Try try try again

Ok now you are probably thinking, Oh there Duane goes again saying that he's going to catch up on all his blogs, well I just want to say I am sorry for not keeping up on my blogs, however I am starting to feel better now and really want to try and work on each and everyone of my blog at least once a week.

Currently my favorite blogs are Military of the World, Navy's of the world blog, 44 college student and side stepping through life. So I am not giving anyone a promise because my health can drop dramatically with out warning.

The Puritans 3: The Half-Way Covenant

Early Puritan Church/Photo Ponahou School

Continuing on with the Puritan subject, an interesting thing happened in the mid 1600's as the Puritan churches in New England began to suffer declining membership, part of the problem was that to become an actual member of the Puritan Church you had to have a "Conversion Experience", the requirement was that someone who was not a member had to publicly stand in front of the congregation and declare that they had a religious conversion, if the leaders of the church were convinced that this conversion was authentic then the person received membership.

The problem started when second generation family members did not experience this "Conversion Experience" and the first generation church members began to die so church membership began to seriously decline. At the time church attendance was expected from all townspeople, hoping this would increase membership however conflicts inevitably arose over the requirement of an "Conversion Experience".

In 1662 an agreement was reached, known as the Half-Way Covenant, offered a practical solution: members children who had not experience the conversion themselves could join the church as a "half-way" member, restricted only from participation in communion. In the end this agreement ensured that the church still had money coming in and kept it's power over the colony's government.

This was one of the few times you will find that the puritan church showed religious tolerance, but as you can see though it was toward there only family members and it kept the church in power.

For now this will be the end of the post's on the Puritans unless someone wants more, thank you for stopping by.

Puritans Part II

Hello all, honestly I don't know yet if I have anyone actually following my history blog but if you are first let me say I'm sorry that it takes me a long time in between posts, I love blogging and trying get the writing to be habitual just like brushing your teeth. So here is part two on the Puritans.

As I discussed before the Puritans left England because of persecution from the throne and the Church Of England, however that did not mean once they arrived in North America they automatically set up a colony that was tolerant of other protestant sects, on the contrary the puritans became a very intolerant persecuting church.

New Spain and New France which was the other colony's belonging of course to Spain and France at this time also had their own state sponsored religions. In New Spain which included Mexico and much of Central and South America were officially Catholic territories as was areas belonging to France such as the New Orleans are.

In the New England colonies, the government there was run by Puritan congregations, except Rhode Island which was actually formed by people who were exiled by the Puritans. I Massachusetts, the local church of a town, or city was free to run its own affairs, directed by the General Court that was composed of the governor and representatives elected by the town. Each congregation was allotted plots of land which was divided amongst themselves and laying out villages and churches that the Puritans called meetinghouses.

Unlike today were the government can't raise money for religious causes, the Puritan Churches were supported by taxes levied by the local governments. Adult males of the church made up the freemen of the town or city, and because of this there was virtually no secular authority in the New England colonies.

Contrary to what may be taught today in the schools of America, Puritan tradition was actually a mix of freedom and persecution, and even though each community had "autonomy", they were closely bound by Puritan tradition and restrictions. In no way did the Puritans have the goal of establishing a society were religion could be freely practiced; they placed severe restraints against individual religious rights and exiled many people, including Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson who questioned the religions orthodoxy of Massachusetts. Roger Williams was first exiled to Rhode Island were he eventually set up a government that was very much tolerant of other christian sects, as well as other religions including Muslims, who's population was very small in the colonies but needed someplace where they could practice their religion in peace.

Eventually the Puritan governments became so intolerant they banned Anglicans and Baptists from entering and establishing churches in Massachusetts. When they began to actually execute members of the Society of Friends who began to preach the tenets of the Quaker faith King Charles II finally stepped in and ordered a stop to religious persecution in Massachusetts, Parliament responded by passing The Toleration Act in 1689,after eleven years of Puritan resistance, in 1700 other christian sects were safe to openly practice their form of Christianity.

Picture of Roger Williams courtesy of The Ambassador John L. Loes Jr. visitors center.

Puritans Part I

Who were the Puritans in American history? I know many of you remember them from your Jr. High and High school days. They were a Christian sect in England at the time when England declared themselves independent of the Catholic Church and the Pope, in the process it was almost a requirement for all people living in England must be members of the new Church Of England the official church of the King.

There were many groups of Christians who did not follow the Church of England were often persecuted, a group of English Christian who followed John Calvin were know as Puritans. They were know as Puritans because they wished to purify and reform the English church from within. These Puritans became very influential during the last years of Queen Elizabeth's reign toward the end of the sixteenth century.

When Queen Elizabeth died, King James I assumed the throne, this is were problems began for the Puritans, Queen Elizabeth had been very tolerant of religious differences. King James I was not! Almost immediately he began persecuting the Puritans, however his persecution only made the Puritans stronger and they turned to open political opposition. During King James I rule they had a strong voice in Parliament,.

The Puritans were still a minority in Parliament when King Charles I, King James I son took over the throne in 1625 and began supporting the Church of England or the "High Church" and married a Roman Catholic princess, these caused the Puritans in Parliament to heavily criticize King Charles I. In response to the criticism the king dismissed Parliament and began a policy of repression against the Puritans.

