Twisted Words

          Throughout history people have done horrible things in the name of God, using the Bible to justify just about anything. The puritans were no exception. They left England to find religious freedom. This shows that their religion was a very important part of their lives. In their minds not only had God approved their leaving but they believed that he had sent them. John Cotton explains this to them in his farewell speech, “What Cotton is telling these about to be Americans is that they are God’s new chosen people.”(2) This may seem like a nice thing for him to tell them considering they’re heading off on a painfully long journey, to a place they’ve never been, leaving most of their friends and family behind, but they will take him 100 percent seriously. When cotton compares them to Old Testament Jews it’s a fitting comparison. “Like the Old Testament Jews, God has given them a new home, a promise land. And like the Old Testament Jews, God has printed an eviction notice for them to tack up on the homes of the nothing-special, just-folks folks who are squatting there.”(2) Not only did they tack up eviction notices, they burnt down entire towns.  

The Pequot Wars taking place in southern New England in the 1630’s were a bloody merciless slaughter of an entire group of people. When the English attacked the Pequot fort they began fighting with guns and swords but the close corridors were too dangerous and would lead to the loss of too many English lives. Instead it was decided that they would burn the perfectly kindled fort and block the exits. “It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stick and scent thereof.”(193) Every man woman and child was burned to death inside what was practically a huge wood stove.

Not only do the English believe that God approved of this mass murder but they believe that he assisted them. They thank God for “Burning them up in the fire of his wrath, and dunging the ground with their flesh.”(194) The English didn’t think that they had done anything wrong. They believed that because the Pequot believed in another God it was reason enough for them to die. “When a people is grown to such a height of blood and sin against God and man. . . there he hath no respect to persons, but harrows them and saws them and puts them to the sword and the most terrible death there may be.”(194) This shows how dangerous it is when people take a book that was never meant to be a legal document and use it as one.

The Bible isn’t fit to be a law book especially when there is a monarch because it justifies disobeying a king. “The Bible is full of anecdotes that prime the pump of treason.”(118) In the third chapter of the Book of Daniel, three men defy the king because he is trying to force them to follow his rules. When he tries to kill them he can’t, because God saved them. “The lesson of that story—be true to yourself, be not afraid to defy authority.”(119) The Puritans use stories like these to twist the meaning of the Bible to justify not sending the charter back to England and constructing a fort to protect Boston from English attack.

There is not only one way to interpret the Bible and no way is the correct way. You must also take in to account that there are many different translations and versions of the Bible. There were multiple versions discussed in The Wordy Shipmates used by the people in New England. Sarah Vowell describes the unpredictability well when she says, “the Bible is a big long book… within… finding justification for literal and figurative witch hunts is as simple as pretending ‘enhanced investigative techniques’ is not a synonym for torture.”(45) Today there are people whose profession relies on creative interpretations of the law. They’re lawyers and politicians. They run our country.