Karen Logan 

Are There Puritans Among Us Today?

I have heard the term “Puritan” many times over the years. I knew the meaning but never knew the origin. I actually never paid much attention to the depth of what it meant to be a Puritan. I looked up the word on http://dictionary.cambridge.org and found this definition: “Someone who believes that self-control and hard work are important and that pleasure is wrong or unnecessary.” As Leland Ryken put it in his article The Original Puritan Work Ethic, “The Puritans led a God-centered life. One of their greatest strengths was their sense of priorities in life. The Puritan theme was to put God first and value everything else in relation to God. I started thinking about this definition and this theme. I thought, man, that would have been terrible to have lived and practiced a Puritan lifestyle. How could these people work so hard and never have social enjoyment? Now, I have nothing against hard work, nothing against helping my fellow mankind out, and nothing against serving God, but to not be able to live a lifestyle where you can enjoy other aspects of life seems ridiculous to me. Then it occurred to me that I’ve come across people that seem to exhibit these same traits. These questions started to pop into my head:  Has this really changed over time, or is the Puritan belief still being practiced today? In order to get a better grasp on the Puritan lifestyle, I wanted to get some information on one of the early Puritan leaders.

     I decided to do some research on John Winthrop, who was a prominent early Puritan leader  and the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony . He came to America between the years 1620 and 1640. He set sail on the Arbella to Boston, MA with groups of people in hopes to settle in a new world -- a new community. His plan was to have a community that focused on hard work and man’s obligation to help one another. Before they took sail to the new world, Winthrop gave a sermon that he wrote to the group of people that were with him. That sermon is known as “A Model of Christian Charity.” It is referred to as the most famous sermon in history. In this sermon, he laid out his vision of what he wanted his new world – new community -- to be like. He conveyed to his colony the importance of man helping one another no matter what the situation. He preached of the importance of following God’s commandments.

     In his sermon, Winthrop mentions a City Upon a Hill, "....we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, (and that) the eyes of all people are upon us..” This statement to me is telling his colony the importance of being a good witness for all to see and emulate. He talks about how important it is for unity. He describes this City Upon a Hill as their future colony – community – that would set an example for all others. Toward the end of Winthrop’s sermon, he showed his vision with the statement: “Beloved, there is now set before us life, and good, death and evil in that we are commanded.”

     In answering my questions, “Has this really changed over time, or is the Puritan belief still being practiced today?” I started thinking about the different religions today and the doctrine that they follow. The first religion that popped into my head that I feel strongly resembles the mindset of an early Puritan following is the United Pentecostal Church (UPC). This religion lives by a very strict doctrine. They believe in Godly living and have very rigid rules to follow. I came across a website www.inplainsite.org in which they state their views on what they perceive to be Godly living. They stated that, “We wholeheartedly disapprove of our people indulging in any activities which are not conducive to good Christianity and Godly living, such as theaters, dances, mixed bathing, women cutting their hair, make-up, amusements, and unwholesome radio programs and music. Furthermore, because of the display of all these evils on television, we disapprove of any of our people having television sets in their homes. We admonish all of our people to refrain from any of these practices in the interest of spiritual progress and the soon coming of the Lord for His church.” While reading this “moral code,” I couldn’t help but think about the correlation of the UPC and the early Puritan beliefs. In his speech Winthrop stated: “But if our hearts shall turn away so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced and worship other Gods our pleasures, and profits, and serve them, it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good Land whether we pass over this vast Sea to possess it; Therefore let us choose life, that we, and our Seed, may live; by obeying his voice, and cleaving to him, for he is our life, and our prosperity.”

     I started thinking back and trying to recall all the times that I have seen women who followed the Pentecostal doctrine. They were always in groups with people of their own beliefs. They didn’t socialize much with others that didn’t believe the same way they did. As a matter of fact, in my encounters with people of this thought process, they didn’t seem to want to engage with anyone that looked as if they even thought differently than they did. It is almost as if they put themselves “upon a hill” for people to look up to.  I once visited a Pentecostal church. I sat in the back row. I started looking around and noticing that all the women were pretty much dressed alike. In fact, the men, women, and their children all looked alike in the way they dressed and carried themselves. The women sat closely budded up against  their husbands, who sat in a staunch position. Everyone seemed so tense and uptight – so rigid. It was obvious that everyone and everything had its place – its purpose for the betterment of what they believed to be a Godly lifestyle. So, in my opinion, I found the answer to my questions to be, yes, Puritanism is well and alive today. It’s just in such small circles of people that keep to their own that it tends to go unnoticed.

     Moreover, I think that most people share some of the same wants and desires as the Puritans only not so rigid. Like Winthrop, I too had a vision of the type of community I wanted to live in. I had a set of guidelines that I did not want to compromise. When my husband and I decided to buy a home, a lot of thought went into it. Our thoughts were not just on the type of house we wanted or the neighborhood we wanted to be in. We had expectations about the type of community that we wanted to live and raise children in. We created this ideal place in our mind as many people do. Our perfect community had parks, easy access to shopping, great schools, and good choices of places to worship.  We wanted our community to have people that were actively involved in making it a great place to live where we all worked together for the same goals. We wanted a community that provided a healthy lifestyle and a place that we could be proud to live and prosper in.  In this way, we were and are a little like Winthrop, we have expectations of the type of community we want to grow and raise a family in. We want unity within our community; however, unlike Winthrop and the Puritan thought process, we appreciate differences.  We do not think that there is only one way to live a Godly lifestyle. We respect other people’s choice of religion and the way they choose to worship. We respect their work ethics even if it differs from ours.  I think that everyone has some sort of vision for how they want to live their life but to expect people to share the exact same beliefs -- moral codes -- that are so rigid that it is difficult to live up to is an unrealistic way to live today.

Works Cited

http://dictionary.cambridge.org

Ryken, Leland. "The Original Puritan Work Ethic." CTLibrary.com. 2006. Web. 29 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ctlibrary.com/search.html>.

Paragraphs 2 and 3 below

http://thehistoricpresent.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/the-city-upon-a-hill-and-Puritan-hubris

www.inplainsite.org