The Puritans were just like any other religious group. They wanted to create a new existence in America, different from what they had known in England. In England, the puritans faced persecution, oppression and torment simply because they believed dif

Year after year, time helps us to compromise. Whether it be good or bad each one of us examines our priorities, values and life style over the course of our life time. In their attempt to find freedom from their persecutors, the early settlers placed themselves in bondage. In their crusade of freedom, they became the oppressor. What went wrong? As we stated in the first paragraph, man has always had the desire to have a relationship with God. This relationship is a personal one. God created man because He wanted someone to love Him freely. Because man wanted to. Ironically it's man that puts the limitations on ourselves. God gave us the greatest gift possible, but man places laws on how we are to receive it.

America the land of religious toleration? Is freedom what the settlers truly sought? Ask yourself and answer in your heart.

ferently from the Anglican Church and English society and government. Their goal was to find a land where they were free to practice their beliefs without the constant torment, and America was just the place for which they were searching. The puritans looked at America in much the same way that the Israelites looked at the promised land. They simply had to posses it. However, when they arrived, they turned into the very element of persecution from which they escaped; not only did they segregate their religion, but they also refused to allow other groups attain the same religious freedom they, too, had so badly sought. The puritans placed a high emphasis upon community along with their belief that they were Gods chosen people. They believed that their government should strictly enforce public morality by prohibiting vices like drunkenness, gambling, ostentatious dress, swearing, and Sabbath-breaking. The desire to achieve an Old Testament community by using covenants help to establish their social morality. The puritans New England Congregational churches were self-governing bodies they answered to no higher authority. The puritans worship services were simple, even austere, and dominated by long, learned sermons in which their clergy expounded passages from the Bible. In order to be a member of the church one must be "visibly godly," meaning those men and women who lead sober and upright lives and one must also must testify publicly to his or her experience of "conversion." Conversion means to change or convert. Most evangelicals believe it to be as a new birth. Conversion is simply accepting

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Approximate Word count = 1661
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)