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Is Puritanism Still Relevant in Contemporary America?

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Is Puritanism Still Relevant in Contemporary America? Is Puritanism Still Relevant in Contemporary America? Word count: approximately 15,470 original words Mauro Vanden Berghe Student number: 01711561 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ken Kennard A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Multilingual Communication: a combination of at least two languages (Dutch, English, French) Academic year: 2017 – 2018 Is Puritanism Still Relevant in Contemporary America? Word count: approximately 15,430 original words Mauro Vanden Berghe Student number: 01711561 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ken Kennard A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Multilingual Communication: a combination of at least two languages (Dutch, English, French) Academic year: 2017 – 2018 Mauro Vanden Berghe Verklaring i.v.m. auteursrecht De auteur en de promotor(en) geven de toelating deze studie als geheel voor consultatie beschikbaar te stellen voor persoonlijk gebruik. Elk ander gebruik valt onder de beperkingen van het auteursrecht, in het bijzonder met betrekking tot de verplichting de bron uitdrukkelijk te vermelden bij het aanhalen van gegevens uit deze studie. Het auteursrecht betreffende de gegevens vermeld in deze studie berust bij de promotor(en). Het auteursrecht beperkt zich tot de wijze waarop de auteur de problematiek van het onderwerp heeft benaderd en neergeschreven. De auteur respecteert daarbij het oorspronkelijke auteursrecht van de individueel geciteerde studies en eventueel bijhorende documentatie, zoals tabellen en figuren. 4 Mauro Vanden Berghe Acknowledgments First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Ken Kennard for his guidance and tutorials that made it possible to write this dissertation. He remained patient throughout the whole process and provided me with useful feedback. Secondly, I would like to thank the staff at the Center of American Studies in Brussels. They were very helpful and I really appreciated that they allowed me to take the books home with me. Finally, I would like to thank my mother and sister for putting up with my endless complaining and for supporting me every step of the way. 5 Mauro Vanden Berghe Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 7 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 12 A History of Puritanism .................................................................................................... 14 Defining Puritanism and its adoption by future generations ............................................. 22 Puritanism in Contemporary America .............................................................................. 30 Puritanism, the 2016 presidential election and the #MeToo movement .......................... 38 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 50 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 54 6 Mauro Vanden Berghe Introduction “The Times They Are a-Changin.” Bob Dylan may have written this song more than fifty years ago, but its message seems more relevant now than ever. When Donald Trump was elected in November 2016, many felt that his ‘traditional’ beliefs offered a retrograde step. Not only did his victory make us question what the U.S. really stands for, but it also served as a reminder of the nation’s historic exceptionalism. It reminds us that the United States is not a nation with a long history that developed organically, but a political and social construct that created stories in order to tie its fifty states together and provide a unified persona. And just like any good story it worked, for a while. However, recent developments have made sure that we are reconsidering the U.S.’s beliefs. Moreover, shortly after Trump’s election, the Harvey Weinstein scandal started a series of allegations from which even Hollywood’s ‘chief story tellers’ have not been spared. So, it seems safe to say that the times are changing. However, are they changing in a progressive way? Or is the U.S. just recycling the same old ideas and implementing them within a contemporary context? As we already implied, the U.S. has a rather unique history because of its construction. From its ‘creation’ their mission could be considered to be ‘unique’ as its foundations are to be found in 17th century England. At this time, Puritans felt the Church of England was betraying the Protestant Reformation. They decided that their nation had become a ‘sinful’ place and the only way to deal with this development was to find their own biblically grounded community. Therefore, in 1630, about 1000 Puritans sailed to Massachusetts, where they established their own ‘City on a Hill’. It is important to understand that these Puritans, unlike the Pilgrims that migrated on the Mayflower ten years earlier, were no separatists. They had no intention of leaving the old world behind. Instead, they wanted to lead by example. The Puritans wanted people to look up to their ‘City on a Hill’ and realize that they should change their way of living and their way of being (Sleeper, 2015). 7 Mauro Vanden Berghe Consequently, there was a huge amount of pressure on the shoulders of these ‘colonists’. They believed that they had been chosen by God, however, this did not make them infallible or invulnerable. Even before the Arbella had left the Southampton pier, John Cotton warned its passengers of the mission to come and the spiritual dangers that lay ahead. He told them that where much is given, much is demanded. If they dealt falsely with their God, he would withdraw his protection and the Puritans would be turned into a laughing stock for the rest of the world. If they succumbed to human pleasure, God would turn his back on them and the whole enterprise would fail. Their weakness would be considered betrayal, ingratitude, and God would punish them accordingly. The passengers of the Arbella rightfully or wrongfully felt that the eyes of the world were on them. Consequently, their story could be the success story they were aiming for, or they would be humiliated. This foreshadowed the exact themes that would become so prominent in Puritan ideology. Sacvan Berkovitch writes that topics such as falsely dealing with God, turning your back on the sacred promise, the depravation of new generations, succumbing to human weaknesses and desires and God’s revenge became very popular sermon topics in Puritan America (Berkovitch, 1978). So, considering Puritanism was at the roots of founding the U.S., we would naturally like to examine whether these Puritan influences are still relevant in the United States. Therefore, this paper’s research question is: ‘Is Puritanism still relevant in contemporary America?’ In order to provide an adequate response to this question, we want to examine two issues. Firstly, we want to research whether (and how) these Puritan origins still reflect on the U.S. Secondly, we would like to examine if there is any link between the United States’ Puritan origins and two recent American developments, Donald Trump and the #MeToo movement. However, in order to determine whether Puritanism is still relevant, it is important to emphasize the difference between ‘relevance’ and ‘existence’. It is clear that traces of Puritanism still exist in the U.S. Nevertheless, this does not mean they are automatically relevant. The aim of this thesis is not to prove that Puritanism still exists in the United States, but that it still continues to shape the nation. 8 Mauro Vanden Berghe An interesting observation made by Kevin Mattson is that Donald Trump’s inaugural speech sounded like “a flawed Jeremiad1” (Mattson, 2017). Moreover, Trump has used the rhetoric of the Jeremiad while he was on the campaign trail. A clear example of this is when he talked about Mexican immigrants. “They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.2” He put fear into voters by guaranteeing them that these immigrants form a ‘clear and present danger’ to national security and American identity. Contrary to the Puritan approach, Trump never suggested to leave America. However, his idea of purification came in the form of a big wall. Keep the immigrants out and make America ‘Great Again’ was his cry. “We will build a great wall along the Southern border and Mexico will pay for the wall. One hundred percent. They don't know it yet but they're going to pay for it.3” Of course, at this point it is too early to tell if Trump was really preaching ‘Puritan’ beliefs or if it was all just a part of his theatrical and political persona. That is something that we will consider later. The more relevant question is how his words have been, and are still, perceived by voters. What if the notion of Puritanism is so hard-wired into the American psyche that Trump’s laments sounded familiar and comforting to voters? What if they sounded so familiar that they actually helped him win the election? While trying to decide whether Puritanism is still relevant in the U.S., the recent sexual assault claims that are plaguing Hollywood at the moment seem somehow connected. Following the Harvey Weinstein scandal, actress Alyssa Milano breathed new life into the phrase: “Me too”. Ever since, there
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