"There were also synagogue in the colonies as well."
And 99% of the people were Christians.
Don't ask me for the source. It is a fact.
I wonder was has happened, and continues to happen, since then. Could immigration laws have played a part in our changing demographics? YES! Could our problems be related to to this seminal change? YOU BET!
The solution is clear.
Unfortunately, it's not a fact.
A significant number of people in the colonies were Deists, Jews, or of other religious persuasions. There were also many agnostics and atheists - Ethan Allen, for example, was reputed to be the most atheistic and profane man in the colonies. I also believe that Thomas Paine was also reported to be an atheist.
The majority *were* some flavor of Christians, and the majority of *those* were Protestants, true, but they were by no means an overwhelming majority in either case. Not that I support either point of view here, just correcting the record.
What you are missing is that those Christians probably felt no more kinship between their own sects than with the Jewish minorities in the colonies. Perhaps less kinship because theirs were competing interpretations of Christianity and Jews were a totally different entity.
What this all DOES represent is a desire and ability to live in relative peace regardless of religious differences; 'tolerance' was intended to go in all directions and to be received in turn.
What we are seeing today is one-way tolerance being repaid by callous aggression and we see it entirely from one single source - Islam.
(I'm giving the RC a pass because terrorism in it's name is limited to the UK and has far deeper roots)
And 99% of the people were Christians.
Don't ask me for the source. It is a fact.
I wonder was has happened, and continues to happen, since then. Could immigration laws have played a part in our changing demographics? YES! Could our problems be related to to this seminal change? YOU BET!
There is much confusion in this post and the one which engendered it way back where.
Although 99% of the colonists came from Christian countries, they were not 99% churched -- that is actually members of churches. The proportion of the unchurched in colonial America was greater than it is today.
A reference to established churches in colonial America and indeed into the 19th century, refers to STATE established, offical churches in certain colonies, especially New England where the Congregational Church was established and state supported by mandatory taxes.