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Anne Hutchinson: agent of moral courage

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Dec 10, 2007

For all that’s been blogged about Mitt Romney’s speech on faith and politics, here’s what hasn’t yet been said: He approvingly (and quickly) mentioned the name of a woman whom he probably wouldn’t defend if she were alive today. That’s because she’d outrage Christian evangelicals and plenty of Mormons with her defiance of religious leaders.

The woman is Anne Hutchinson. She was a Puritan convert who spoke out for freedom of conscience — even going on trial for it.

Hutchinson, a midwife, came to America with her husband and eleven children in 1634. She began hosting salons in which she’d propose her own interpretation of the Bible and encouraged others to do the same. Pissed off that a highly literate layperson (and a woman, to boot) would show the moxy to challenge their power, Puritan ministers ordered her to stop. She didn’t, choosing instead to argue in court.

Listen to the “charges” laid on her by then-Governor John Winthrop:

“Mrs. Hutchinson, you are called here as one of those that have troubled the peace of the commonwealth and the churches here; you are known to be a woman that hath had a great share in the promoting and divulging of those opinions that are causes of this trouble… you have spoken diverse things as we have been informed very prejudicial to the honour of the churches and ministers thereof.”

Honour. Remember that word? I recently blogged about the rancid effects of “honour” on Islam today. We Muslims could take a few cues from Anne Hutchinson about how to be thoughtful and faithful, regardless of the verdict that religious courts reach about reformists.

The court convicted Hutchinson of heresy, jailed her, then banished her to a wilderness where, not to be outdone, she helped found a city. Gotta love the lady’s chutzpah!

But I don’t love Mitt Romney’s chutzpah. He’s got some nerve slipping Hutchinson’s name into the same speech in which he justifies (but never explains) his allegiance to the Mormon church — a church that still doesn’t tolerate dissent.

The story of Anne Hutchinson reminds us that America was born as a theocracy ironically set up by those who suffered religious oppression in their homelands. It’s only through doubters like Hutchinson, and later Jefferson, that freedom of worship became a guarantee.

To proclaim “God bless America” is, ultimately, to celebrate those who bust the monopoly of the God Squad.