[what's up]

If they had represented the American way

Don't you see...they DID represent the American way AT THAT TIME IN HISTORY.

They broke from a State Church, which was the first step to a separation between church and state.

Their example allowed this concept to be written into the Constitution almost 200 years later.

They did exceptionally noble deeds for their time and can be considered heroes; we should not expect them to have had the hindsight of the 20th century.

[rwfromkansas]

Never mind the fact they had a representative assembly, something this poster (claiming, and a teacher at that), convienently ignores. Where the Puritans perfect? No! But, they did do many good things in addition to when things were bad. I am so freaking sick and tired of one-sided history. If anyone, this teacher deserves to be fired and get spit on in public because he is not doing his job....instead of teaching history fairly, he is only doing the "white man is evil" routine. I am mad as hell and won't take it anymore! I have done tons of research on the Puritans and he is only presenting a bunch of biased crap. I have to sit in my history class (I take AP history class in high school here) and listen to things I disagree with historically. At the same time, my history teacher and the textbook presents things in a fairly equal manner. This is what history is supposed to do...it is supposed to inspire critical thinking and being able to see each side. History is interpretation.....obviously there are some things that are definitive, but largely, it is nothing but different point of views. I am extremely agitated at liberals like the poster of this thread taht proclaim that what they are saying is true and nobody else could see something in the primary source documents. He may claim conservatism, but he is a liar, for conservatism does not hijack and falsify history. It gives equal and open discussion of the issues.