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In article >,
says...
> "Tony P." wrote:
>
> > That would be an absolute boon but we'll never see it in the U.S. It's
> > that Protestant work ethic that we inherited from the founders.
> >
> > We have to keep in mind that the original colonies were set up by
> > religious nutcases that they couldn't abide in Merry Old England.
> > Autralia got the criminals, the States got the Jesus freaks.
>
> 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. A large number of Europeans
> who were escaping from religious persecution were people like the Palatine
> Germans who were sent to America and given land by the British Crown.

That might be colored by where I live. Apparently the religion practiced
by Roger Williams wasn't acceptable those in the Mass Bay colony. There
is a nice little park in the middle of Providence - the Roger Williams
Memorial. It is sited pretty much where his house was.

So he was persecuted and elected to go about 45 miles south and
establish his own state where religious freedom was what it was all
about. That could be a reason that Rhode Island contains the first
Baptist Church, and the first synagogue.