[Vision2020] The Persecution of Quakers: Shame On Our Puritan Forefathers

[Nick Gier]

Greetings:

I wrote my Thanksgiving column early so that I could relax for Tofu Turkey Day.

While I did this research I also gathered 
material on the Salem Witch Trials.  Some may not 
know that in addition to writing favorably about 
Southern slave owners, Wilson & Co. also took a 
more positive view of executing witches.  In the 
same way that Wilson declared that Christians 
should not be ashamed about what the Bible says 
about slavery, he also takes very seriously the 
Biblical injunction that "one should not suffer a 
witch to live."  And for them witches are very 
real.  Stay tuned for a column on this topic.

Proud Intolerista,

Nick Gier

THE PERSECUTION OF QUAKERS:
SHAME ON OUR PURITAN FOREFATHERS

by Nick Gier

I would carry fire in one hand and faggots
in the other to burn all the Quakers in the world.

–Boston preacher John Norton

           This is the time of year to honor a 
small band of persecuted English Christians, who 
first sought refuge in Holland and then decided 
to set sail for the New World.  With the aid of 
friendly Indians they were able to survive their 
first year in America. We celebrate the Pilgrims 
of Plymouth because of their yearning for 
religious liberty and their desire to worship 
freely in their own way.  What we don't always 
recognize, however, is the fact that they denied 
that freedom to those with whom they disagreed.

All residents of the Plymouth colony had to pay a 
church tax and attend the established church 
every Sunday.  Because Quakers refused to do 
this, their males were not "admitted as free men" 
and could not "be employed in any place of 
trust." Quakers believed that they were not 
subject to civil authorities, and they refused to 
take oaths or serve in the military. They also 
rejected all religious dogma, preferring to 
follow the internal light of Christ than a literal reading of the Bible.

            In 1658 eight Quakers were arrested 
on a ship arriving in Boston Harbor.  Their 
leader, Christopher Holder, stumped the Puritan 
magistrates when he pointed out that they had no 
law proscribing Quaker belief.  Laws were quickly 
passed with increasing severity: the first 
offense was to have one ear cut off, and 
offending a second time would cost Quaker males 
the other ear.  Quaker women were to be whipped 
instead.  If Quakers, male and female, had not 
their lesson by the third time, "their tongues 
would be bored through with a hot iron." 
Christopher Holder kept coming back to Boston to 
preach and to debate Puritan leaders, so on July 
17, 1658 Holder and two other Quakers had their 
ears cut off, whipped twice a week for nine weeks 
before they chose to return to England.

Five Quaker women left the safety of Rhode 
Island, where Roger Williams had established 
religious liberty in America for the first time, 
and came to Boston to support their oppressed 
comrades. As soon as they arrived they were thrown in jail with the others.

The Bay Colony Puritans concluded that Satan had 
sent them this Quaker scourge, so on October 19, 
1658 the General Court of Boston passed a law 
stating that any Quaker refusing banishment would 
be executed.  The result was that Quakers kept 
coming back to Boston with more zeal than ever. 
Mary Dyer, one of the women from Rhode Island, 
and two men were tried under the new law and they 
were convicted.  The men were hanged but Mary 
Dyer was rescued by her son riding on a white 
house with a reprieve from the governor in his hand.

When Mary Dyer learned that the Boston Puritans 
were boasting to the English Parliament about 
their mercy in her case, she was determined to 
confront them and she returned to demand that the 
laws against Quakers be appealed. It was decided 
that no new trial was necessary, and after 
refusing to recant, Dyer was led to the gallows 
once again and she died there on June 1, 
1660.  One more Quaker would be hanged before a 
new charter from England forced the Boston 
Puritans to protect all Christians except Catholics.

I was raised in an evangelical Quaker church in 
Medford, Oregon, and their peaceful meditative 
Christianity had a profound influence on my life. 
I was recruited but declined to attend George Fox 
College, now a reputable small University in 
Oregon's beautiful Willamette Valley. Every 
spring the religious scholars of the Pacific 
Northwest meet, and the George Fox faculty always present excellent papers.

American Quakers are now a small but widely 
respected part of the nation's spiritual 
life.  The American Friends Service Committee 
(AFSC) has an international reputation for aiding 
people in need and insisting on nonviolent 
solutions to international problems. Their early 
American predecessors would definitely have been 
surprised, if not shocked, to learn that the AFSC 
now supports gay and lesbian rights.

Barack and Michelle Obama have also chosen a 
Quaker school in Washington, DC for their two 
daughters. I'm sure that they will receive the 
same  character education that I did as a young 
boy at the Medford Friend's Church.

Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the 
University of Idaho for 31 years
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