Dear sweet sister Susarra,

     Oh how I wish you could join me here on this beautiful planet sister.  So many different vibrant colors are alive here, not like back home on our planet Hextor.  Do not fray however; remember that you will be allowed to travel here in less than 3 years.  There are specific rules about this as I learned quickly it is easy to get lost here.  Not one sign saying where this or that is located!  The inhabitants of North America sure seem to be a little behind the times here.  The ground upon which I walk is covered in what I learned to be called grass, and oh how it covers the ground in green.  I would choose this grass to have as my floor over any metal back home. If only our planet could host life to these many colors, not the dull greys, reds, and brown we're used to everyday.  Don’t worry though sister, I will bring back with me many samples of the varying matter here on planet Earth.  Maybe even a little seed to grow our own grass, though I doubt it will grow in our planets environment.  But heck, we'll give it a try!

     In my first several days here I have met many earthlings.  The disguises provided back home sure are foolproof!  Not one person has taken notice of me, well not any more than any other girl around here.  This is not important though; of course our leaders would only provide the best!  Back to the earthlings I have met; this is really the interesting stuff.  Everyone I meet I ask their opinions on life and what they believe in.  As this really is our mission here, to learn about these Earthlings.  Well, the majority of people ramble on about some man they are always trying to please.  Just the other day I came across another of our own, these disguises may fool the Earthlings but they can't fool me!  His name is Xeft, and he kindly shared with me several readings and works of literature he has collected during his stay here.  These readings span a couple hundred years and include works both by the English and by the Native Americans.  After reading through several of these works, I found that the ideas that were written very closely resembled what I was hearing from the locals.  The North Americans most strongly believe in religion and follow a man by the name of God because they believe he is the creator of the universe.  Every thing they do is influenced by this God.  The most interesting thing I have found however is that not all of these ideas or portrayals of God are similar.  I will go into further depth so you may understand better.

     To begin my explanation of the North Americans and their belief in this man God, you must understand that not everybody believed in the same version of this God.  The following quote by Roger Williams found in, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, is evidence of this diversity.  "That whatever way of worshipping God, your own consciences are persuaded to walk in" (Williams).  Religion is the word for what separated and classified these belief systems.  According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, found online, religion is a "personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices," (Merriam/Webster).  The original colonists were predominantly of the Christian religion.  Today however, many more religions are present in North America.  According to Largest Religious Groups In the United States of America, some of the religions present at this time include; Christianity, Judaism, Agnostic, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

     I have found in many of the works of literature given to me by our fellow Hextorian that many poets of the time incorporated God and religion into their richly written lines. I did not matter whether the poet was a male or woman, I found evidence of both speaking of God in their poems.  I have included a few lines from Edward Taylor's poem, "Meditation 8" so that you may see for yourself.  "Come Eate thy fill of this thy Gods White Loafe?/ Its Food too fine for Angells, yet come, take/ And Eate thy fill. It's Heavens Sugar Cake" (ll. 28-30).  As you can see, Taylor speaks of God, angels and heaven.  All three of these relate to God himself and the Christian belief of heaven and angels.  Something you may not know sister is that here on planet Earth, the earthlings have given names and terms for the varying language utilized in a poem.  We are used to thinking of a poem as just a poem! Written from whatever lies within the author.  I truly have enjoyed learning about all the different methods used to write poems here on Earth. I'll tell you about just one of these poetry terms in hopes that you will understand a little better.  I want you to look specifically at the line, "Come Eate thy fill of this thy Gods White Loafe" (l. 28).   This is an example of a metaphor.  Metaphor is defined as, "A figure of speech that associates two unlike things" according to Literary Terms to Know, written by Gill Creel.  "Gods white loafe" is the metaphor here (Taylor).  Edward Taylor is associating God's grace to Gods white loafe.  You may not understand what Gods grace is but everyone who would have read this poem at the time would.  