King Charles I campaign against the Puritans and other protestant groups in England is what set off a mass migration of English Protestants to New England. The first group of Protestants to leave for the New World were the group we affectionately know as the Pilgrims, however by the English government and crown they were know as the Separatists because rather than reform the English church which they believed was terribly corrupt they had to leave England to protect there congregations. There Mayflower Compact was the first document of self-government in North America.

In 1629 the "Great Migration" began, when a royal charter was granted to the Massachusetts Baby Company, this was an advance group of Puritans who left England to begin colonizing New England, as time went by there group formed the eventual colony and state of Massachusetts.

The interesting note I wanted to comment on the Puritans was that they left England for the purpose of setting up a colony that was tolerant to there beliefs, however it turns out when other protestant groups arrived in Massachusetts the Puritans became very In-Tolerant of there beliefs and greatly restricted their rights in there colony, these groups eventually broke away from Massachusetts and formed the colony of Rhode Island which is another subject I will cover later.

I hope you enjoyed this little post, there will be more on the subject of the Puritans soon, this is just part one.

Just a note

Hello, at this time because I have been so terrible at updating my blogs I'm quite sure few people are even attempting to follow them, except maybe my Astonomy blog which actually has a post about astronomy, yet my purpose is to really try and post and maybe, just maybe get some followers.

Now on this blog, about US History I just wanted to stae that my purpose isn't to just blog about he history that we already learned in Hgh School, I want to get down to the nitty gritty about history that is not covered or is covered up. There are parts of our history that we aren't meant to know.

One of my favorite historians and writer is Howard Zinn, now this man may not be familar you, but he is puropsely obscure not by his own wish but because he was considered an anti-american socialist. Yes he had admitted many times befoe his death in Januruary that he considered himself a socialist, but never once described himself as anti-american, he was a true american through and through and loved this country but he did beleive it was time for US historins and the US Government stop their lies when it comes to the true history of this country.

Howard Zinn did not cut any corners or cover up the truth in US History from the day Christopher Columbus "discovered america" to things that were happening p to the ie he died he brought out the truth, it is his legacy and teaching I intend to cover here, the government may give me a socialist moniker but if they do so what, I will be doing my best to bring out the truth.

Duane's Thoughts On US History

Hello all, first let me introduce my self; I am Duane Donecker and I am 44, have a wonderful wife named Sandi and a 4 year old son named Jesiah. We currently live in Santee, Ca. which is a suburb of San Diego in the eastern part of San Diego County.

I was born in Scott City, Ks. and lived much of my childhood in two locations. First after I was two my family moved to San Marcos, Ca which is were I lived until I was about 12 then moved back to Scott City to live with my father, Terry Donecker. Their we lived on a farm, my dad was a farm laborer working for a farmer named Jack Frick. It was a large farm and had a lot of people employed there including myself shortly after arriving. I learned my life long work ethic working for Jack. Going to Jr. High and High school and working on a farm at the same time was a very demanding schedule on a teen age boy, however when I look back on it I find that it was actually fun and I learned a lot.

I was attending Scott Community High School, when in my Junior year I was trying to decide what I was going to do with myself, I felt very strongly about two things. First I did not want to go to school any more and second I didn't want to stay in Kansas, I loved California when I was a kid and made getting back there my goal. Trying to decide what I was going to do I remember as a kid seeing US Navy ships in the San Diego Bay and off the coast and how much watching them coming and going intriguing and from there my descion was made.

I signed my enlistment agreement that year and was soon off to bootcamp once I graduated from high school. I went to bootcamp in San Diego, Ca. (therefore realizing my desire to get back to California) and was in Company 001, the first company of 1985. After graduating bootcamp I reported to Naval Air Technical Training Center in Millington, Tn. which is right outside of Memphis. I attended training to become an Aviation Support Equipment Technican or "AS" which was our rating designation in the navy. Like I mentioned above I really had no desire to go to school so I wasn't and outstanding student in this class but I passed and soon graduated.

From there my duty stations over the next twenty years was the USS Constellation, CV-64, Naval Air Station Lemoore, Ca., USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63, Naval Air Maintence Training Group Detachment 3033 at Naval Air Station North Island, Ca where I was an instructor teaching navy, marine corp, coast guard and forgien military members how to perform mechanical maintenance and trouble shooting on aviation support equipment. My next command was the USS Dubuque, LPD-8 which is the ship I happened to be deployed on when 9/11 occoured. From there I was again an instructor at Naval Air Station North Island's aircraft maintenance department. Finally on 31 Dec 2005 I retired honorably from the United States Navy.

Now comes the reason for this blog, currently I am using the 9/11 GI Bill attending college full time at San Diego City College with the goal of obtaing a bachelors degree in history and because my love of teaching when I was active duty in the navy I plan to teach in the elementary or Jr. High school level. This blog is part of my US History class I am currently attending this semester.

First let me warn you right away I am very much an amature blogger but I will do my best to keep this intresting as possible for you history buffs like me and even for those of you who are not. Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions on anything you may want me to research and post in this blog. Thank you for having patience as walk the halls of learning. May God bless you and your family.

The picture in this post is of an aircraft carrier flight deck crash crane, which is one type of equipment I maintained and taught others to maintain.