By by Lorette C. Luzajic
Part 22 of Pillars of Faith
The Devil in You
In American Fascists, Chris Hedges refers to the Puritan roots of modern American theocracy. He points out that they came to abolish the devil, sanctioned by God to slaughter the native inhabitants.
Chris is not an atheist, so I hoped Dad would warm to his book about the dark side of Christianity. Sigh. Instead of acknowledging the superstitious mindset of Puritan life, he scrawled angrily in the margin, “NO DOCUMENTATION. JONATHAN EDWARDS WAS A MISSIONARY TO THE NATIVES.”
Yes, Dad, yes he was.
We are told the Puritans came from Europe to escape religious persecution, braving the seas to live godly lives. Few are told the Puritans had blood on their hands. Indeed, the root of the Irish hell between Catholics and Protestants is the Puritan desecration and slaughter of Catholic and Anglican churches, castles, monasteries, and their inhabitants.
Europe was saturated in witch hysteria: Catholics and Protestants were equal partners in this barbaric era. The Puritans brought the superstitions that fueled this blot in history with them to America. They were obsessed with devils. Demon possession was responsible for moles, birth defects, mental illness, stillborn children, bad crops, stormy seas. Satan was everywhere — he was seen in the flesh as a cloven-hoofed Negro, a deer, black cats, and of course, women.
His home was America, which God ordered the Puritans to purify. America, home of the savage pagan Indians, who had to be converted or killed.
Some Loathsome Insect
New England’s Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758, is considered by many the greatest preacher and theologian in America, ever. He was a brilliant man who studied at Yale at the age of 13, graduating by 17. He questioned age-old religious ideas of women’s subservience, celebrating a romantic relationship with his wife, and writing about Eve as the mother of all that is holy, the seed of Christ.
He supported science, refusing the popular stance that it was heretical, believing it revealed God’s glory rather. And yes, Dad, he did move a few inches away from the superstitious obsessions of his preaching predecessors such as Cotton Mather, who rallied up more salacious terror than the horror movies that were sin to watch when I was a kid.
But Edwards was indeed obsessed with hell and the devil, who lived inside the natives he ministered to. And he put the fire into “fire and brimstone” preaching. Indeed, he put the brimstone in, too. King of this genre, Edwards loved elaborate descriptions of torture, detailing grimly how God would dole out punishment.
God “abhors” you; like “a spider or some loathsome insect” he holds you “over the fire.” God’s “fiery floods” and “inconceivable fury” bind you to that “world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone.” Unless you convert, “the dreadful pit of the glowing flames” and “hell’s wide gaping mouth” await you. Only the elect could convert — the rest were doomed regardless.
The Bell Curve
Clearly, the vile sins of theatre, poetry, courting, fashion, and more were more heinous in God’s eyes than slavery. Edwards was among the first to offer blacks church membership, but as an educated man, he deserved slaves, who were put into bondage by the Lord himself. (Ironically, his son of the same name was known for abolitionist work.) The reverend came under fire from his parish, according to Dr. Ken Minkema, for his family’s lavish taste in “jewelry, chocolate, Boston-made clothing, children’s toys—and slaves.”
Blacks were low, but the hottest pit of hell belonged to the natives. Edwards had an axe to grind with the Indians, who had massacred some relatives while defending their territory. Maybe that’s why he described them as the “devil’s children,” whose religion was “devil worship.” He said, “The devil sucks their blood.” Indians, he believed, were descended from Noah’s cursed son, Ham. He preached that Satan lured these vile people from the gospel, across Asia into the devil’s wilderness of North America. Now God wanted the land back, and had given it to the godly to take by any means necessary.
Lest my critics leap on me and begin hurling apologetics my way, I am fully aware that Puritan history and Edwards’ relationship with natives was more complex than a few paragraphs can express. Edwards truly believed he was sent to save Indian souls from torment. Yet today the godly sneer at pagan African tribes that believe certain other cultures, like the albinos or the pygmies, are of the devil. But we are no different.
