The Pilgrims

I recently had the opportunity to see Monumental, Kirk Cameron's documentary about the founding of the United States. If you've ever seen his show on any of the preacher channels, you probably have a good feel for what Cameron's perspective on things.

For me, the striking thing was the image folks have of the Pilgrims. I guess I've never really thought about it much, but the prevailing idea is a bunch of cheery folks shaking hands with the Indians before sitting down for lunch at Thanksgiving.

These were Puritans. They would be utterly horrified with modern Protestantism, especially of the doctrinally debased and morally antinomian variety that seems so popular these days. Even taking that out of the equation, moderns would probably consider most Puritans to be jerks (and pretty much everybody else from that era, but especially Puritans). 

It's just sort of funny to see guys like Cameron promoting Puritans when the Puritan view of everything from religion to entertainment is so anathema to even what the strictest of contemporary Christians would hold.