History Book: Do unto others in the public square

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, January 1st, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHER, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Today, the anniversary of Dutch colonists who take a stand for religious freedom. Here’s WORLD Radio executive producer Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER: On December 27th, 1657, a local magistrate receives a letter appealing for the religious rights of a persecuted minority. The letter becomes known as the Flushing Remonstrance. Thomas Kidd is research professor of church history at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

THOMAS KIDD: So the Flushing Remonstrance is a response to an order that came down from the government of New Netherlands in the 1650s.

A remonstrance is a strong and reasoned argument against a public or private measure, addressed to a public magistrate. New Netherland was the Dutch colony on the Eastern coast of this country that eventually becomes New York. Its 1640 Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions was an ordinance that mandates: “no other Religion shall be publicly admitted in New Netherland except the Reformed, as it is at present preached and practiced in the United Netherlands.”

Though the charter does allow for other religious expression…as long as it remains private.

KIDD: Lutherans were not allowed to worship publicly in New Netherlands but the Lutherans…sort of stayed to themselves and…so if they would just meet in someone's home and just be quiet about it. They were very likely to be left alone…

But when the Quakers start showing up, it causes quite a stir. As they are much more public about their Christian convictions and theology.

KIDD: They're concerned about the activities of Quakers, who are some of the most radical Christians at the time.

Maybe this doesn’t quite match today’s Quaker stereotype…the picture in our mind based on the oatmeal box. That comes from a later, more reserved expression of Quakerism…

AUDIO: [QUAKER MEETING]

But Kidd says, in the early 17th century, the Quakers are very different. He describes them as Christian radicals…

KIDD: And these Quakers would…stand out in the streets and scream and holler about, you know, the need for repentance, and the end is coming. And, you know, you might have the image of somebody on the city corner today…

STREET PREACHER: The Bible says, if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourself! And the truth is that in you.

KIDD: Some of them are running around naked and just screaming. And, I mean, just doing busting up church services, busting up government meetings,

The director-general of the New Netherland colony had initially been a bit more charitable to non-conformists…even permitting Jews to set up a synagogue. But in 1656 he greatly restricts religious practice…only allowing family worship and prayer for anyone not of the Dutch Reformed Church.

A year later a group of 12 Quakers arrive on Long Island from England. They intend to proceed to New England, but begin preaching in the streets of New Amsterdam. A few are arrested and banished from the colony.

KIDD: The Quakers insisted on going into the streets and doing this…very flamboyant kind of expressive religious behavior and…most governments, were just not going to tolerate that.

The director general then passes a stricter ordinance levying a hefty fine on anyone found sheltering Quakers or hosting their meetings. The residents of whats now known as Flushing, New York—stand up for broader religious rights. They respectfully protest against the ordinances by writing an appeal to the director general.

Here’s a portion of their remonstrance…read here by Henry Miller from a 2009 Dutch heritage program:

MILLER: We desire therefore in this case not to judge lest we be judged, neither to condemn lest we be condemned, but rather let every man stand or fall to his own Master. We are bound by the law to do good unto all men, especially to those of the household of faith…in whatsoever form, name or title hee appears in, whether Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or Quaker, but shall be glad to see anything of God in any of them, desiring to do unto all men as we desire all men should do unto us, which is the true law both of Church and State.

The remonstrance is signed by 30 residents and merchants of Flushing. When the director general refuses to change the laws, they appeal to the Dutch West India Company that chartered the colony…arguing that religious repression would reduce immigration.

The company agrees and instructs the director general to “allow everyone to have his own belief as long as he [behaves] quietly and legally, [giving] no offense to his neighbors, and…not [opposing] the government.”

The Flushing Remonstrance of 1657 is considered by many historians to be a significant step towards the idea of religious freedom later ensconced in the first amendment to the US Constitution.

KIDD: It's certainly representative and a kind of landmark in terms of what it symbolizes, which is that the wave of the future is that the government is very limited about how much it can persecute, how much it can promote one particular denomination over others. The extent to which the government can limit free exercise, even if that free exercise strikes the government or other people as radical or offensive or something, something like that.

For Professor Kidd, one of the most significant aspects of this story is the fact that it wasn’t the Quakers themselves appealing to the magistrates…it was Christians fighting for others…standing up for a religious group that many of them may have actually have actually disagreed with.

KIDD: For the people of Flushing, New York, in this case, to say that I think is a really I find it, it's an inspiring example. And in that sense, it's symbolically a really important precedent in the history of religious liberty.

The lasting legacy of the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657 is the limiting principle it introduces: government ought not be involved in matters of doctrine or religious conscience. Again, Thomas Kidd.

KIDD: I think for evangelical Christians, it's important to remember that if we're going to have religious liberty, we need religious liberty for all religious groups and not not just, you know, our denomination or our political party or some something like that. I mean, it has to be very broad based. And I think that is one of the crucial precedents. So the Flushing Remonstrance is, it's a group of just local residents in Flushing, New York saying we are not going to participate in the persecution of the Quakers. And the government just needs to get out of this this business of persecuting them because it's just not the government's business.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.