It’s time to stop excusing historical blunders or justifying current prejudices. Our moral compass cannot come from such woefully misguided pillars of faith. Instead, we must learn from their mistakes.
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17 Comments
“Yet today the godly sneer at pagan African tribes that believe certain other cultures, like the albinos or the pygmies, are of the devil. But we are no different.”
I’m a little confused by this, can somebody explain it to me?
I’m trying to figure out who “we” are; it could conceivably be “moderns,” the religious, or even (I guess) the non-religious. I’m honestly not trying to nitpick, but I think it dramatically changes the point of the article if I choose the wrong one to talk about.
I mean, my first intention is to fire off some sort of snappy retort: “the godly used to sneer at the ungodly for their belief that other groups were of the devil, but now it’s more fashionable to to sneer at the religious from a position of atheism.” Unfortunately for my rusty wit, I’m not even sure if that makes any sense, because “we must learn from their mistakes” might mean “we [the atheists] must learn from their [the religious] mistakes.” Which is a fair point, except that you would then seem to be encouraging an understanding attitude towards those who believe some groups of people are “from the devil.” And this doesn’t mesh well with the opinions of most atheists I’ve met, nor does it mesh well with the rest of the article.
Anyway, I’m hopelessly tied up on this tiny little section, and I’d love it if somebody could shed some light.
I think the “we” in question is “America” as a whole (a “we” which doesn’t include “me”, by the way). It’s true, too; if you look at the African charlatans who are burning children alive for being “witches”, you can usually find a Baptist missionary at the root of it who’s often (but not always) American. Similarly, the connections between American Baptists and the proposed law in Uganda to make homosexuality punishable by death are well known.
Heh. You’re too quick. :)
So my missus says. I have no idea what she could possibly mean.
Jonathan Edwards is alive and well in Congress
The interference in Uganda represents a test of how to establish theocracy — Dominionism may not be ready for prime time here in Ameristan; but it can be tested in weaker nation states.
The theological descendants of Edwards are dangerous and they are already a small cabal within the US Congress, run out of place on “C” Street in DC. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fellowship_%28Christian_organization%29
Their theo-political ideology is clearly laid out at: http://www.americanvision.org/
Sadly, they cannot be dismissed as “fringe” — there are millions of people in the US who support their aim of overthrowing our Republic.
the anti_supernaturalist
A conspiracy theory which isn’t all all far-fetched, frighteningly.
I just started to read “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of America Power” by Jeff Sharlet. In the first chapter Sharlet goes to live in a Family compound in Alexandra, Virginia. Sharlet is exposed to Family theology, which seems to be the powerful (if they are chosen by god) can do what they want as long are working to create god’s kingdom on earth. The biblical King David is used as an example. It is not relevant to the Family that King David slept with a married woman, and then had her husband murdered. King David was chosen by god to rule Israel. This might be why South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford compared himself with King David. God chose Sanford to be governor, so who are we to judge.
I just have begun the second chapter, which deals with Jonathan Edwards and the creation of this unique type of American Christianity.
So how does a small group like the Family have so much power? One reason is the National Prayer Breakfast. It is an event they created and sponsor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Prayer_Breakfast
It’s a tough nut. Personally, while this may be wildly Amerocentric, I took the “we” to mean Americans (as a people), esp. with the way we relate to other cultures, or perhaps “we” could be “westerners”. As you point out, most of the other readings don’t make much sense.
This devil-mongering has never really gone away in American society, but for most of the 20th century it existed mostly in small rural communities and immigrant neighborhoods. Today we seem to have these old ideas cross-pollinating with the practices of curanderas and new-age interest in the paranormal. The one consistent thread is that some folks figure out how to make an easy income out of providing “spiritual services.” Slightly off-topic: Now that Sarah Palin is on TV, I want some interviewer or guest to put her on the spot about her beliefs in demons and witches.
Just another demonstration of the inherent evil of God-based belief systems.
