NOVEMBER 4

As this land was being settled and before it became an independent country, peoples from Europe came here for various reasons - very often to attain religious freedom which had been denied them.  One of the most famous of these settlements was the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 

This colony was made up of Puritans - English Protestants who wanted to completely separate themselves from the Church of England and the Catholic Church from which it evolved. 

On this date, November 4, 1646, they passed some laws (acts) relative to their firm beliefs.  It was ruled against the law to deny that their Bible was the word of God.  If one persisted in this belief, the penalty was death. (They weren't messing around) Further in this law, it was made a five shilling offense to miss church on Sunday. 

A country's religious freedom is a pendulum.  Some countries are at one end of the arc and some at the other.  The strict end of the arc only works if everyone is of one belief.  We're not there yet.