The pilgrims and America's gospel foundations

As America commemorates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the story of the Pilgrims remains an important part of understanding the nation’s earliest Christian foundations. Stephen McDowell, co-founder and president of the Providence Foundation, attests to this. He also emphasizes that the greatest threat to the truth about the Pilgrims is often not what is directly denied, but what is omitted.

“While some books and educators directly lie about the Pilgrims and their primary Christian motive for starting a new colony in America,” he said, “the greatest threat to the truth about their story is what is left out when their story is told.”

McDowell points out that the Pilgrims are sometimes presented without reference to their faith, even though their writings show that Christianity was central to their purpose.

“Teaching about the Pilgrims without referencing God causes people to think that Christianity was not important to them,” he asserted. “Revisionist history is a primary reason for the secularization of America. People are taught our history without mentioning Christianity, or if it is cited, it is often presented in a negative light, when in reality it is the most important influence in the birth, growth, and development of the nation.”

The Pilgrims’ Christian love

William Bradford, governor of Plymouth colony for 30 years, wrote Of Plimoth Plantation, one of the most significant historical works of early America.

McDowell noted, “You only need to read a few pages to see the sincere and deep faith of these men and women who served as ‘stepping stones’ for those who would follow.”

According to Bradford’s account, half of the Pilgrims died during the first winter after arriving at Plymouth, and many others suffered sickness and hunger. At one point, only six or seven were strong enough to care for the rest. Bradford recorded that the caregivers did the following:

Fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed them meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them; in a word, they did all the homely and necessary offices for them which dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear named; and all this willingly and cheerfully, without any grudging in the least.

McDowell highlighted this as evidence of their Christian character and practical love.

The Pilgrims’ gospel mission

The Pilgrims’ stated purpose in coming to America was also recorded by Bradford and later inscribed on his monument in Plymouth:

A great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation (or at least to make some way thereunto) for the propagating and advancing [of] the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts the world.

This charge to spread the gospel also influenced their understanding of civil life. Before going ashore, the Pilgrims drafted and signed the Mayflower Compact, covenanting together before God:

Having undertaken for the Glory of God and Advancement of the Christian Faith … [we] Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politic.

For McDowell, the Pilgrims’ writings show that their love and devotion to God, and their reliance upon Him in abundance and lack, were evident in both private life and public action. Their story remains part of the record of America’s beginnings and stands as evidence of the nation’s deep Christian heritage.