This
author surveyed the index of "The Americans," and found that in the
1,045 pages of text, there were only two references to Christianity, no
references to Protestants, and five references to Roman Catholicism.
There were zero references to God, zero references to Jesus Christ, and
only one reference to evangelicals. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are
described as “minor activists,” not as traitors who sold out their
country for $10,000. Their being traitors is no
longer supposition or
in any way debatable, but has been revealed conclusively by Harvey
Klehr et al. in their monumental study The Secret World of American
Communism based on documents made available after the collapse of the
USSR. Prof. Klehr is a professor at Emory University and the book was
published by Yale University Press, hardly right-wing organizations.
The same textbook has no index reference to John Calvin and the
powerful Reformation currents that were alive and well in the 17th and
into the 18thcenturies. And in the textbook’s sections on the "Pilgrims
and the Puritans," the focus goes from Roger Williams and Anne
Hutchinson (essentially depicted as the first feminist victim of an
uptight male patriarchy) to King Philip’s War between the Puritans and
Wampanoag Indians in 1675. Although it’s not said outright, the book
means to suggest that there was a certain bloodthirsty aspect to the
Puritan culture. They were encroaching and exploitative, so the Indians
had to fight back. The textbook fails to mention anything about the
fifty-year peace treaty between the Wampanoags and the Puritans, which
held up beautifully until Chief Massasoit and the Puritan leader John
Winthrop died.
It fails to mention Thomas Hooker who founded Connecticut and, with his
co-founders, wrote the first state constitution – "The Fundamental
Orders of Connecticut" – that was a model for representative government
in the colonies. The book does not mention that Anne Hutchinson, though
she was a woman, was permitted to lead Bible discussions at her home in
Massachusetts. Only when she began teaching antinomian doctrine (i.e.,
that it was not necessary for a Christian to follow moral law) was she
reprimanded, and banished when she failed to submit to the teachings of
the colonial leaders. Moreover, the book fails to highlight the
incredible faith of the Puritans as they actually succeeded, despite
some flaws, on building that “city on the hill” out of the wilderness,
and the debt of gratitude we owe to the righteous and faithful
Puritans, people who walked the walk of faith wearing the whole armor
of God.
[FULL]
