tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4582751663390398171.post8133124942109557155..comments2023-11-03T17:20:18.270-07:00Comments on William & Mary Dyer: EnlightenedChristy K Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05988458745832012138noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4582751663390398171.post-19788550848409213522012-12-18T17:37:15.933-07:002012-12-18T17:37:15.933-07:00Comment on Goodreads, by Ken, of Fenton, Michigan:...Comment on Goodreads, by Ken, of Fenton, Michigan:<br /><br />Christy, Thank you for sharing this sympathetic opinion piece about Mary Dyer. I can't help but believe that the tribulations of Anne Hutchinson and her family,and those of her friend Mary Dyer and the other Quaker Martyrs, Marmakduke Stephenson, William Robinson, and William Leddra contributed in no small way to the acceptance of Roger Williams' revolutionary concepts of soul liberty and secular society, the inclusion of those principles in the Rhode Island Charter, and eventually in the First Amendment. Ours is a nation that was founded by Christians, more or less but which chose, beginning with Roger Williams' Rhode Island, later Jefferson and Madison, and finally with the 14th Amendment, that we could be a nation of Christians but we would not be a Christian nation - we could be a nation of Christians, Catholic and Protestant, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and everything else or nothing at all - how wonderfully unique at the time and still today. Christy K Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05988458745832012138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4582751663390398171.post-17263805604621284442012-12-18T12:50:47.672-07:002012-12-18T12:50:47.672-07:00Comment on Goodreads, by Ken, of Fenton, Michigan:...Comment on Goodreads, by Ken, of Fenton, Michigan:<br /><br />It must be the nature of our species to find comfort and security in conformity. Mary was a non-conformist with regard to Puritan religious beliefs of her time and indeed to many of the beliefs of modern Christian churches. Her death is an example of the worst in human nature, fear of anyone who does not conform, the need our species has to defend itself from the non-conformist, and how far we will go to insure conformity.<br /><br />"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."<br /><br />In the context of the death of Mary Dyer, the First Amendment denies government power to establish a state religion, as the Puritans did in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It denies government power to banish religious non-conformists as the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony did to Mary Dyer. It denies government power to punish religious disscenters who publicly speak their conscience as Mary Dyer did in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It denies government power to keep discenters from peaceably meeting together as Mary Dyer did with sympathetic supporters in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.<br /><br />The "Founding Fathers" or, to put it more precisly, the authors of the First Amendment, were keenly aware of the nature of our species to desire conformity yet, for some inspired reason, they were compelled to protect soul liberty, in private and in public. Mary Dyer must be shining brightly. Christy K Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05988458745832012138noreply@blogger.com