Roger Williams Political Pluralism
Forsakes The Covenant

What do you think of when you hear the name "Roger Williams?" Perennial, persecuted "good guy", right?

Driven into the harsh New England wilderness in the dead of winter by the merciless Puritans, right? Left to die with blinding snow driven into his face. Tireless champion of religious liberty, right?

The Charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, written by Roger Williams, makes a clear separation between God and state. It stipulates that civil rulers are to be chosen from a body of freemen with no regard for their religious convictions. Moreover, it presumptuously declares that this godless protocol will result in the blessing, happiness, and security of the people.

Rhode Island was unique among the original 13 colonies in its religious neutrality, but it became the prototype for the U.S. Constitution over 100 years later. It is ironic that Rhode Island was the last of the 13 colonies to ratify the Constitution because the philosophy of government promoted by Roger Williams carried the day in Philadelphia.

History Of A Schismatic

Roger Williams was the founder of Rhode Island and a vociferous advocate of what is known today as “principled pluralism.” Williams had been a theological gadfly in the Massachusetts colony, driving the Puritans to distraction with his perfectionism and autonomous spirit.

He became such an irritant and threat to social stability that they were at length compelled to expel him and place him on the next boat back to England. Before that plan could be carried into effect, Williams fled into the wilderness to suffer martyrdom in the bitter New England winter.

Not so in Providence. In the name of religious freedom and tolerance, Roger Williams welcomed men of virtually all religious persuasions to participate in the civil government of Rhode Island. None of the crimes listed in the colony’s founding documents were tied to the Bible, as they were in Massachusetts.

“These are the laws that concern all men,” they said, “and these are the penalties for transgression thereof, which, by common assent, and ratified and established throughout the whole colony; and otherwise than thus what is herein forbidden, all men may walk as their consciences persuade them, everyone in the name of his god. And let the saints of the most high walk in this colony without molestation in the name of Jehovah, their God for ever and ever, etc., etc.”30

Pluralism: Political Poison

In the name of shaking off the religious persecution usually associated with an established church, Williams rejected God’s requirement that civil leaders swear to govern in accordance with His law. A century and a half later, the U.S. Constitutional Convention had virtually the same reaction to the colonial establishments of religion when they outlawed the religious test oath (Article VI, Section 3).

Thus, the American ship of state was driven onto the shoals. One of the dominant themes of the Old Testament is that any nation which rejects the covenant with God commits cultural suicide.

In Ezekiel 16:59, God condemned the nation of Israel who had “despised the oath in breaking the covenant.” The blessing and the curse associated with national obedience to the terms of the covenant are spelled out in graphic detail in Deuteronomy 28.

The Bible’s remedy involves recommitment to the terms of the civil covenant, rather than rejection of the covenant, per Williams. Those terms are specified in Exodus 22:23-24, where the “stranger” was granted special protection within the nation of Israel.

The “stranger” was an unbeliever who took up residence within God’s covenant nation. Historian J. D. Davis notes that “The stranger was not a full citizen, yet he had recognized rights and duties.”31

Lacking citizenship, the stranger was not permitted to participate in the civil administration of Israel like a covenanted Israelite. However, this did not mean that he was left without defense or freedom.

He was in fact equal before the law in the eyes of God: “Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 24:22). Moreover, a specific curse was pronounced on any Israelite who would be so callous as to persecute a stranger (Ex. 22:23-24).

The outcome of Williams’ position is not hard to predict: the erosion of the biblical foundation for socio-political order in the name of tolerance and pluralism. Rhode Island was derided as “Rogue Island” throughout colonial America. Rhode Island became a magnet for every species of social misfit and anarchist, driving Williams to distraction in much the same way he had treated the leaders of Massachusetts.

Ironically, it was this disruptive model that was carried into the U.S. Constitution by the founding fathers. The gradual surrender of biblical morality and law has continued from that day to this for the sake of tolerance and pluralism.

On August 8, 1989, the State Division of Taxation in Rhode Island ruled that witchcraft must be treated as any other religion for the purposes of tax exemption.32 This is the legacy of Roger Williams. Ideas have consequences.

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30 "Organization of the Government of Rhode Island, March 16-19, 1641-42,” in W. Keith Kavenaugh (ed.) Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History, 3 vols. (New York, NY: Chelsea House, 1973), I, p. 349.

31 J.D. Davis, Illustrated Davis Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Royal Publishers, Inc., 1973), p. 87.

32 Gary North, Political Polytheism (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1989), p. 315.

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