ROGER WILLIAMS Puritan Minister 1636

1
ROGER WILLIAMSPuritan Minister 1636
2
Religious Intolerance

• The Puritans, who were victims of intolerance in
  England, were not tolerant themselves. Although
  they preached the Golden Ruledo unto others as
  you would have them do unto youmost never
  understood they were breaking that rule. Roger
  Williams did.
• What do the words intolerance and tolerance mean?

3
Puritan Disapproval

• Williams was a Puritan minister and a serious
  Christian. Like other Puritans, he disapproved of
  Catholic and Quaker ideas. But thats where the
  like the others stops.

QUAKERS
Catholic Pope
4
Respect the Beliefs of Others

• Williams did not believe in forcing anyone to
  believe as he did. He believed that killing and
  punishing in the name of Christianity was sinful.
  He respected the beliefs of others. Those were
  strange ideas in 17th Century Massachusetts.

5
What to do with Roger Williams

• The Puritans didnt know what to do with Roger
  Williams. He was a brilliant minister, and so
  nice that people had a hard time disliking him,
  but he seemed ungrateful to them. The Puritans
  had given him good jobs as a teacher and a
  minister and he thanked them by criticizing their
  ways.

6
You Shouldnt take what doesnt Belong to You!

• When Roger Williams started preaching that the
  land shouldnt be taken from the Indians and that
  the king had no right to give away land in
  America that didnt belong to him, that was too
  much!
• The officers of the Massachusetts Bay Company
  sent armed men to put Williams on a boat to
  England.

7
Roger Williams Runs for his Life

• Williams didnt want to go back so he fled from
  Massachusetts and started a colony of his own
  called Providence in what is now Rhode Island.
• Williams welcomed everyone who wished to come to
  Rhode Island, including Quakers and Catholics. He
  disagreed with those religions, but he never let
  that stop him from liking the people who
  practiced them.

8
Religious Tolerance

• In 1763, thanks to Roger Williams beliefs of
  religious tolerance, Rhode Island became the home
  of the first permanent Jewish house of worship in
  America, the Touro Synagogue.
• The Jewish people were often persecuted in
  America. Roger Williams gave them a place where
  they were welcomed.

9
You Cannot Force others to Believe!

• The Puritans forced some Indians to become
  Christians. Roger Williams wrote a letter to the
  Massachusetts governor which read, Are not the
  English of this land generally a persecuted
  people from their native land? How could those
  who had been persecuted persecute others?
• He said that the Indians should not be forced
  from their religions.

10
What do you Believe?

• Roger Williams didnt think anyone should be
  forced to follow a religion. He believed that you
  can make people do things, but you cant make
  them believe what they dont believe.
• Most Puritans did not agree with Roger Williams.
  What do you think?