THE BANISHMENT OF

ROGER WILLIAMS II

MYTH #2 - "Roger Williams suffered for his Baptistconvictlous."

The fact is, Williams was never a Baptist except for a very blief time. Duling his lifetime, he held Baptist convictions for only a few months and this occurred nearly three years after his departure from Massachusetts (1639). When he was banished, he held to paedo-baptism. W. Clark Gilpin makes this remark:

"Having once become a Baptist, Williams did not long remain one. Instead, he concluded that the Roman apostasy had so disrupted the state of the church that no authentic congregations could exist until Chlist initiated the millennium by sending new apostles to recreate the churCh. Hence, only a few months after being rebaptized by Holliman, Williams departed from the Baptist congregation at Providence, never again to count himself the member of any church." (The Millenarian Piety of Roger Williams, p. 56)

The cause of his banishment was his ecclesiastical intolerance coupled with his anarchical views of civil government. He denied the connection between the Old Testament and the New. In fact, his view was that the New nullified the Old. Thus, he believed it an error for the Pulitans to view themselves as the "new Israel" (Le., a covenanted people) and to seek to establish a "theocracy" (Le., in the Pulitan mind, a government "where the laws by which men govern are the laws of God").

This position led him to deny the applicability of God's law in the civil realm. The magistrates had no responsibility, indeed, no light, to enforce the first table (the first four commandments) of the Law of God. This in tum led to a denial of the necessity for Christian rulers at all:

"Williams' insistence on the secular nature of the state led him to conclude that a ruler could still be a good ruler even though he had never heard of Chlist. There was no reason to assume that a person would perform better in his particular calling simply because

he was a Chlistian ... Williams declared 'that Civil places of Trust and Credit need not be Monopolized into the hands of Church-Members (who sometimes are not fitted for them)'." (T. H. Breen, The Character of the Good Ruler, p. 45)

The Pulitans saw these views, in the language of John Quincy Adams, as "altogether revolutionary." They felt "compelled to choose between his expulsion, and the immediate lisk of SOCial, civil, and religious disorganization." (Dexter, op. cit., p. 241)

MYTII#3-"RogerWiliiams'Rhode Island colony proves the necessity of the principle of 'pluralism' for any well-ordered society."

It was certainly Williams intention in founding Rhode Island to discredit the political ideas of the Pulitans. He believed that "full freedom of conscience" would produce "unlivaled prospelity." He later would boast in a letter to a friend,

"Rhode Island had been spared the iron yolk of wolfish bishops and the new chairuj of Presbyterian tyrants ... nor in this colony have we been consumed with the over-zealous fire of the so-called godly Christian magistrate ... Sir, we have not known what an excise means; we have almost forgotten what tithes are, yea, or taxes either, to church or commonwealth." (quoted in Craig S. Bulkeley, "Chlistianity and Religious Liberty", Chlistianity and Civilization, No.1, Spling, 1982, p. 264)

Less than a half-dozen friends had followed Williams into the wilderness "to seek their providences." And those who followed them later proved to be much more consistent in follOwing Williams' plinciples than even he was himself. It was more "prospelity" than he could stand. Providence became a haven for every crackpot, rebel, misfit, and anarchist in the country, all of

July! August, 1994 ~ l"HE COUNSEL of Cbalcedon ~ 25

them living out the implications of Mr. Williams' teachings.

Aman by the name ofVerriri refused to obey any order from the government pn the grounds that it violated his "liberty of conscience." A seductive heretic named Samuel Gorton soon found his way to Providence as well (he had already been booted by the Bay Colony, Plymouth, and the settlement of Aquidneck, an island in NarragansettBay). He began to preach expounding Williams' own professed beliefs to his tutor's everlasting woe. Williams would write to John Winthrop, "Master Gorton, having foully abused high and low at Aquidnick, is now bewitching and bemadding poor Providence both with hiS unclean and foul censures of all the ministers of thiscountty (for which I myself have in Christ's name withstood him) and also denying all visible and ' external ordinances." (quoted in Peter Marshall and DavidManuel, TheUghtandtheQory, p.19n

On top of his other problems, Williams had to contend with the Quakers who, at this time, were a radical cult that took great pleasure in provoking opposition and persecution. They also delighted in quoting back to Williams smite of his famous sayings wneneverhetried to assert his authority overthem. (Williamswouldlaterwrite a treatise agaipst, George Fox and Edward Burrowes, the leaders of the Quakers, entitled, George Fox digg'd out of his Burrowes.) Anarchism abounded. In March, 16.57, Williams summoned to court Cathrine Scott, the sister of Ann Hutchinson (who has caused a great brouhaha in Massachusetts Bay), and three of her friends for their anarchist beliefs.

All thiS caused Williams to write, "Rhode lsland had long drunk of the

cup of as great liberties as any people that we hearofunderthewhole heaven .. . But, the sweet cup hath rendered many of us wanton and too active." (Bulkeley, op. cit., p. 26.5) In other words, Rhode Island was a ZOO - a veritable breeding ground forinfidelity.

Historian A. L. Drummond, by no means a fan of the Puritans, describes the consequences of Williams' ideas as they worked themselves out in Rhode Island: ''These conditions did not make for progress or prosperity. Toleration was a blessing, but it did not have the 'drive' adequate to build churches,

schools and public works. Rhode Island remained 'the least of the tribes of Israel'. Shifting, unstable coteries w~re incapable of producing the homoge1!eous communities characteristic of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Sixty years after the foundation of Providence there was no adequate house of worship in the town; and at the end of Rhode Island's first century there were less than a dozen churches of any denomination, 'and these mostlyimi very feeble state'." (A. L. Drummond, Story of American Protestantism, p . 74, quoted in lain H. MU,rray, "Spiritual Characteristics of the First Christian SocietyinAmerica", The Banner of Truth, Issue 1.57, October 1976, p . 19)

Williams purportedly, was astounded by all this. He shouldn't have been. If, as he believed, every man should be free to follow the dictates ofhis own conscience, nothing

16 '" THE COUNSEL of Chalc"don f July! Augost, 1994

can be declared wrong or unlawful. No one can be condemned. Alllaws are illegitimate (since all laws forcethe conscienceS of men in ,sotne way or another). 'All government is wrong. No true soctetyis possible. Dissention is unavoidable. Thisiswhathappened in Rhode Island. .

Interestingly, WilUaIilssawthis and for all practical purposes, abandoned his positions at the end ofhis life. In fact, he embraced exactly the opposite extreme. Realizing that "no church could attain purity in this world," Williams dropped all regard for pUrity

and in Winthrop's words, "having a little before, refused commurrton with all,save his own wife, now he would preach to and pray with, all comers." (quoted in Morgan, op.cit. ,p. 131) His views now reached their logical end: both Church and State, rather than being God's instruments to promote true godliness, were reduced to institutions which

promotedthedesauctionofgodlysociety. Now, however, we aie 'able ' to

understand why Roger WilliaIIls is lionized by modem historians and viewed as an unblemished hero by most modem Americans. He opposed the sovereign rule of God and sought to establish the autonomy of man. He was in a very real sense, the first of his day to put a Biblical face on secularism. He sought to justify the "neutral State" and thereby to nullify the importance of a distinCtively Christtan order. He denounced godly authOrity and so opened the way to anarchy and ultimately, centralism.

What happened in Rhode Island has now' occurred throughout this country. We have embraced darkness for light and error for truth. The'death we see covering our land is a direct consequence of the seeds sown by Roger Williams and others who followed hirn.n