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The persecution of religious minorities in Europe resulted in a very secular Europe—-because many of them fled—-and a very religious America, because that’s whe
by new_realist 5y ago
The persecution of religious minorities in Europe resulted in a very secular Europe—-because many of them fled—-and a very religious America, because that’s where they all went.
- jganetsk 5y agoNo. The persecution of religious minorities in Europe culminated in the Holocaust, which led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Don't blame the minorities who have suffered and continue to suffer.
- ciberado 5y agoMaybe I'm wrong, but I have always thought this was an ethnic/cultural/social persecution, not mainly religious-based.
- tsol 5y agoWhy not both? Romani are an example of ethnic persecution alone, but Jews have to deal with an added layer of religious persecution as well
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoBoth/and, I think. If you don't like "them", and they're religiously different too, then religion becomes one more avenue for you to attack them. On the other hand, if it starts with you not liking their religion, then you can wind up not liking their ethnicity too.
- ggm 5y agoThe enlightenment exploded after the Lisbon earthquake. Atheism took off. I don't think it was religious persecution as much as the emergence of secular philosophy and science.
- nradov 5y agoOnly a small fraction of American settlers / colonists were fleeing religious persecution, and those mostly came from a few countries in western and northern Europe. There weren't many religious fanatics emigrating in the 1600's from Greece or Poland.
- new_realist 5y agoInterestingly, Massachusetts banned Christmas for over 20 years for being a pagan holiday.