• PowerPuffKat@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Wait, wasn’t one of the main points of Europeans immigrating to America was for freedom of religion?

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Yes… but no.

      It wasn’t just freedom to express their religion, it was also the freedom to form governments where they could be in power, and thus impose their religious beliefs on others.

      The British colonies were basically religious fundamentalist zones. For example: Maryland – land of Mary. Was intended to be a Catholic colony. Massachusetts was meant as a Puritan colony, and they strictly enforced that. A woman named Mary Dyer was hanged in Boston for the crime of being a Quaker.

      • peg@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        According to Wikipedia: It is named after Henrietta Maria, the French-born queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland during the 17th century.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          Interestingly though, Henrietta Maria was named after her parents (Henry IV and Marie de Médicis / Maria de’ Medici), and it’s likely her mother’s name came from their Catholic faith.

          So Maryland was named after Henrietta Maria who was named after Marie de Médicis who was named after the biblical Mary. (Unless she was named after another Mary)

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          Fair enough, but Mary is a pretty Catholic name. Even when someone’s named after a relative (in this case her mom was a Mary), the chain generally goes back to the main Mary (who was actually Miryam).

    • Evade5415@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Yeah all the horrible religious people who became outcasts thought they should bring their nightmare beliefs to a new land.

    • Dave V@midwest.social
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      6 months ago

      Exactly. My forefathers left the Netherlands because the government was trying to tell them how to worship God. Now many of their descendants are trying to tell people how to worship God.