Reconsidering The Pilgrims, Piety And America's Founding Principles - Tom Gjelten

The Pilgrims are among the early heroes of American history, celebrated every Thanksgiving for their perseverance in the New World against great odds.
To Christian conservatives, they are role models for another reason as well: They were deeply committed to their Christian faith and not afraid to say so.

In the Mayflower Compact, the governing document signed shortly before the Pilgrims disembarked in Massachusetts' Provincetown Harbor, Pilgrim leaders said they undertook their voyage across the Atlantic "for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith."

Some Christian activists cite that declaration as evidence for their claim that America was founded as a Christian nation, notwithstanding the fact that the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were written more than 150 years later and incorporated a much broader variety of early American views.

Puncturing Myths About The Pilgrims
In countless retellings over the past 400 years, the Pilgrim story has become part of American mythology, and fact has not always been separated clearly from fiction. The Pilgrims, a new PBS film released in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, attempts to set the record straight

"Our aim is just to say, 'Hey, what really happened?'" says Ric Burns, who wrote and directed the film. "What made the Old World intolerable to these people who came over? What did they believe? What happened to them along the way? How were they transformed by the extreme nature of the experience they had?" - Read More at NPR

Reconsidering The Pilgrims, Piety And America's Founding Principles

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