and formed Rhode Island, let alone the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the Catholics in Maryland, and the Anglicans of Virginia.
(and of course, assorted early Jewish synagogues.)
The Pilgrims were a Hippie commune compared to the Puritans’ capitalism.
Those are just facts, and we know mythology is much stronger than facts in the US today.
Didn’t some states even ban Catholics? Even the idea of what is “Christianity” is up for debate. Catholics, Protestants, Othodox and even Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses disagree on what a “Christian” is.
And the fact that the 1607 Virginia colony was founded earlier and solely as a commercial venture.
And yes, those Puritans & Separatists who set themselves up in Massachusetts Bay & Plymouth didn’t set up “our country.” They set up a religious dictatorship that executed and exiled other sects, like Quakers and Baptists. And, oh yeah, witches too.
This is what happens when the Internet effectively lowers the barriers of entry to zero and anyone with a microphone can potentially draw millions of listeners – and millions of dollars. Networks of decades past wouldn’t have given this kind of bullshit air and it would have been limited to fringe pamphlets handed out at Bircher rallies.
That’s exactly it. The very democratization of information that was supposed to be the liberating part about the internet has instead opened the floodgates to fascist propaganda and disinformation. Any smooth talker with some inexpensive equipment and decent production sense can become an instant thought leader despite having no discernible expertise or talent.
It’s worth noting that it was the rapid spread of new communication technology that enabled the last rise of fascism too.
The Volksempfänger (“people’s receiver”) was a range of low-cost German radio receivers developed by engineer Otto Griessing at the request of Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda of the Nazi regime.
Its purpose was to make radio reception technology affordable to the general public. Goebbels realized the great propaganda potential of this relatively new medium and thus considered widespread availability of receivers highly important.
1936 Nazi propaganda poster, promoting the use of the Volksempfänger. The text can be translated as, “All of Germany hears the Führer with the People’s Receiver.”
Nazis pioneered broadcast television as well.
Word Salad for breakfast.
Half that lot stayed behind, and the passenger list had to be made up from scraping the streets of London in order to make the trip profitable on that old scow.
The colony was very much a mix of “Saints” and “Strangers”. My ancestor Edward Bumpus, who arrived on the ship Fortune in 1621, was very much of the latter category, and notable as America’s first welfare deadbeat. His origins are uncertain, and one theory is that he was one of the “lusty young men” of the Southwark docks.
As long as we’re sharing lusty progenitors, Ahem:
John Howland arrived as the indentured servent to the Carvers, a childless couple who then very conveniently died the very next Sping. Of course, this broke the indenture, and he somehow inherited the entire lot.
He then proceeded to marry Elizabeth Tilley, another Mayflower passenger, producing ten children, each of whom married in turn, spewing another 8-10 apiece. By the third generation, then, we’re dealing with some 75+ people.
John also brought over his brothers Henry and Arthur, each of whom appeared nearly as busy between the sheets.
The real kicker on the last two is that they turned Quaker by mid-century, and promptly got booted to Dartmouth Township, a tract purchased from the Natives, and extending from Fairhaven to the RI border. The Joke was on the Plymouth Colony when New Bedford became fabulously wealthy from whaling, including Howland descendant Henrietta Howland Greene!
They didn’t land on Plymouth Rock – that’s a myth. Like everything else this guy claims.
No, you idiot. It was “founded,” after a fashion, in 1607, when English settlers built Jamestown, in what is now Virginia. Religion had nothing much to do with that one; they were looking to make a profit. They didn’t, but the settlement held, unlike the earlier effort at Roanoke, in what is now NC. The pilgrims were latecomers in 1620; slavery had already arrived in Virginia, in 1619.
Our Founding Fathers made sure that the country they were creating was NOT Christian. They rejected an established church, did not mention Christianity in any of our founding documents, and made their intentions clear in both letters and treaties. Some individuals, certainly, were ardent Christians, like William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. Others, like Thomas Jefferson, rejected the divinity of Jesus. He removed the supernatural happenings and miracles from the Bible, creating a work he called “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.” Most of the Founding Fathers were Deists, not Christian. We are, thanks to them, a secular nation, Mr. Knowles–welcoming all faiths and none–and we need to stay that way.
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