Why we need to learn much more about Roger Williams’s life and works.

I have to apologize for the hyperbole in this essay, and in my heart of hearts, I am sure that Roger Williams deserves much better from us.   With greater knowledge about him, he will become a great source of pride for our state for years to come.  That is my goal.

Attitudes and knowledge about RW is not going to change.  Whoever is obligated to educate Rhode Islanders are perfectly happy with doing their jobs, and leave the situation the way it is.  We have to realize that every state has a person or persons who inspire the citizens by great actions and ideas.  Illinois would be a different state without Lincoln.  Virginia has Jefferson.  Massachusetts has many. Rhode Island has Roger Williams, and his brilliance, stamina, and accomplishments should make him a nationally known figure.

Here are some reasons why:

        Roger Williams’ life and work is more valuable than all the gold discovered in California and Alaska.  It is more valuable than all paintings and pieces of music.   His work gave the world a gift that is received and appreciated by millions and millions of humans across the world here and now.  In fact, if and when his beliefs became common knowledge, it changed the world.  Theodore Roosevelt wrote that the twenty years of the English Civil War the the Interregnum gave the world the first and most profound start to the movement for freedom in the world.
He was a genius.  He learned Dutch from immigrants who lived near his home.  He had taught himself stenography by his twelfth birthday.  He converted to Puritanism by this age, and that caused problems for him with his parents.  His ability with stenography brought him to the attention of Sir Edward Coke–considered the founder of the concepts of habeas corpus, common law, and hundreds of the ideas that established the very core of English law.  From the age of 12 to 18, John Barry and I believe Roger lived in Coke’s mansion. He did stenography, final copies, and visited London courts to record cases for Coke’s possible some writing with Sir Coke.  Coke referred to him as a son. This gave this brilliant teenager more legal training than any lawyer of the day and more understanding of the ideals expressed by Coke.
Coke sends him to Charterhouse school, and Roger is a star.  He graduates from Pembroke College with honors, friends and connections to the Rich-Barrington-Hildersham group. This is profound, for it is this group that provides the shield for Roger from any physical punishments in Massachsuetts .—this puts him into a group rather than the ‘solo’ person that most biographies insist on.
Roger is ordained into the Church of England. He cannot find work at an Anglican church, because of his Separatist beliefs. Instead, he becomes the domestic chaplain at the home Sir William and Lady Masham.  By this point in his life, Roger has established himself as an excellent minister, a brilliant scholar, and a hard core believer in separatism, separation of church and state, and establishes his personal goal to build a society which is fair, honest, and generous to the poor.  Many writers of the day wrote about these ideas,  but Roger Williams is the only man in the world who created in the real world such a society.

          That is the treasure that we receive every day.  For that, Roger Williams is as important to America as Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and even John Locke.
During the Parliamentary meeting in June of 1629, Sir Coke’s Petition of Right is passed.  Roger attends that meeting, and he carries messages amongst the members and from London to Essex. Lady Masham’s father, Sir Francis Barrington, had died in 1628, and he was remembered as a saint for the Puritan movement. Roger had his blessings! Roger was there when King Charles ended Parliament!
During these years, Roger evolves a brilliant architecture of reality. His spiritual beliefs, his knowledge of the law, his natural openness with all people, and his downright stubbornness makes Roger one of the most brilliant men of his time. It may surprise you, but I put him at the same level as Einstein, Tesla, Edison, and any other brilliant minds. Without his work, there is no modern secular state.
Finally, understanding his definition of what it means to follow God and Christ. He rejected every bit of the Church of England as being apostate. Anything created by Constantine’s Roman Catholic Church marked the end of Christ’s message. He rejected all of the borrowing that Christianity from pagan religions such as Christmas. For most of his adult life, Roger did not belong to a Christian denomination.   Why?  He saw the gift of life from God and Christ as the greatest gift ever.  He writes often that that gift is greater than any treasure that any king or emperor could acquire. He believed that meeting the goals of the scriptures was a person’s ultimate goal, and people were unable to worship in any group. Groups corrupt the relation between the Christian and the Christian life requirements.

        When you put these ideas into a real analysis, you will find echos of some of the deepest thinkers in Christianity. This is a real tragedy. Roger’s thoughts about these deep issues have been hidden from all of us.
His was a belief in Jesus’s message to follow the laws that give people freedom, fairness, equality in the political realm, care for the poor, democracy for property owners, and the faith that we all will be punished or rewarded——BUT, these acts will not occur until the end of time and the return of Christ.  I am not sure where we stay for those years of waiting.  “…But the Son of man, the meek Lamb of God—for the elect’s sake which must be gathered out of the Jew, Gentile, pagan, anti-Christian—commends a permission of them in the world until the time of the end of the world, when the goats and sheep, the tare and wheat, shall be eternally separated from each other…” (RW: Bloudy Tenent  p. 59 Mercer University Press 2001)   Roger believed that whatever happens to any of us will not occur until the end of the world.   This puts him into a unique niche of Christianity.

Marc Kohler