Exodus to America

Last night I went to the first showing of a new series on TPT called "God in America". (DeAne, thanks for setting this up, it was a lot of fun!)  It talked about how religion started to shape American history beginning with the first settlers.  One theme throughout the show is how our country is becoming very gradually more tolerant of different religions.  This point is debatable, since much of the political far right have used their Christian faith as a shield and a sword.  It protects them from having to explain or communicate their values because it's assumed that "family values" are more or less the same for any Christian household.  Being a devout follower of one faith can make one feel vindicated to dismiss all others, as is the case with the new mosque that's proposed to be built near ground zero in New York.  Anyway, it is a great show, and connects a lot to what we're learning in class.

In the show they compared the Puritans exodus from England to America to that of the Israelites from Egypt to Mount Sinai.  This reminded me of my religion class, Judaism's Bible, because we're studying the book of Exodus.  In this story, Moses convinces the Israelites that they are God's chosen people, and that they are saved.  Moses tells Pharaoh, "'We will all go, young and old: we will go with our sons and daughters, our flocks and herds; for we must observe the Lord's festival.'" (The Jewish Study Bible, 123).  It's not that the Israelites were being freed from slavery and oppression and given absolute freedom.  It's that they are shredding the contract with the one master in order to get their new contract with God, their rightful master.

The Puritans had a similar idea.  They fled England in order to serve God in the way they thought was right, including more freedom for individuals to interpret the Bible themselves instead of being told by a Pope or Priest what to believe.  However, they weren't really free.  Instead they put their lives in the hands of God and decided to follow a strict moral code and code of conduct.  In terms of religious freedom, people get the freedom to practice or not practice whichever religion they want.  Once one is a part of a religion, there's not complete personal freedom but there is the freedom of choosing which rules and which beliefs to uphold.