Mayflower Compact Religion and the Mayflower Contract Essay

Mayflower Compact

Religion and the Mayflower Contract

Some of the very first settlers to the United States were escaping religious persecution in Europe, but that in no way changed their mind about their connection between their religion and how they would later govern themselves. The Puritan settlers came to the New World with ideas of starting a new colony, with religion and governance intertwined. As they signed the Mayflower Contract, they believed they would be able to continue living in this manner; yet as the history of the early United States progressed, it was clear that there would be a demand for a wall of separation between Church and State that would protect religious freedom but also disconnect religious doctrines to legal doctrines.

The Puritans saw their religious and secular devotion as one in the same. When they had the opportunity to leave the religious persecution back home in England, they dreamed of a new state that would embody their religious ideas within the foundation of its secular laws. Being so far from the King and the Anglican Church, which was the official church of England at the time, they thought this would be a relatively smooth process -- which it was for quite some time. The Puritans signed the Mayflower Contract believing that their religious doctrines would be set side by side their secular laws.The contract even suggests that "having undertaken for the Glory of God, and the Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country." In this, the Puritans saw no need to separate their own Church from their own State, although they had been driven out of Europe by religious intolerance. For several generations, they were allowed to live in this manner.

Yet, as the colonies banded together to form the United States, things began to change. Not all of the colonies followed the same religious practices. In fact, there were a number of religious sects living in the area when the United States was….....