Franklin Graham, son of the famous evangelist Billy Graham, is coming to the south steps of the Rhode Island State House on August 31 at noon, to preach his message of anti-LGBTQ, anti-Islam, pro-theocracy intolerance. Graham is visiting Rhode Island as part of a 50-state tour.  “I’m going to every state in our country,” says Graham on his website, “to challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box—and I will share the Gospel.”

Graham’s gospel includes the demonization of those who don’t subscribe to his narrow, biblical world view. Graham “and his pals,” writes Rob Boston, director of communications at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, “lost the marriage equality case at the U.S. Supreme Court, but they didn’t let that slow them down. Almost immediately, they started attacking the transgender community.”

Graham’s tour is timed to have maximum impact on the coming presidential election, even as he tries to pretend that his message somehow transcends politics. “I am running a campaign, but I am running a campaign for God,” says Graham on his 50-state tour website. His message isn’t one of unity and peace, it’s one built on the familiar right-wing tropes of hate and fear.

“The secularists, the progressives, many of these people, most of them are people that would be atheistic, and we have taken God out of our country,” said Graham during his Facebook live prayer event, scheduled before the start of the Republican National Convention, “We have taken Him out of our nation; we have taken Him out of our government. We have taken Him out of the education system, and our country is beginning to implode. We’re on the precipice of anarchy.”

Graham reserves his most vile verbal venom for members of the LGBTQ community. “I want the school boards of America in the hands of evangelical Christians within the next four to six years,” said Graham to Fox News’ Todd Starnes, “And it can happen and that will have a huge impact because so many school districts now are controlled by wicked, evil people, and the gays and lesbians, and I keep bringing their name up, but they are at the forefront of this attack against Christianity in America.”

Franklin went to Russia in 2015 to praise “President Vladimir Putin’s protection of ‘traditional Christianity,’ including the passage of the 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law that effectively criminalizes pro-gay-rights speech and advocacy.”

While in Russia, Graham didn’t miss his chance to put down the country of his birth. “[T]he situation in the US regarding religion is in decline. Secularism, which is almost no different from communism, is an atheistic movement. Our country is becoming more and more secular, more atheist, taking God out of government, taking God out of schools. We are witnessing America losing many religious freedoms. In your country over the past 30 years, we have seen positive changes. But over this same period of time in the US, the changes have been negative.”

If you’re not convinced that Franklin Graham is a monster, consider that he called the “first national monument to the gay rights movement near the site of the Stonewall protests in New York City” an “Unbelievable… monument to sin,” adding, “It’s no surprise that the three officials who represent the area and support the monument are all openly gay.”

Consider that Graham told a capacity crowd in Alabama that the idea of separating church and state is “just a lie that the enemy uses to try to keep your mouth shut.”

Consider that he lead the effort to boycott Girl Scout cookies because of the group’s acceptance of lesbian, bisexual, queer and transgender youth, saying, he “won’t be buying any Girl Scout cookies this year.”

Then there’s Graham’s anti-Islam rants, a featured part of his public comments and sermons since 9/11. In the aftermath of the attacks, writes William Alberts in Counterpunch, Graham called Islam a “very wicked and evil religion.” In the same Counterpunch piece Alberts wrote:

Rev. Graham’s glorification of his brand of Christianity depends on him condemning Islam as a “violent form of faith,” which led him to do violence to Islam with this glaring lie: “‘Nowhere in its history gives proof of peace (italics added).’” He continued, “‘Islam itself has not changed at all in 1500 years . . . It is the same. It is a religion of war.’” He cited the Islamic State, the Taliban and Boko Haram, and concluded, “This is Islam. It has not been hijacked by radicals. This is the faith, this is the religion. It is what it is. It speaks for itself.”

In Rhode Island, the LGBTQ and Muslim communities have united against hate and violence, especially in the wake of the Orlando shootings. When a mosque was vandalized in North Kingstown, members of the LGBTQ community attended an interfaith vigil in support.

Franklin Graham is visiting a state that was founded on principles diametrically opposed to his brand of intolerance, fear and stupidity. I am confident he will not find fertile ground for his bigotry in the state founded by Roger Williams.

Rhode Island celebrated World Refugee Day on Saturday in the People’s Park (Burnside Park) in downtown Providence. The Rufugee Dream Center’s Omar Bah, a Gambian refugee and now a United States citizen, was the emcee for the event. He noted that Rhode Island’s founder, Roger Williams, was a refugee from Massachusetts seeking freedom and safety in our state. Bah said that welcoming refugees is a Rhode island tradition that must be protected.

Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island sponsored the event.

On stage were cultural dances, poetry and music from around the world, including Colombia, Burma, the Congo, India and many more. The event ended with dancing from members of Rhode Island’s Syrian refugee community.

The United Nations notes that “World Refugee Day has been marked on 20 June, ever since the UN General Assembly, on 4 December 2000, adopted resolution 55/76 where it noted that 2001 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and that the Organization of African Unity (OAU) had agreed to have International Refugee Day coincide with Africa Refugee Day on 20 June.”

This is the first outdoor World Refugee Celebration in Providence. Representatives David Cicilline and James Langevin, as well as Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, spoke briefly.

The National Day of Reason is held every year on the same day as the the National Day of Prayer. The goal is to celebrate reason, an inclusive concept everyone can get behind, as opposed to prayer, which caters to the religious only. The Day of Reason also calls attention to the dangers of mixing church and state, dangers the National Day of Prayer epitomizes.

Darwin Day, celebrated on or around February 12 each year, marks the legacy and insight of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution was so important to our understanding of science and our place in the universe.

Last year the Connecticut Coalition of Reason petitioned Governor Malloy to declare May 7, 2015 a Day of Reason, but the petition was denied without explanation. Malloy is expected to reject this year’s petition to declare May 5, 2016 a Day of Reason because the policy of the Governor’s office is to “reject all proclamation requests out of hand if the same request was rejected in the prior year” says Patrick McCann, who prepared both petitions.

McCann is the President of the Hartford Area Humanists and the co-chair of the Connecticut Coalition of Reason. He wants the Governor to issue a proclamation “to recognize that Connecticut has a very large and thriving secular community.

“In fact,” says McCann, “a very recent Gallup poll shows that Connecticut is one of the least religious states in the country with 39 percent of respondents indicating that they were non-religious.”

When McCann later found out that Governor Malloy had signed a Day of Prayer proclamation at the behest of some religious constituents, he was furious. “By issuing a Day of Prayer proclamation and rejecting our Day of Reason proclamation request, the Governor is sending a very strong signal that he favors one segment of the population over another. I for one find that unacceptable.”

Last year Malloy’s office also rejected a petition to declare February 12 “Darwin Day” because it was submitted late. This year the petition was submitted on time, but Malloy rejected this one too without any consideration of the content.

Calls and emails to the Governor’s office seeking an explanation for the rejections have gone unanswered, forcing McCann to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request last year. Although the reasons for the rejection of the proclamations were not available, the information obtained through the FOIA was telling.

According to McCann, “The Connecticut Governor’s office received 675 proclamation requests between January 1, 2015 and April 10, 2015. Of these, 601 were granted. Of the 11 percent that were rejected it is likely that some percentage were rejected for technical reasons e.g., falling outside the required time frame. The remainder must have gotten rejected for content. Since our request had complied with all the guidelines, it must have been rejected solely on content.”

“Non-theistic constituents like Mr. McCann have contemporary grounds on which they can base their concern,” added Dr. Jason Heap, executive director of the United Coalition of Reason, headquartered in Washington, DC. “If it is true that the reason for rejecting the Darwin Day proclamation was due to its being rejected last year, then it is understandable that non-theistic voters might feel as if their concerns and inspirations are second-class. Recognizing Darwin Day doesn’t glorify a court decision that determined that “intelligent design” as another form of creationism was unconstitutional and therefore had no place in our nation’s public-funded schools. Darwin Day does not mock religious thought such as concept of special creation or the removal of a deity’s responsibility for natural suffering. Rather, it is a recognition of a key figure in modern scientific inquiry–an inquiry that all humans benefit from, regardless of their sincerely-held beliefs.”

Heap also added his concerns for the potential rejection out of hand of McCann’s National Day of Reason proclamation. “It doesn’t take a theological scholar to understand that the National Day of Prayer’s task force has only one sincerely-held belief community in mind. Their website does not hide their mission to “…represent[s] a Judeo-Christian expression of the national observance, based on our understanding that this country was birthed in prayer and in reverence for the God of the Bible,” and that their supporting materials on the website is used as a tool for Christian evangelism. For Gov. Malloy to deny a National Day of Reason proclamation but find it necessary to create a Day of Prayer proclamation excludes non-theists in Connecticut as well as every other sincerely-held belief group that does not hold similar theological views to the National Day of Prayer Task Force. We are seeing how divisive sectarian prayer has become in our government buildings with rabbis being escorted from the premises after she exercised her free speech to claim the prayer as offensive, or using political processes to block the Satanic Temple from delivering their own Constitutionally-protected expression. It is in such current situations that I invoke the memory of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island colony, who wrote in The Bloudy Tenet of Persecution: “All civil states with their officers of justice in their respective constitutions and administrations are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual or Christian state and worship”.

Absent an explanation, Governor Malloy’s repeated rejection of his secular constituent’s concerns smacks of bigotry and preference. Fortunately, other elected officials in Connecticut have been far more supportive. Connecticut Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy sponsored and co-sponsored the Darwin Day resolution in the Senate and Representatives Jim Himes and Elizabeth Esty have sponsored and co-sponsored the Darwin Day resolution in the House. Rep Himes has sponsored the Darwin Day bill three times and has met with members of the Secular Coalition of Connecticut. Senator Blumenthal and his wife attended this year’s Darwin Day Bash held at the Norwalk Inn and Conference Center.

“I wish to welcome you and also seek your assistance in trying to join together and be able to dispel a lot of these unfortunate characterizations of the Muslim community,” said Imam Farid Ansari, to the crowd gathered inside the Islamic Center of Rhode Island in Providence. Ansair was speaking for the Rhode Island Council for Muslim Advancement, (RICMA).

The rise of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence across the country in response to recent terror attacks and political demagoguery has lead Muslim leaders in our state to make strong statements unequivocally condemning the terror attacks in Paris and the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino. Ansari said, “these acts are not representative of the Islamic faith…

“The backlash of these atrocious attacks have been felt deeply in the Muslim community nationwide. Inflammatory rhetoric as demonstrated by some politicians to isolate and marginalize American Muslims is reckless and undermines the safety and security of our great nation,” Ansari continued.

On a positive note, he said, “the American Muslim community in Rhode Island has unprecedented support from public officials, law enforcement, faith community and fellow citizens and we deeply appreciate this support.”

To counter this wave of mistrust, hatred and violence and because “we strongly believe that hate can only be countered by love and peace,” Ansari announced that, “we will be expanding our engagement with the Rhode Island community, to launch several social and educational programs across the state.”

These programs include an open house this Saturday from 1-3 at the Islamic Center, and continuing open houses at mosques throughout the state.

Other speakers took to the podium to denounce Islamophobia and to stand in solidarity with the Muslim community. Lutheran Bishop James Hazelwood lamented the way politicians have used the tragic recent events as an opportunity to divide rather to unite.

Jim Vincent of the NAACP says that his organization is “totally against the xenophobia that is happening in our country today.” Blaming all Muslims for the attacks in Paris or San Bernardino makes as much sense as blaming all Christians for the actions of the KKK, just because they use the cross as their symbol.

Episcopal Bishop Nicholas Knisely, said, “It’s important for us… to reject the voices calling for us to treat the people of one faith differently than all others.”

“Words have power,” said Rabbi Sarah Mack of the Greater Providence Board of Rabbis, “Our language can create good will and harmony in the community, or as we have sadly seen in recent weeks, our words can build mistrust, hatred and xenophobia.”

Dr. Wendy Ibraham of the Sisters Wing of RICMA, said that speaking for women Muslims is difficult, because they are such a diverse group. “Eighteen years ago, I decided to adopt a faith that believed in love and freedom and mercy and justice and kindness for all people, regardless of faith or ethnicity or color or creed… It’s important right now for Muslims to come forward and tell you what our religion is about.”

Toby Ayers, on behalf of the Rhode Island for Community and Justice and runs a youth program called Project Respect. In this program, “Young people become leaders in service to the mission of fighting bias, bigotry, and racism by promoting understanding between all races, religions and cultures through advocacy, conflict resolution and education.

Reverend Thomas Wiles, of the American Baptists channeled Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, who championed religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

“We continue to proclaim,” says Wiles, “that for faith to be true it must be free.”

Evangelical Pastor Andrew Mook advocated for a radical Christianity that embraces love and peace, even at the cost of one’s own life.

Last up was Reverend Donald Anderson, who decided to name the “elephant in the room,” Donald Trump. (That the elephant is the symbol of the Republican Party might be a subtle joke on Anderson’s part.)

“We are called, as faith leaders, to speak truth to power. So let’s do that. Mr Trump, we will not stand for your demagoguery that leads to discrimination. For those people who would follow him and his foolishness, those who would value temperament more than truth, audacity more than accuracy, let us say that love will win.”

Dr. Jason Heap (“Jase”), executive director of the United Coalition of Reason (United CoR), “one of the largest nontheist organizations in North America,” spoke to a combined meeting with members of the Rhode Island Atheists, the Humanists of Rhode Island and others about both the group he leads and his pending court case against the United States government regarding Humanist chaplains in the United States military. Jase’s message drew on the influences of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as he emphasized unity without uniformity and celebrated nontheistic diversity.

As the case is pending, Jase could only speak in generalities about the lawsuit, and there were many questions he could not answer. A Huffington Post piece from last year explains that Jase, endorsed and certified by the Humanist Society as a chaplain and a celebrant, “is challenging both the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense for not recognizing the group as an endorser of chaplain candidates.”

Jase’s academic credentials are impeccable. He has a BA from Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, with double majors in philosophy and theology; a Masters of Divinity from Brite Divinity School- Texas Christian University; an MSt in history and religion from The University of Oxford, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) with Qualified Teacher Status from Sheffield Hallam University in England. Jase has also completed a Doctor of Education degree with a specialization in administrator leadership for teaching and learning.

The suit Heap filed states that Heap’s “qualifications and experience far exceed the standards articulated by the Navy for accepting applicants… The Navy denied his application because of his Humanist beliefs.” According to the lawsuit, the Navy “does not consider Humanism to be a religion.”

For many, myself included, Humanism is not a religion, but a moral worldview that takes the place of religion. Time and again, however, the courts have ruled that Humanism and atheism are protected under the conscience clause of the First Amendment, just as religion is.

Though Jase was constrained in his talk about his lawsuit, he was fully able to talk about his role as the executive director of United CoR. United CoR works to build local coalitions of non theistic groups. Here in Rhode Island seven non theistic groups have banded together as the Rhode Island Coalition of Reason (RICoR).  The efforts of this group, under the leadership of Coordinator Dr. Tony Houston, lead to both the billboard in South County and the RIPTA bus ads that sported the “Godless? So Are We!” slogan last winter.

With Jase as Executive Director, United CoR has begun to do more than simply offer a web presence and billboards. United CoR is now helping local groups succeed with educational opportunities, speaker engagements, and event promotion. UnitedCoR is also making new efforts to connect with community partners, both at local and national levels, for the benefit of the 80+ local coalitions.

Jase spoke also of Rhode Island’s leadership in establishing the first government in history where church and state were separated. Earlier in the day he had explored Touro Synagogue in Newport, an important site in the history of religious freedom in our state.

“I have always had a certain fascination for Roger Williams and respect for the historical contribution of Rhode Island, ever since I took a History of Baptist course from the late Rev. Dr. H. Leon McBeth at Brite Divinity School,” said Jase. “Williams’ 1644 work, The Bloudy Tenet of Persecution, speaks volumes in current American religious discourse when he stated, ‘all civil states, with their officers of justice in their respective constitutions and administrations, are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual or Christian state and worship.’”

One last bit of exciting news: When Jase learned of my effort to raise money via GoFundMe to cover the visit of Pope Francis to the United States in September, what I called “Send an Atheist to cover the Pope,” he offered United CoR matching funds of $250 for the next $250 worth of donations. People who contribute now can double their investment in democratic journalism.

Rhode Island’s celebration of the Supreme Court‘s historic decision allowing same-sex couples to marry across the United States was also a history lesson about the long battle for full LGBTQ acceptance in our state. Organizer Kate Monteiro spoke eloquently and introduced a steady stream of speakers, but more importantly she paused to remember those who didn’t live long enough to see this day, those who are only spoken of “in the echoes of the wind.”

We live in a better world because of their work and sacrifice.

The celebration was held at the Roger Williams National Memorial, because, explained Monteiro, this is where “religious freedom in the United States was born” and where Belle Pelegrino and the ’76ers first met to demand the right to march in Providence with a sign saying ‘I am gay.'”

“We stand at the top of a very, very high hill,” said Monteiro, “we have carried that pack and we have wanted for water and struggled and slipped and we stand at the top of a hill. And the view is beautiful. It is absolutely splendid. And just a little bit further is the next big hill. Because we are not at the top of the mountain, never mind the other side of the mountain.”

“Tomorrow, in 29 states, someone can be fired for being gay or lesbian, let alone transgender. (That, thank you, is 32 states)… That’s wrong, we need to change it, that is the mountain.”

“Can you imagine if we could go in time and bring Roger Williams here today?” asked Rodney Davis to laughs, “but when you boil it down and get to its purest sense, Freedom, Liberty and Justice was the reason why he came here…”

The Narragansett Indians called it “Clths Slaaag,” which Rhode Island’s founder Roger Williams translated as “The Old One.”

Roger Williams joked about it in his diary journal.

“After a sparse meal of fish and corn, Cannonicus, the Sachem, warned me not to build my home on the hill. He said that was where ‘The Old One,’ a horrific monster, lived and fed. His vivid description reminded me of the demonic stories told by Popish priests to cow the superstitious. Most probably a rabid bear.”

Roger Williams was wrong. Seventeen years later, his second son, Elijah mysteriously vanished and was discovered three days later at the mouth of a cave concealed by a fallen apple tree. The boy’s hair and skin had turned white. Three fingers on his left hand were gone, as if they had been gnawed off. Elijah had lost his mind and never spoke again.

Roger Williams’ heart was broken. He spent much of the rest of his life abroad in England. A scrap of paper with a crude drawing of an anchor

In 1860 when his bones were dug from the family plot to be re-interred beneath his statue in Prospect Park, the popular story was that an apple tree had eaten through his corpse, and the roots had taken the shape of his leg bones. The truth was much darker.

In his diary, Stephen Randall, a witness wrote,

“The stench that emitted from the opened grave was beyond imagining. There lay Roger Williams, looking as well-preserved as the day he was interred. Yet his eyes were open, his mouth peeled back baring his teeth in a rictus of horror. When Elder Brown bent down to close the poor man’s eyes, the body disintegrated into thousands of wriggling worms. Those who were present fled, and when we returned all that remained were the roots of the apple tree, looking strangely like a leg bone.”

Moses Brown discovered the mangled corpse of a slave girl in the basement of his East Side Home in 1773. No one knew who she was or how she had died,

Brown wrote,

“The corpse’s condition was appalling. Her back was scarred with lines that John said betrayed the excessive use of a lash, but reminded me of both the jagged tares rendered by an animal’s claw and the infected ruin of a child caught in a wave of jellyfish tentacles.”

A short time later, Moses Brown freed his slaves and began working for abolition.

Edgar Allen Poe, the author, was the next to write of the thing that lived beneath the Hill. In the margin of the original manuscript for the famous poem, “The Raven”

Poe wrote in a crabbed hand,

“Only in the form of a black bird I can indicate the monstrosity. I have tried again and again to describe the Old One, but language fails me, and the words I use seem unnatural and unreal.”

Following his failed courtship of Sarah Helen Power (Whitman), Poe spent weeks wandering up and down Benefit Street in a laudanum-induced haze. Many say that he never recovered.

The most direct references to the creature came from Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who is still famous for his horrific tales of the Necronomicon and “The Great Old Ones” with unpronounceable names. Lovecraft lived most of his life on Providence’s East Side, at the tip of a triangle between the land near where Elijah Williams was discovered, and the basement of Moses’s Brown’s house.

“…that cellar in our childhood house was my constant nightmare,” Lovecraft wrote to his brother Peter near the end of his life. “While you and Emily laughed and played, I peered into the darkness. I fear that soul-destroying blackness corrupted me somehow.”

More recently, on May 1, 1993, a party thrown by a group of Rhode Island School of Design Students in an abandoned train tunnel ended in horror.

The Providence Journal reported that, “After the tear gas and pepper spray cleared, police found thirteen naked students, their backs bleeding as if they had been struck with a whip. One girl was dead. Police have no suspects, but report the probability of drug abuse.”
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Side_Railroad_Tunnel)

In 2003, when more than 30 house cats were reported missing, the Providence Journal attributed the disappearances to a coyote roaming the neighborhood, yet suggested that “small pets and children remain inside after dark.” In 2009, three homeless men who had been reportedly sleeping under a nearby bridge were also declared missing, by the police, but “presumed to have left the state.:

An article in an alternative The Agenda suggested in 2006 that the changing landscape of the City was bringing the horror to the surface.

“The rivers have been uncovered, a highway is shifting, and a billion dollar project has dug underground sewage overflow tanks beneath the hills where Roger Williams once planted his crops. What else have the construction crews dug up?”
—The Agenda

Shortly afterwards, the sidewalk behind the First Baptist Church in America on Benefit Street began to disintegrate and cave in. It took several years to effect the repairs on the sidewalk and fence behind the First Baptist Church.

A city contractor reported in a brief memo that has since gone missing, “…every time we tried to fill it, the sinkhole beneath Benefit Street would fill with slimy brown ichor. We finally had to lay in rebar and cement in layers going down fifteen feet. It is possible that the missing day worker fell in and wasn’t noticed, but I doubt it.”

Even now, week after week, at WaterFire in Providence bonfires are lit in the river and haunting music is played while tens of thousands of people wander through the smoke as an ancient ceremony is reborn and recreated.

Less than six months ago, the mutilated body of a missing Brown University student was found in at the site of an old Narragansett burial ground. The details were hushed up, photographs of his corpse were deleted and television cameras were kept far from the scene.

When asked to comment bout the rumors that these and the other events documented in this article were the work of the Old One, the Mayor refused to answer. “This was clearly the work of a sick human being,” he said. “We have far more pressing problems in this city in terms of education and infrastructure. Don’t bother me about this nonsense.”

Have the shifting lands disturbed the creature? Are the fires and the people drawing the monster closer, bringing it nearer and nearer to the surface?

It is hard to tell with all the noise. But if you listen carefully, as you wander the darkened streets of Providence late at night, perhaps you will hear a sound, a soft and slurping sound, as if a moistened finger was caressing the cartilage next to your ear.

If you hear this sound, do not stop. Do not turn around. Do not scream. It feeds on fear and despair.

Enjoy your breath. It may be your last.

———————–

Mark Binder’s latest books are works of fiction: Cinderella Spinderella – an illustrated ebook for families coming September 2013, and The Brothers Schlemiel

He was just 29 when he arrived in Boston and he had already concluded that the Church of England was corrupt. A year later he wrote that England was effectively stealing land from the indigenous people. By 1636 he left Massachusetts to start his own utopia and called it Providence … meaning to make provisions for the future.

Completely unrelated, Connecticut requires cattle be branded today in 1644.

First time a plane is ever shot down out of mid-air, today in 1918.

Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World publishes headline: “Pop Stars & Drugs — Facts that Will Shock You” today in 1967.

Happy birthday Hank Aaron, born today in 1934.

Rhode Island’s colonial charter, which celebrates its 350 anniversary this June, “holds a unique place in the evolution of human rights in the modern world,” says Rhode Island College emeritus professor Dr. Stanley Lemons.

“When King Charles II approved the Charter in July 1663,” Lemons writes, “it marked the first time in modern history that a monarch signed a charter guaranteeing that individuals within a society were free to practice the religion of their choice without any interference from the government.”

Pieter Rods, of the Newport Restoration Society, calls our colonial charter, “the first document anywhere in the history of the English empire that guarantees freedom of religion as a matter of law. Religious freedom and separation of church and state both things that we think of as being very important american values and here they are first set forth in a Rhode Island document.”

Both historians share their thoughts on our world-changing charter as Governor Chafee sets to unveil the state’s plans to honor its birthday today at the State House. Hat tip to Andy Cutler for posting this video to Facebook yesterday.

According to a press release:

The activities to be announced include creating a new exhibit space in the State House, a State House gala, a series of educational events, as well as plans for the conservation and preservation of the Charter. Color guards, colonial militia, and an actor playing the role of Roger Williams will also be on hand for tomorrow’s event.

The press release about the announcement notes the charter is the “source of the phrase ‘lively experiment.'” Chafee uses this phrase often when combating the Christian dogma that often invades modern Rhode Island’s political debate.

The announcement also comes one day after two RI Future correspondents (read them here and here) took issue with a GoLocal piece that said Roger Williams would be a Republican.

The political opinions collected at GoLocalProv have always been a bit of a mystery to me. A lot of it doesn’t seem to reflect the city that I know, which is a pretty nice cosmopolitan city with a number of issues.

Don Roach, a Brown University grad, fine. Travis Rowley always seems to inhabit a different Rhode Island than the one the rest of us are living in (his version of this state makes me afraid for his blood pressure), but at least he’s here in Rhode Island. But this takes the cake for about the worst thing that I’ve seen published in GoLocalProv’s political opinions.

It’s a ridiculous screed about the supposed ruin of Rhode Island by the Democratic Party entitled “Roger Williams Would Be a Republican in RI”, written by a Californian. Totally “local” right? There’s even a point where he vaguely compares the Democrats to witches. He does know Roger Williams wasn’t dissenting from witches, right?

Roger Williams (and Anne Hutchinson) features for all of eleven sentences before the screed just repeats the same b.s. about Democrats; they’re corrupt, they’re destroying Rhode Island, etc., etc. My favorite line:

Instead of casting hexes on the unsuspecting citizens, the Democratic Party cult has cursed the minds and the hearts of the Rhode Island citizenry, convincing them that Republicans have no power, no solutions, and no ideas beyond running against the Democratic machine.

Anyhow, the account is factually wrong on at least a couple of points:

1. Rhode Island is the most impoverished state in the nation. No, it’s not. Mississippi continues to retain that honor, with other southern states. Most impoverished in New England; but that’s a bit like being a short giant. Short, for a giant, but still very much a giant. That we’re tied with Nevada for highest unemployment, however, that remains true. We also rank around 17th for highest average income as of 2011.

2. Anne Hutchinson was going to be executed for witchcraft. Anne Hutchinson was advocating doctrines heretical to the Church in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but witchcraft doesn’t seem to have been among her crimes. The major issue seems to have been her articulation of antinomianism, hence the name “Antinomian Controversy” for the events surround her trial and not “Hutchinson Witch Trial”. Since Anne Hutchinson was both imprisoned by the Massachusetts Bay Colony and then found guilty in both civil and religious trials if the colony intended to execute her they had the perfect moment: when they sentenced her. Hutchinson was excommunicated and banished. Her supporters suffered similar fates.

They’d already written to Roger Williams, who advised them to purchase land from the Narragansett. That eventually became Portsmouth.

That gets me to the major point; that Roger Williams would have been a Republican today. The answer is: who knows? Roger Williams was a classic English dissenter; he ultimately died without belonging to a church, looking for one that matched the purity of his ideals. He was a man apart. If Roger Williams were alive today his first response would probably be “whoa! How are your houses lit without candles? How are they heated without fire? Why is Providence built entirely from stone?!” Things have changed, Roger. Our entire political system is different from Roger Williams’ day. Who’s to say where he would stand once he figured it out.

Unless you actually are practicing witchcraft, specifically necromancy, you can’t possibly know what a dead person would think of today. People exist in specific historical places and times. Certainly, you can utilize their ideas and words; everyone does. It’s why the New Deal’s patron saint was James Madison even though the post-Constitutional Convention Madison opposed large-scale governmental policies in his own day. It’s why the Tea Party uses Tom Paine even though Paine specifically advocates for things like social welfare (and in the 18th Century as well).

We politicize history because it’s convenient to cast ourselves in the legacy of great people. To place ourselves in a historical context and seek justification for it from history. But Roger Williams can’t legitimize the Republican Party in Rhode Islanders’ eyes, anymore than he can do that for the Democratic Party. If Roger Williams were here today, he would be Roger Williams; a complex dissenter who helped found our state and gave us a body of thought that continues to be debated today. The man didn’t even leave behind an authentic image of himself. If he doesn’t have a face, how could he possibly have an affiliation with a political party that arose over 150 years after his death?