This sounds like the old days with Bruce! I did some scanning and came upon
a brief of Roger Williams that contained the other side of the coin
regarding this land thing, as follows:
In the U.S., we can take it for granted that people are free to follow any
belief they wish. Elsewhere, this often isn't the case. During the 17th
century, people left England to escape religious persecution. Many
colonists came to America to be able to freely practice their religions.
Roger Williams was a defender of religious liberty who arrived in Boston on
February 5, 1631. Ordained to the ministry in the Church of England,
Williams discovered Puritanism, a reform movement that developed within the
Church of England, during his first parish duty. He converted. Soon after,
he was asked to be minister in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Leaving behind
the religious intolerance under England's King Charles I, he and his wife
journeyed across the ocean to join the "American Experiment" in Boston in
1631. At first, Williams just wanted to reform the Church of England; soon,
he sought separation completely. Many of Williams's parishioners did not
agree with his idea to separate from the Church of England. He then became
minister in Salem. There, his ideas also proved too radical. He went to
Plymouth but again fell into disfavor. [ Williams insisted that land must
be purchased from the Indians, rather than taken from them forcefully, in
order to claim title to it.] He again went to Salem and was eventually put
on trial in 1635 for his views. His sentence was banishment. [ Williams
then purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and established the
settlement of Providence, Rhode Island.] Williams founded the colony of
Rhode Island based upon principles of complete religious toleration,
separation of church and state, and political democracy (values that the
U.S. would later be founded upon). It became a refuge for people persecuted
for their religious beliefs. Anabaptists, Quakers, and Jews settled in
Rhode Island. After forming the first Baptist church in America, Williams
left it to seek spirituality in different ways. He stopped preaching to his
friends, the Indians, when he realized that their form of worship also fell
under his principle of religious freedom. He declared, "forced worship
stinks in God's nostrils." Williams's ideas were radical at the time, but
can you imagine living in a place without religious freedom now?
[Original Message]
From: Lloyd Brown <lloyd.john.brown(a)gmail.com>
To: <carpenter(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: 4/18/2009 3:58:54 PM
Subject: Re: [CARPENTER] CARPENTER Digest, Vol 4, Issue 19
Thank you Gene Z. for your usual scholarly knowledge of our early New
England Carpenters.
Well, if we can't document William of Providence's role in the early
history
of the Baptist church perhaps we can make him a founding father of
the
property rights crowd? It sounds like his numerous land disputes would
make
him a natural for the "steal your neighbors land, steal land
from the
government, etc." folks.
To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
CARPENTER-request(a)rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the
quotes in the subject and the body of the message