Post by Eλευθερί on Jun 27, 2018 18:09:43 GMT
We’ve been here before: America had a “travel ban” crisis more than three and a half centuries ago, and it was resolved, pragmatically, with an appeal to the universal principle of religious freedom....
New Netherland — with its capital of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island — was a Dutch settlement, but it was a mix of peoples, thanks to the diversity in the Dutch Republic itself. In the 16th and 17th centuries, that tiny country rose to become the greatest trading nation on earth, and the enormous influx of wealth helped spawn the famed Dutch Golden Age.
A hallmark of the Dutch success was the statement of religious freedom — or, to be more precise, of freedom of conscience — that was enshrined in the de facto Constitution of 1579, which asserted that “no one shall be persecuted or investigated because of his religion.” That declaration was a watershed in human history. It was issued at a time of religious strife in Europe, when intolerance was official policy in England, Spain and elsewhere, when maintaining a state religion was considered a matter of stability and common sense. The Dutch went in precisely the opposite direction, and proved that tolerance could actually strengthen a society.
New Netherland — with its capital of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island — was a Dutch settlement, but it was a mix of peoples, thanks to the diversity in the Dutch Republic itself. In the 16th and 17th centuries, that tiny country rose to become the greatest trading nation on earth, and the enormous influx of wealth helped spawn the famed Dutch Golden Age.
A hallmark of the Dutch success was the statement of religious freedom — or, to be more precise, of freedom of conscience — that was enshrined in the de facto Constitution of 1579, which asserted that “no one shall be persecuted or investigated because of his religion.” That declaration was a watershed in human history. It was issued at a time of religious strife in Europe, when intolerance was official policy in England, Spain and elsewhere, when maintaining a state religion was considered a matter of stability and common sense. The Dutch went in precisely the opposite direction, and proved that tolerance could actually strengthen a society.
When a group of Quakers attempted to settle in New Netherland in 1657, the colony's religious leaders and the director-general, Per Stuyvesant, wanted them out.
After Stuyvesant sent word that no one in the town was to harbor the Quakers, 30 inhabitants, who were not themselves Quakers, put their signatures to a remarkable document.
“We are bound by the law to do good unto all men,” they declared. “The law of love, peace and liberty” in the Dutch Republic, they asserted, extended even to “Jews, Turks and Egyptians,” all of whom were considered “the sons of Adam.” They had no choice, they concluded, under Dutch law as well as their own consciences, but to accept the Quakers.
“We are bound by the law to do good unto all men,” they declared. “The law of love, peace and liberty” in the Dutch Republic, they asserted, extended even to “Jews, Turks and Egyptians,” all of whom were considered “the sons of Adam.” They had no choice, they concluded, under Dutch law as well as their own consciences, but to accept the Quakers.
