Hawthorne was Right: It Is the Puritan Legacy That Refuses to Leave
When November arrives, the specter of Thanksgiving and of our Puritan heritage is upon us. There is the folktale presentation of our Puritan heritage — the images of Native Americans and the Puritan settlers happily sharing a feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest — and then there is the more forthright presentation of these Puritan ancestors.
For all of the folktale goodness ascribed to these devout Purtians, there is also the intolerant and judgmental strictures that dominated Puritan society: the Puritans dismissal of any logical reasoning in favor of a narrow religious interpretation; a complete lack of empathy or tolerance for any group remotely different from Puritan society.
The Puritan dogma of four hundred years past still is heard today. Anytime I hear the Vice-President Mike Pence state that people “who lead good Christian lives don’t need health care,” I can hear the great Puritan minister Cotton Mather heartily agree. The growing inequality of wealth and opportunity — I hear the admonition of the all mighty Puritan ministers of four hundred years ago as well as the Congresspeople and the current President stating that the poor deserve their lot since their poverty reflects a lack of God and church and the poor’s refusal to help themselves.