Fritz Springmeier

Chapter 3.8Separating Church & StateRoger Williams was a handsome, intelligent man with good family connections and a decenteducation. He was also exceptionally his own thinker. He changed his mind so many timesduring his life, that some historians think he was mad. He certainly left his own followersconfused.Educated in England, and friends with Cooke and many other prominent people of ElizabethianEngland, Roger Williams could have lived a comfortable life if he had so chosen. Instead,Williams went to the Puritan settlements in New England. Considering all churches to beheresies, he seperated himself alone in Rhode Island after making himself a thorough nuisanceto the Puritans, where others joined him. King Charles II granted him a special charter whichinstituted the opinions: liberty of conscience with separation of church and state, and the rightsof man.In London, Roger Williams had been in touch with a small group of Calvinistic "Seekers."Oliver Cromwell, who argued for religious tolerance, was also involved with the Seekers 1 —although the term should not be taken to denote any specific group. The term meant those peoplelooking for a restoration of the true church, and such people were of all types of theologicalpositions. The Seeker desire for a restoration of the lost church seems to be in part a concept thatthe Fraternity of Rodmen and the Mormon church inherited.Roger Williams was apocalyptic in thinking. He believed that it was possible for Christiansto live with Jews and Moslems in peace, and that the Moslems and Jews intended no injury tothe Christians, if treated peacefully by the Christians. 2 (History doesn't square with that. Howcould Williams read about Christ and come up with that?) Roger Williams did put into practicehis tolerance. He was well liked by the Indians, and the apocalyptic Quakers that permeatedMassachusetts Colony also in general could like him.The Quakers in Massachusetts, rejected Scripture as authority and believed in an inner light.Certain of them believed that Christ was born in them, and that they were the saints to rule inthe Kingdom of God. In 1700, Massachusetts was made up of about 80 communities, andQuakers were to be found at a variety of these including Duxbury, Marshfield, and Bridgewater.These Quaker groups joined into Quarterly and Monthly Meetings such as the Sandwich andScituate Quarterly Meeting, the Rhode Island Quarterly, and the Salem Quarterly Meeting. 3 Themystical influence of the Quakers on New England should be borne in mind, and theirconnections with Rhode Island too. It is not well known that they made up about a third of thepopulation in Massachusetts colony.Roger Williams was President (essentially Governor) of Rhode Island, 1654-1657. When hedied he was buried with military honors.Roger Williams' approach to church and state (and other ideas) were adopted. They influencedthe adoption of our separation of church and state.Whether pro- or anti- Williams, a number of researchers are protesting that the imagepresented of Roger Williams today is a myth. 4 Without going into all the ins and outs of themyths about Williams, this Author would encourage the Reader not to simply swallow Williamsviews on separation of Church and State without going to the scriptures. After all, it is likely thereader would reject some of the strange things Williams taught—even Williams himself rejected