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Anne Hutchinson Separation Of Church And State Essay

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Throughout history, many concepts that started off as controversial soon became accepted norms that have been adopted as standard practice. One such idea is the separation of church and state. In many modern-day countries, this separation is not a belief that looks to be accepted anytime in the near future. Most countries in the Middle East still have no desire to take the religious influence out of their governmental rules. This was also the case in the American colonies prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It took almost 200 years between the first permanent English settlement and the signing of this historic document for America to be persuaded into changing the policies that have stood since this country was …show more content…

An intelligent midwife by the name of Anne Hutchinson wanted to contest many of these firmly held beliefs that had been accepted as standards in the Puritan religion. Hutchinson was well known at the time for her “ready wit and bold spirit” . Anne also had an incredible knowledge of the scripture that allowed her to hold court in her own home and debate commonly held beliefs with prominent church members. She began to challenge local ministers for their views that behavior and church attendance were keys to salvation. Like Roger Williams, Anne believed that religion was a personal affair and people should listen to God directly, and not through the Bible or clergy. Anne was charged with sedition after she confessed that God spoke directly to her. When asked how she knew it was God, she replied, “How did Abraham know that it was God that bid him offer his son, being a breach of the sixth commandment?” Her prosecutor then asks Anne to elaborate so she answers, “So to me by an immediate revelation.” She is later banished to Rhode Island where she plays a role in developing the first separation of church and state in the legislation of the new town of Portsmouth. Author Jon Butler writes about the result of Hutchinson’s banishment, “the affair cast a pall over Puritan New England. It demonstrated that a wide variety of beliefs could in fact be found among the Puritans and that achieving religious uniformity in Puritan New England might come at a very high price.” Anne’s bold defiance in the Antinomian Controversy led to changes in the way many people thought about religious

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Mary Dyer had not agreed with the Puritan religion. She believed that God spoke to everyone through the urgings of his or her conscience; Puritans thought God only spoke to authorities of the church. Dyer also did not believe that the church should govern all aspects of life in the colony. At first, she kept an uneasy silence. But once a woman, Anne Hutchinson, began publically opposing the church, Dyer decided to step in as well.

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In her book, American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans, Eve LaPlante explores parts of the life of Anne Hutchinson. Her intent is to tell the story of Anne Hutchinson’s life and clear her name as a woman who was accused of being a heretic in colonial America. LaPlante walks the reader through the trial Anne Hutchinson had with the leaders of her colony and gives background information throughout the book to share the story of Hutchinson’s life. LaPlante starts the story of Anne Hutchinson’s life at the beginning of her well-known trial. She tells of the occurrences in the room and compares Hutchinson’s trial to her father’s trial, which was similar in their accusation and punishment.

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The purpose of her article was probably to acknowledge how powerful the southern religions were and to make sure that the people had to understand that they did not accept the Puritans. In “Religion in Early Virginia” it talks about the consequences that one had suffered if they did not convert into a specific religion and if they didn’t believe that Jesus was the divine virtue that upheld everyone on the high level. The passage was mainly about what would happen to the people like the Native Americans who resisted the conversion to become Christians. The intended audience was probably for anyone that was coming into one of the southern colonies or was a Native so they could be aware of what would happened to them if they didn’t convert into a specific religion. The writes was probably a part of one of the southern colonies that had believed his religion was superior to any of the other religions in the New England and middle colonies.

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This rose suspicion, but it was not enough to convict Anne yet. The second occurrence that happened to arouse suspicion was the women who attended these sessions started to bring their husbands (Shriver 178). “Women were generally allowed such ‘pious gossip,’ but Hutchinson’s seminars had begun to attract men, too, and she had grown more vocal about her objections to almost all the ministers in Massachusetts (Charles). As her meetings gained popularity and Anne became more open to telling people her ideology, Anne was heading towards a

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The heresy of Anne Hutchinson of Massachusetts expounded in 1634. Anne Hutchinson was forty-five and a mother of fifteen children. later following the Puritan leader John Cotton to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. She brought attention to Cotton’s theology through her way with words. This attracted people to meetings at her home, on Mondays to talk about Cotton’s Sunday sermon.

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By going against what the Puritan leaders in the church believed, she was also going against the “fathers of the common wealth” (253). Tobin continues to explain how Hutchinson went against the normal standards of woman in her time era by standing up against her male leaders and voicing her views. Hutchinson defended herself in such an orderly manner, as she quoted biblical verses in which she indirectly indicated examples of sexism (255). At the point of Anne Hutchinson’s trial the Puritan churches’ main focus in attempting to excommunicate her was to use religion and the laws bound by God to win their case. The Puritan group leaders used metaphors to further justify their argument, such as comparing God to be the father to the select leaders of the church, who then must act as a father to the public (237).

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