Puritans Influence in Today's World

According to Bremer and Webster (1), Puritans were religious based group of people in England and America, whose mandate was to advocate and enforce church doctrines into the society’s religious and moral characteristics. They point out that this group of people emulated and enforced the God’s commandments in the societies as the primary doctrine, from which the society’s wellbeing would be realized. They note that the Puritans, through their Christian doctrines, were against the traditional cultures and some Christian practices that were against the spirit and God’s teaching. As a result, they engaged into various practices, including war in an attempt to ensure that their Christian religious and moral values are adhered to. The write up highlights the Puritans’ influence in today’s world, especially in the United States. It specifically highlights its influence on U.S’s religion, education, diet and dressing style.

Puritans Influence on Today’s U.S. Religion

According to Finley (1), today’s United States religious practices have been widely influenced by the modern Puritans who have changed Americas’ religious believes. He points out that the puritans have made Americans to be one of the nations with the highest politically active church members, as its societies are based on strong Christian beliefs. He observes that, just like in the old ages, the Puritans still emulate and enforce the Christian doctrines into the religious practices in America. For example, it has resulted into the rise of Christian religious activists, who continuously crusade for the societies’ adherence to God’s commandments (Finely 1).

Finely (1) points out that Puritans’ Christian doctrines and values have influenced the today’s American population, as they have made people to believe on the need to obey God’s laws so as to be rewarded in life. He points out that even though most of the Americans have joined and established various churches that continue to unite them together under the discipline of sharing the word of God; this group has continued to spread contradicting values and principles of ungodly practices. This is continuously evident by the tremendous change in the general perspective of people on Christianity.

Finely (1) notes that most of the puritans have successfully contradicted the Christian evangelist in U.S. for having taken advantage of their huge congregation and commercialized the church practices. This has negatively affected the Christian values of most Americans. With this information, most of the Americans continue to lose faith in churches, as they have been able to see most of the churches becoming business enterprises that are primary constituted to engulf more income than to spread the word of God (Finely 1). For instance, the current youths involvement in activities such as rock music, drug abuse, and body tattoo, which are regarded by Puritans as immoral practices; signifies  how God’s word has lost impact on the societies’ moral characters.

Puritans Influence on Education

The Puritans religious practices play an important role in the development of education systems and centers. Kang (149) observes that the Puritans campaigned for the need of people to be educated so that they can read and understand the word of God as stipulated in the Bible. He notes that Puritans regarded education as a discipline that would instill good Christian values in the society and that this would, in turn, enhance perfect social living. In that respect, the Puritans established various formal educational institutions such as the Roxbury Latin School and the Harvard College, which were intended to enhance Christian values and improve people’s living standard (Kang 151).

Kang (151) points out that today’s American education system are primarily based on the Puritans’ effort to not only drive out illiteracy but also to improve social development among its citizens. Just like in the past, where Puritans offered free schooling for all children, the current U.S. government educational policies are structured in a manner that enables almost all U.S. children acquires basic education (Kang 151). Furthermore, he notes that the current education structures and institutions encompass subjects that are intended to instill Christian values.

According to Kang (151), Puritans did not only introduce grammar learning in various schools but they also introduced arts subjects, which continue to improve the education system of U.S. He points out that Americans have established the relevancy of U.S. education systems in exploiting various talents, while instilling good Christian moral values. For instance, most of the youths are actively engaged in the learning processes to allow them improve their moral and living standards (Kang 151). Moreover, he points out that Puritans enabled the development of literature printing centers that continue to provide literature review materials for U.S. education institutions.

Puritans Influence on Diet

Puritans have influence today’s eating habits of Americans. Fox (1) points out that Puritans regard food as a symbol that represents what exactly an individual is. He notes that most Americans have changed their eating habits, depending on both the religious and social factors. Furthermore, he points out that Puritans have at times been specific on what kind of food one can eat, especially during religious celebration festivals. For instance, in the past, taking fish meal on Friday was a religious taboo. This made the Puritans to substitute fish meal with the meat meal on that day. This has adversely changed the eating habit of Americans as most of them are seen to eat more meat than fish.

Fox (19) points out that most of the food that are not eaten by Americans are regarded as sacred meals by Puritans. He points out that Americans’ belief in sacred foods has made them not to eat certain foods, especially those, which were used for religious sacrifices and those, which were meant to unite human beings with God. For instance, Americans do not eat human flesh due to its sacred nature and moreover, those who are found to eat such foods are regarded by the society as devils (Fox 19).

Puritans Influence on the Dressing Style

Puritans have also influenced the dressing style that is currently evident in U.S.  According to Grigg and Mancall (59), Puritans’ dressing style was based on religious practices. They point out that Puritans did wear black attire, especially on the Sabbath day and any other clothing on weekdays. They note that today’s Americans dressing style emulate the Puritans’ dressing code as they associate their dresses with various practices. For instance, he notes that most of the Americans do wear the black attires, especially in funeral functions and white dresses during Sabbath day (Grigg and Mancall 59).  The Puritans have also criticized the dressing code of most ministers, which have mainly been loose and white garments.

Finally, Finely (1) points out that unlike the older age Puritans, the modern Puritans have changed the Christian doctrine in their evangelical teachings, which, in turn, has resulted into ungodly dressing codes. He notes that most of the Americans, including men evangelists, have pierced their ears and tattooed their bodies, which are characterized by Puritans devilish acts.

Conclusion

The write up has highlighted Puritans as an important religious group, which has not only help in developing good moral characters but has also improved the societies’ wellbeing. The paper has illustrated the need for the society to embrace Christian doctrines, especially in education sectors as it strengthens good morals.  Moreover, it has noted the need to embrace religious practice as an important entity in designing the society’s education level, dressing style, religious beliefs and more so the eating habits.