First Freedom: The Fight for Religious Liberty

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Brian Stokes Mitchell:

In the dawning days

of the American Republic,

a band of remarkable characters

came to

a revolutionary conclusion.

Matthew Holland:
It was

an extraordinary collection

of ingenious people.

They truly were

the best and brightest.

They were very

gifted individuals.

Gordon s. Wood:
Jefferson was

accused of being unchristian.

Well, he said

to himself and his friends,

"what does it matter

whether my neighbor believes

"in 20 gods or no God?

What does it hurt me?"

George Washington was

the most cautious man

that, I think,

I have ever read about.

Forrest church:

Benjamin Franklin,

he believed

in the practicality

of religion,

that religion was a useful tool

to organize society

and keep people loving

their neighbor as themselves.

Doug Brinkley:
James Madison,

well, he liked the idea

of freedom of conscience,

that each individual makes up

their own belief about God.

The first real life test

for religious freedom took place

in the election of 1800

between John Adams

and Thomas Jefferson.

Mitchell:

These men and others,

fathers

of the American revolution,

saw to it that religion

and religious thought

would be removed completely

from the rule of state

and that instead

it was the state itself

that should be ruled

by the people.

[Singing in hebrew]

Mitchell:
This first

separation of church and state

would change

world history forever.

Freedom of religion is

in many ways

the first freedom.

This established

our nation as a nation

where people could honor their

own conscientious convictions

and worship God in the way

that they believed,

in conscience,

God wished to be worshipped.

friends of nci

Mitchell:
For many

early English colonists,

the very idea of America rested

on religious freedom.

The puritans hoped

to create utopia

in the new england wilderness,

a place where they could

follow their faith in peace.

Their religion would

create a community.

Man as John winthrop:

We must be knit together

in this work, as one man.

We must entertain each other

in brotherly affection.

We must delight

in each other,

make others' conditions

our own...

Mitchell:
John winthrop,

in 1630, led a group

of puritans sailing

from england to Massachusetts.

A brilliant man

and a natural leader,

winthrop had already been

elected as governor

of the new Massachusetts

bay colony,

and he would be reelected

no less than 12 times.

For we must consider that we

shall be as a city upon a hill.

The eyes of all people

are upon us.

Mitchell:
As they were leaving,

winthrop gave

a departure sermon,

telling his fellow puritans

that their colony would be

a different kind of society.

It would be a model

of righteousness.

Holland:
There were some

who have called it

the greatest sermon

of the last thousand years.

That's quite a statement,

but it's something

that stands at the beginning

of our political

civic consciousness.

Winthrop was very purposefully

self-conscious,

and he wanted his new colony

to be self-conscious,

to be aware that God

was watching this colony

and that other peoples

around the world

were going to be watching

it as well.

Wood:
The founders

were all believers in God.

They all had a confidence

that in some sense

God was looking

after the Republic.

A lot of nations,

probably all of them,

think that they're

God's special favorite,

but America has a special sense

of responsibility

regarding itself

as a model,

not a nation that seeks

to conquer so much

as one that wants to be copied.

Mitchell:
Governor winthrop was

often reasonable and charitable,

but he could also be obstinate,

domineering, and autocratic.

"A democracy,"he said,

"is accounted the meanest

and worst of all forms

of government."

Winthrop's colony

would not abide dissent.

Patricia bonomi:
They

didn't come to establish

religious liberty.

They came to practice their own

form of christianity

without interference

from anybody else.

Mitchell:
In 1637,

an unlikely opponent emerged

in Boston--Anne hutchinson,

a 46-year-old woman

then in the midst

of her 15th pregnancy.

Women in the colony were

forbidden from preaching,

but the brave

and strong-willed hutchinson

began conducting

popular Bible groups.

Man as winthrop:
We see not

that any hath authority

to set up any other exercises

besides what authority

hath already set up.

Mitchell:
By 1637,

the puritan powers

had had enough.

Anne hutchinson was brought

to civil trial for sedition

with John winthrop presiding.

She defended herself

skillfully,

but there would be no escape

from judgment.

We are your judges

and not you ours.

Mistress hutchinson,

the sentence of the court

you hear is that you

are to be banished

from out

of our jurisdiction

as being a woman not fit

for our society.

I desire to

know wherefore

I am banished?

Say no more.

The court knows wherefore

and is satisfied.

Mitchell:
The trial had to do

with the role of women,

but at its core,

it was about religious liberty,

and religious liberty lost.

Richard bushman:

John winthrop was devoted to

making the Massachusetts

bay colony work,

and he felt religion

was the heart drive

of the whole operation,

but for that very reason,

he could not let religion

disrupt the bay colony,

and Anne hutchinson seemed

like a very dangerous person,

and he felt obligated

to quiet her

or drive her from the colony.

Mitchell:
The rampant prejudice

behind Anne hutchinson's trial

lasted throughout

the 17th century

in Massachusetts.

More than a half century

later in 1692,

over 150 people were arrested

in the infamous witch trials.

One woman was accused

of wearing pieces of lace.

Another was convicted

after testimony

from her daughter,

who was 4 years old.

It was primitive,

barbaric, and sad.

In the end, 20 people

were put to death.

Mitchell:
The puritans

established stable

and quite Democratic communities

in an untamed wilderness.

The flaw

in the puritan experiment

was the inability

to allow serious dissent,

but democracy in the 1600s

seldom extended to faith.

It would take a revolution.

Some 8 years after the puritans

came to Massachusetts,

the American dream began

to change shape.

The new world was now

a more secular beacon.

It was the place to look

for a better life.

Religion for many new

arrivals was secondary.

The church became

the stepchild of government,

not the master,

and clergymen themselves

came under popular fire.

Some seemed to be

in it for the money.

Many had run dry

of inspiration.

The services were not

all that interesting to people.

In many cases they were long,

they were oriented

towards doctrine,

often read from manuscript.

Whitefield changed all that.

He only had about

8 sermons, I think, you know,

and he went up and down

the seaboard,

but he was charismatic.

Bonomi:
He was a phenomenon.

He was sort of

the first great celebrity,

you might say.

Mitchell:
One day in 1740,

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