This episode traces the decline of the Puritan "city on a hill," juxtaposed with the rise of separatists, Baptists and Presbyterians (who opposed a blending of church and state). Puritanism declined rapidly after the first generation of Puritans, so much so that a "halfway covenant" was instituted to baptize the children of unconverted parents. While established churches among Puritans and Anglicans languished, some eventually embracing Deism, independent Baptist and Presbyterian congregations thrived, WITHOUT state support. Rejecting a church-state synthesis, these traditions ultimately relied on early Luther, whose "priesthood of all believers" renders one's "religious" identity a matter of individual conscience, NOT subject to compulsion by an established church. Roger Williams argued for a "wall of separation between church and state" to protect the "garden of the church" from the corrupting effects of the "wilderness of the world." Modern day Christians and secularists commonly misrepresent the founders' insistence on a separation of church and state, often projecting their "culture war" narrative onto the founders. BOTH are guilty of historical eisegesis--reading into historical documents their own agenda. The episode details Madison's rage against "the diabolical persecution" perpetrated by Anglicans against Baptists in Virginia, informing his pluralist solution enshrined in the establishment clause of the Constitution.
Christian Nationalism and the Problem of Dissent
This episode highlights the problem of dissent in any church-state mixture. Henry VIII separated England from the Roman Catholic Church and made himself head of the new Anglican Church. He was both head of the church and the state, and subsequent monarchs assumed these roles. Henry's daughter Mary eventually came to the throne, and her fervent Catholicism led to the martyrdom of many Protestants, some whose stories are recorded in Fox's Book of Martyrs. While her successor Elizabeth managed to quell religious violence, the problem of dissent remained: as long as the crown (the state) is tied to the church, purely "theological" disputes are necessarily "political." Disagreement in the "religious" sphere becomes rebellion against the ESTABLISHED church, i.e., the STATE church. The Puritan "city on a hill" escaped persecution in England, but not the problem of dissent. For barely starting anew in Massachusetts, the Puritans exiled Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams, the latter objecting to the church-state blending of the Puritans. Williams insisted on the separation of church and state, a "wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world." Williams therefore embodies both the problem and solution to the problem of dissent. Up to this point the response to dissent among "Christian nationalists" was either persecution or exile. The episode finally cites Madison's condemnation of church-state mixing, leading to "inquisitions" among dissenters, second-class citizens.