Dave Smith > wrote:

>It has long amazed me that we hear so much of the mythology about the US
>being founded by those escaping religious persecution when some of the first
>communities were established by religious sects who, rather than escaping
>religious persecution, were more interested in establishing single faith
>societies where they would be free to persecute.

The problem with this thesis is simple; The US was 'founded' by
several groups, with divergent religious opinions, from divergent
economic backgrounds, and with wildly varying levels of orthodoxy as
compared with the folks Back Home.

Puritan Massachusetts was very different from Anglican Virgina.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL