Founding Fanatics

You hear a lot these days about returning to the ideals of our founding fathers. What most people refuse to think about is that these founders were for the most part religious zealots who instead of escaping persecution at home merely exported it to the new world. The Maryland Act concerning Religion (1649) regulated death, imprisonment, confiscation of property and public whipping for dissing the lord or any of his agents. Freedom of religion was protected for believers of Jesus Christ except:

…heritick, Scismatick, Idolator, puritan, Independant, Prespiterian popish
prest, Jesuite, Jesuited papist, Lutheran, Calvenist, Anabaptist, Brownist,
Antinomian, Barrowist, Roundhead, or Sepatist…

This was just Maryland; settled by Roman Catholics.
New England was settled by Puritans; Virginia by Anglicans. Roger Williams founded Rhode Island on religious freedom, as did William Penn’s “Society of Friends” in Pennsylvania. Lutherans and Jews were encouraged to settle in these areas. These various groups were not at all friendly with each other as the Maryland example shows.