A Day to Remember Those Lovable Puritans: International Religious Freedom Day
Mark it on your calendar: October 27th; International Religious Freedom Day (IRFD). PPT and TANC will start commemorating this day on October 27, 2013 on an annual basis. Actually, we are going to make a really big deal out of it. We are talking pig roast galore at the Potter’s House with a shameful array of food and drink, games, and drama plays. Our inaugural IRFD will feature a reenactment of Anne Hutchinson’s trial.
The day commemorates the execution of three Quakers in Boston for being, well, Quakers. They were hung by those lovable Puritans that came over on the Mayflower, also known as the Pilgrims. Being a Quaker in the Puritan theocracy of the Massachusetts Bay Colonies was a capital crime. Two men and one woman, a friend of Anne Hutchinson named Mary Dyer were scheduled to hang on October 27th 1659. Dyer received a last second reprieve, but returned to Boston and was hanged the following year. Quakers believed that the average Christian could interpret the Bible by themselves without the help of clergy. One of the two men hanged on October 27th thought it fit to preach exactly that to the crowd before he was executed:
The execution day was Thursday 27 October (the usual weekly meeting day for the Church in Boston) 1659, and the gallows stood on Boston Common. They spoke as they were led there, but their words were drowned out by the sound of drums. After they had taken leave of one another, William Robinson first ascended the ladder. He told the people it was their day of visitation, and desired them to mind the light within them, the light of Christ, his testimony for which he was going to seal with his blood. At this the Puritan minister shouted “Hold thy tongue, thou art going to die with a lie in thy mouth.” The rope was adjusted, and, as the executioner turned the condemned man off, he said with his dying breath, “I suffer for Christ, in whom I live and for whom I die.” Then Marmaduke Stephenson stepped up the ladder and said “Be it known unto all this day that we suffer not as evil-doers, but for conscience sake.” He was turned off the gallows, saying ” This day shall we be at rest with the Lord.” In memory of this, October 27 is now International Religious Freedom Day to recognize the importance of Freedom of religion (Wikipedia: Boston Martyrs).
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Reblogged this on Clearcreek Chapel Watch.
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That is something. Thank you for posting this.
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Great idea! History is their achilles heel and many are starting to figure it out and try to censor any discussion of it as divisive…… which I find hilarious and childish.
We simply have to ask how this doctrine has produced so much persecution of fellow professing believers throughout history. Do they really think they can separate the doctrine from the behavior of those who believed and taught it? How does that work, exactly?
Where WAS the Holy Spirit for these “Christian leader” tyrants?
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The article says, “They were hung by those lovable Puritans that came over on the Mayflower, also known as the Pilgrims.”
Wrong, wrong, wrong, The Pilgrims and Puritans were NOT one and the same.
The Puritans sought to reform the Church of England/Anglicans but neither broke from them nor from many of their intolerant ways.
The Pilgrims completely separated themselves from the C of E/Anglicans and it showed.
The Pilgrims were far more tolerant than the Puritans…. when the Puritans of Boston drove out Roger Williams, a Baptist and a champion of freedom of conscience and religion, he went to Plymouth Colony where he lived among the Pilgrims. While he eventually left because he didn’t believe the Pilgrims went far enough in terms of breaking from Anglican ways and embracing toleration, the fact is that he considered them a lot better than the Puritans and for good reason.
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Jack,
You are just dead wrong. You are saying the Pilgrims were not Calvinist Puritans. They most certainly were.
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