WE'RE A PURITAN NATION:

Thomas Babington Macaulay, in his monumental History of England From the Accession of James II, fixes unsparing attention on the Puritan program of drilling "the minds of men into conformity" with their system of theology. They--the Puritans--were right. There was no profit in fooling around, or even arguing, with the losers who had everything so terribly wrong. 

"Churches and sepulchres, fine works of art and curious remains of antiquity," writes Macaulay, "were brutally defaced. The parliament resolved that all pictures in the royal collection which contained representations of Jesus or of the Virgin Mother should be burned. Sculpture fared as ill as painting...Sharp laws were passed against betting. It was enacted that adultery should be punished with death...Public amusements...were vigorously attacked."  Bear-baiting, said Macaulay, in a deservedly famous passage, "strongly stirred the wrath of the austere sectaries."   The Puritans hated the sport  "not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators."  

Then there was the abolition, in 1644, of Christmas as a day for feasting and enjoyment.

Cupping our ears, we note some echoes. The burning of art depicting Jesus? The smashing of sculpture deemed offensive to current onlookers? Most of all, the snarling  contempt the puritans of the 17th century showed for beliefs not their own: here you might argue is the link between the desecration of churches hundreds of years ago and the  onslaught against the discoverer of America and the images celebrating his achievement.

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