     From the 1600's through the 1700's there were groups of people who held slightly different views of the Christian religion. I feel that I should share with you two of those main sub-classes of Christianity that I found.  I want to first tell you about a large group of earthlings whom referred to themselves as Puritans.  According to, Perspectives In American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide, written by Paul Reuben these Puritans came to North America in the early 1600's.  They were of the religion Christianity.  Some of the specific beliefs Puritans had in regards to God include; "Irresistible grace- God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied, total depravity- every person is born sinful, and unconditional election- God saves those he wishes, only a few are selected for salvation," (Reuben).  One last belief I found in another writing titled Puritanism In New England, is that the Puritans believed in "predestination" (Campbell).  This is all very interesting sister, is it not?

     The next sub-class of Christians I want to tell you about are called Deists.  I found the following information on a website article titled "Notes On Deism," written by Gill Creel.  These people, Deists, lived in the Enlightenment era or the 1700's (Creel).  Many of their beliefs regarding God related to the new interest of the time, science (Creel).  The following are some of the specific beliefs the Deists held regarding God.  "God rules the world by established laws," the universe runs like time on a clock, God does not interfere (Creel).  "Religion is based on reason and experience, which can be gained through the study of nature," (Creel).  The last belief I will include is, "Human beings are free agents whose minds work as they choose," (Creel). 

     You can see sister as I have that these two Christian sects have ideas which both are similar to each other and different.  The belief that God does not interfere in the lives of humans is a belief shared by both the Puritans and Deists.  The Puritans refer to this as "predestination" (Campbell).  Predestination here is the idea that God had prepared every human life when he created the universe, which can never be tampered with.  One way in which these two sects beliefs differ from one another is that the Puritans believe, "every person is born sinful" (Campbell).  Whereas the Deists believe, "human beings are free agents whose minds work as they choose," (Creel).  These two beliefs refute one another.  Would you not agree sister that if "human beings are free agents whose minds work as they choose", they would not then be born into sin (Creel)?  Thankfully on our home planet of Hextor every living being is predisposed to only do what is just and right.  The humans here on planet Earth seem to have had a hard time distinguishing and agreeing upon the difference between what is right and wrong.  I have learned quickly that this issue is still prevalent today on planet Earth.  Maybe this is a reason why their civilization is so far behind our own.  What do you think?

     From the writings of Christian Puritans of the time I was able to find specific passages, which correlate to their own belief system as well as their general belief in God.  A quote by Roger Williams I found in, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, is an excellent example of the belief that "God saves those he wishes," (Reuben).  "To cast out unclean spirits, which only the finger of God can do," (Williams).  Here sister you can see that Roger Williams is saying those who are unclean, or sinful, will be cast out by the power of God, and by the power of God alone.  

     Found in the discussion, Week Six: Paine and Enlightenment, Yolanda Mounger-Lovely gave a great example of one way in which Thomas Paine's writings coincided with Deistic Christian beliefs.  She wrote, "He [Thomas Paine] believes that honoring the church of Britain will not bring you any closer to God," (Mounger-Lovely).  All Deists would agree that this would have been an accurate viewpoint of the time.  As mentioned above, Deists believe that one may grow to better understand religion and God through the study of nature, and not through honoring the church of Britain.  In another discussion, Week Six: Wheatley and Freneau, I found another example of Deistic beliefs.  The author of this discussion is Ann Brady.  She refers to a passage from Wheatley's poem, On Being Brought From Africa to America, to show how her poems hold true to Deistic beliefs.  The passage of the poem we are looking at here is a follows, "Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,/ May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train," (ll. 7-8).  Ann Brady found in these lines that what Wheatley is saying correlates to the Deistic or Enlightenment era belief that all humans have the potential to improve themselves. I especially wanted to include Ann Brady's ideas here sister because I would not have otherwise recognized this on my own. 

     So sister, what do you think of this all?  I know, it is a lot to comprehend right now.  In a few years when you travel here you will learn more of these Earthlings history as I have.  For now, I want you to remember all I have told you and just think about how these Earthling beliefs make us so very different from them. Keep in mind what the main belief I found here in North America was over 400 years ago that still holds true today, God and religion.  So long for now sister!  I will keep writing as I learn more.  I know how much you love to learn about other life in this universe of ours. 

Love, 

Plusarra (Earth name, Brenna Mulhollam)