His most famous sermon, Sunshine, in which he uttered,
“How much does it cost, I’ll buy it
The time is all we’ve lost, I’ll try it”
has always moved me. A missionary to the natives? Yep, and a fine singer too.
It is amazing how the ‘history’ books of school talk about the puritans coming here and the mormons going west to get away from persecution. During college I discovered the REAL history books that talked about the puritans & mormon and that they were kicked from various areas NOT for their religion but because they were not allowed to kick the schite out of people that didn’t follow their rules. The same is true of the xtians in ancient rome where they were not persecuted until they started pushing their holey schite down the public throat. The religious always talks about persecution whenever they can’t kick the schite out of the neighboring infidels.
methinks that thou hast a severe problem with anal retention
No, CybrgnX is correct. Take a look at the history of the church of mormon as a case study of this point. At one point the US federal government almost went to war with Utah. What Joseph Smith started way back when as a “utopian” society is not nearly as utopian as high school textbooks make it out to be. And that’s not the only thing, hopefully, if you do actually decide to research mormonism, you should also come across something about salamanders and also admittance of nonwhites (the latter being contrary to every other modern religion). I really wish more people new this kind of history… whenever I bring it up, people just assume I’m BSing them.
Krackauer wrote a terrific book on the history and evolution of fundie mormonism: Under the Banner of Heaven- horrifying and fascinating, all at once.
Indeed. The people that Americans think of as Puritans were a hyper-Calvinsitic sect of the Church of England, allowed to practice however they liked, but they became so pissed off that the mother church didn’t forbid other people from singing, wearing bright colours or celebrating Christmas that they formed two groups: the Puritans who stayed in England and tried to reform the Church of England from within*, and the Separatists who moved to America where they could set up a theocracy and punish anyone who dared to be different. Of course, the fact that there were other communities near by with different beliefs basically made the Separatist colonies untenable.
*When Oliver Cromwell won the Civil War and forced Puritan beliefs on the entire country, they quickly decided that the Divine Right of Kings hadn’t been so bad after all. Had he been more religiously neutral, Britain’s political history might have been very different…
I went to South Windsor CT’s Timothy Edwards Middle School, named after the town’s founder. He was the father of Jonathon Edwards. There was even a commemorative plaque to Timmeh in the local Dairy Queen.
In the late 1960s, I went to CCD, the Catholic version of bible school, and my mom taught an early 70s version of it for preteens. A liberal version, as she was against the Viet Nam War and a very pro-civil rights Johnson Democrat. But I was raised a devout Irish Catholic, one who was put on Earth to help everyone, not just my sect of my religion. Of course, being Irish, I was going to Hell for anything “bad” that I did. That’s just how it works.
At Timothy Edwards, we read that “spider” sermon. I was stunned. CCD told me that “God loves you, He wants to love you, and all you have to do is accept Him into your heart, and He will love you!’ But Jonathon depicted God as a ruthless sadist, looking for the slightest excuse to toss me into the eternal fires, just as He would the lowliest, most inoffensive of spiders. His God was a psychopath.
I was confused! Which one was right? The newer one, because it was more refined, or the older one, because it was that much closer in age to the Bible? At Mass, they always spoke of the Loving God. So I accepted that.
Or thought that I did. It ate at me. Eventually I decided to just read the Bible from front to back. If I’d started with the New Testament, maybe my results would’ve varied. I really wanted to believe not just in a loving, forgiving God, but a consistent one. But it contradicted itself nonstop to what I’d been told, to the point where I couldn’t ignore it. Eventually I hit Leviticus, the 2 or 3 hundred Commandments God forgot to give Moses the first time. I go to Hell if I…eat a grape that’s fallen on the ground?! That’s the strictest interpretation of the 5 Second Rule ever! If I cut my hair or shave, I go to Hell, even though that’s how every Christian priest or preacher looks?
“Nothing will turn you into an atheist faster than reading the Bible” – Penn Jillette.
Thank you, South Windsor school system, to making me read a sermon that eventually lifted the scales from my eyes! As I like to say, “I was raised Catholic. But I got better.”