Final Portfoilo Paper Eleanor Rigby
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Religious Conflict Today
Religious conflicts have been around since wars have been fought in the names of different gods and goddesses and still today with the most violent conflicts contain religious elements. The First Amendment prohibits the making of laws respecting an establishment of religion. In the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorn, during the time period the story took place, “Good Men” were a proper family that influenced the Puritan community. Today, we have a President who has influence within the United States telling people in so many words that what one thinks or believes is not going to change what he wants for this country. Even if those views go against the First Amendment. When the President takes the oath of office, the he promises to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Goodman Brown claims he is from a good family and has never partaken in anything against the church. The view changes when the devil states that all of his ancestors were with him and they tortured women in Salem. Goodman’s response to these allegations was; “We are people of prayers, and good works, to boot, and abide no such wickedness” (Hawthorne 265). The President’s views regarding the health care mandate are against the Catholic Church’s beliefs and his administration basically have told the Church, “To hell with your religious beliefs; To hell with your religious liberty; To hell with your freedom of conscience” (Zubik). The debate on health care mandate by the Church is not about birth control, the debate is about freedom of conscience. It is about the demise of the Catholic Church and all of its services because of the penalties that would be enforced, if they do not comply, would bankrupt the Church and force the Catholic Church to be in existence no more. It is about all religious freedoms that are at stake. The President is still not seeing the point of religious
Religious conflicts have been around since wars have been fought in the names of different gods and goddesses and still today with the most violent conflicts contain religious elements. The First Amendment prohibits the making of laws respecting an establishment of religion. In the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorn, during the time period the story took place, “Good Men” were a proper family that influenced the Puritan community. Today, we have a President who has influence within the United States telling people in so many words that what one thinks or believes is not going to change what he wants for this country. Even if those views go against the First Amendment. When the President takes the oath of office, the he promises to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Goodman Brown claims he is from a good family and has never partaken in anything against the church. The view changes when the devil states that all of his ancestors were with him and they tortured women in Salem. Goodman’s response to these allegations was; “We are people of prayers, and good works, to boot, and abide no such wickedness” (Hawthorne 265). The President’s views regarding the health care mandate are against the Catholic Church’s beliefs and his administration basically have told the Church, “To hell with your religious beliefs; To hell with your religious liberty; To hell with your freedom of conscience” (Zubik). The debate on health care mandate by the Church is not about birth control, the debate is about freedom of conscience. It is about the demise of the Catholic Church and all of its services because of the penalties that would be enforced, if they do not comply, would bankrupt the Church and force the Catholic Church to be in existence no more. It is about all religious freedoms that are at stake. The President is still not seeing the point of religious
Cited: Dolan, Cardinal. “Separation of Church and State Should Not Block Religion.” EWTN News. N.p., 10 Apr. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/US.php?id=5238. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” Boston: Literature: An Introduction to Fiction. Eds. X. J.: Pearson Longman. 2010. 391-394., 2010. Print. Zubik, Bishop David A. Catholic Dioese of Pittsburgh. N.p., 10 Jan. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. http://diopitt.org/bridging-gap/hell-you.