little chickon nuget wrote @ August 24, 2008 at 5:36 pm

so i watched those movie films and they were pretty interesting, but, the hole time i couldn’t help but wonder why martin had that rediculess hair cut! i mean who goes home at the end of the day and says “I think i want to shave a bald spot on my head!”. who says that?! for real! this martin guy got some issues! haha

good clip, i liked it…

  Isabel wrote @ August 26, 2008 at 1:16 am

Mrs. Aragon I have the movie but I really didn’t know that they had m0re background as I now know of. I didn’t know that the Puritans were also called Pilgrims and Quakers. I am really exited about these chapters talking about religion and I think that it is going to very interesting. The movie about Martin Luther is very inspiring for both spritually and morally.

  Malini Chauhan wrote @ August 27, 2008 at 2:36 am

Concerning the Puritans:

The video seems to take a sympathetic approach to analyzing the Puritans, much like the perspective applied to viewing the Jewish (as the article pointed out). The Puritans did accomplish incredible feats, of that there is no doubt- but was their society really “ideal”? The video did not elaborate as to what the parameters for Puritan idealism was, but from what we discussed in class, I think I have a concept of what it might by. I think the underpinnings of Puritan idealism was “righteous conformity”, in other words, leaving all the pretty connotations out, blindly following “religious” authority without question or doubt. The narrator in the video says that the Puritans were responsible for laying out important American ideals- is complete submission to anyone who claims to be a middleman to God without question an American ideal? Does our society value blind obedience? I don’t believe it does, and I certainly hope it doesn’t.
These people also referred to themselves as “the godly”, despite having the firm conviction that the great majority of them were damned (regardless of what they did because of predestination). Could our country’s current self-image be tainted with a superiority complex because of this? I am aware that many anti-tolerance forces were effective in other areas of the world and to some degree by all societies, but I think that it should not be denied that the Puritans (who as I recall left England to escape religious persecution) were quite anti-tolerant. I also think they were an influential factor not only in the United States’ “superiority complex”, but in the racist and segregatory attitudes that many Americans would adopt in later centuries (and some still cling to). These people left England (granted, not all Puritans did this, only the extremist Seperatists did, but these were the ones that contributed to our present-day society, so I focus my thesis on them) because they felt that they were purer (better) than the Church already there. They went to Holland but left there too because they felt that the Dutch culture “dirtied” them. To me this sounds like a very elitist attitude, one that the United States without a doubt inherited.
The Puritans did contribute positively to American culture. They did bring about important ideals like self-reliance and hard work, but I think it’s crucial to acknowledge how they seeded elitist demeanors amongst Americans. Cultural ideals tend to become unconscious after a while- but the more aware of them you are, the more you can act on them. If this is the case, the more aware we are of our founders’ flaws, the more we can act to make sure that the present doesn’t reflect the past. I don’t see very many negative outcomes of people having the natural drive to work hard and be independent, but I can see problems in people thinking they’re fundamentally better than others just because of religion, or race, or ethnicity, or whatever set of beliefs that have been (consciously or not) installed in us to make us justify discrimination.
It’s slightly off topic, but at this point I’d like to add my two cents addressing “American ideals” and some questions I have on them. There is a huge disparity between American ideals and what actually occurs in society, and I think it’s important to bring it into conscious attention. The Puritans and other founders of our present nation may have encoded the values of hard work, independence, human rights, etc. into our collective set of national ideals, but do modern Americans really act on them? Why does it seem like everyone is looking for the easy way out now? What happened to the aspirations that were once so high? We claim to value hard work and self-reliance, but do we really act on them? Are we even willing to answer these questions objectively? I wish I knew the answers, but I’m confused myself, though I try hard to ask myself these questions when evaluating our society, and I hope that others will/do too.

Concerning Martin Luther:

At some points, it kind of felt like Martin Luther was opposing Catholicism directly, but upon closer examination, I found that he was actually trying to battle with the politics of that had taken hold of the Catholic Church at the time (and some feel still do). Though I run the risk of sounding generic here, I really applaud Luther for standing up for what he believed in.
“My conscious is captive to the word of God. To go against conscious is neither right nor safe.” This quote from Luther really stood out to me for several reasons. Martin Luther said that his conscious is the captive of God, but he isn’t blaming him or dispersing responsibility from himself. He isn’t hiding behind his religion or using it as an excuse, rather, he’s standing up for it and acting as it’s shield. I’ve seen people use their religion as justification for horrible acts numerous times throughout history, but here I see religion being utilized for the sake of what I view as justice. The second part of the quote, “To go against conscious is neither right nor safe”, shows that he has a strong sense of what is right and wrong for him. I don’t know all of Luther’s ideology, so I may not necessarily agree with it, but I must admire how he stuck up for it. He would not bow down and contradict himself like the Catholic priests he was criticizing. His conscience, his sense of innate morality was so strong that he had to act on it, regardless of consequences. I feel that his courage is an inspiration to us all, whether we’re Lutheran, Catholic, Calvinist, etc.

  M.Vincent wrote @ September 1, 2008 at 6:06 pm

I found it interesting how the people of the 17th century for the most part blindly followed what the church said. I also found that they used religion to help them move on once they left England. Last is how they thought that since they found New Jerusalem in America the only thing left was the end of days and everything that follows with that.

  RS 2nd period wrote @ September 17, 2008 at 5:35 am

wow! these videos really helped!!! i never knew so much about the puritants, i found very interesting…the second video i like because martin luther never gave up on his ideas!!! and i like people who are courages and stand by their believes.