We tend to romanticise the Christmas season, that time of year when we gather with friends and family, feast and be merry. But for most of its history Christmas has been a time of sordid behaviour.
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Articles on puritans
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The Puritans had little tolerance for those who didn’t conform to their vision of the world.
It was less about their asceticism and more about rejecting the world they had fled.
Puritans were often depicted as fools until they had a shot at government, and then the humour got darker.
Puritan leaders argued vehemently for a church to be free of any higher authority – which caused problems in England and the new world.
The polarisation of today’s political discourse has echoes of the intolerance that characterised the Puritan era and the French Revolution.
When the founders wrote the Constitution, they had to devise a punishment fitting for a civil servant’s impeachment. One possible punishment: banishment from the community.
Powerful men often proclaim baseless accusations to be a ‘witch hunt.’ But American witch trials have always targeted a persecuted minority: women.
Many American evangelicals believe that the establishment and protection of Israel set up a chain of event for the return of Jesus. What were the origins of this narrative?
Media pundits are promoting Canada as exceptional in its tolerance and diversity but the truth is, Canadians have a tendency not to be not less racist than Americans, but to be less loud about it.
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