Pip to the PLANET SNOOK.

ATTN: Wimble II. Rook

     Here I am on the continent ‘North America’ on this absurd planet Earth. I have spent a vast amount of time living here studying these Earthlings and I am respectfully entering my findings. Furthermore, I am requesting a transfer home, or anywhere else in the universe for that matter. In the time that I have spent here, I have found the Earthlings to be all but short of strange and discombobulated. Through my diligent studies of the North American culture, I have found the North American’s life is fundamentally surrounded by the concept of religious sovereignty (which they have obviously not grasped the concept; that this does not exist!) and is clearly shown throughout the early literature of their culture.

     Firstly you must understand that most of the writers that are being discussed are actually encroachers of the continent ‘North America’; they are people who traveled across the sea mainly from ‘Europe’ another continent on Planet Earth.  Through the workings of our universal translator I have been able to read many writing throughout the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The first three writers from the 16^th century; William Bradford, John Winthrop, and Roger Williams, although obnoxiously wordy at times, were dealing with religious concepts that have been reflected in Earth’s modern day society, in the interworking’s and controversy surrounding the idea of separation of church and state. Little did these men know that these issues would still be relevant in their current society five centuries later! In William Bradford and John Winthrop’s writings I found a similar tone and irony of intolerability. They were both intolerable of different religious ideas; both men were governors and felt that their thoughts on religion, Puritanism, were what people needed to be living their lives by. In Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity, he stated, “It is by a mutual consent, through a special overvaluing providence and a more than an ordinary approbation of the Churches of Christ, to seek out a place of cohabitation and consortship under a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical” (Winthrop 156). For a man who left Europe to separate from the Church of England, Winthrop was hypocritical within his ideas because he was preaching to the colonist that they must follow this religion and live by its laws, which basically was the idea of reinstating the same process he did not like in Europe, in America.

However in this time there was a bit of fresh air being breathed; by a man called Roger Williams. Williams did not believe in religious superiority and intolerance rather he felt people should be free to practice the religion of choice and that the government or any person of power or authority should have the right to tell another who, when, or how they should worship. In one of Williams’ writings Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, he made a statement that perfectly sums up his counterpoint to that of Bradford and Winthrop, “All civil states, with their officers of justice, in their respective constitutions and administrations, are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual, or Christian, state and worship” (Williams). I felt that this was a very bold stance for a man not in power to be taking and writing about. This open mindedness is exactly what give this dim planet its light and hope for the future.

     Now in the 17^th century writings I read; I came across a poet that went by the name Philip Freneau his particular poem called “On Mr. Paines Rights of Man” it struck me as quite the fascinating piece of work, it used the concepts of allegory and allusion brilliantly. A snippet of the poem reads, “Which asks no monarch, to support the STARS, / Without a king, the laws maintain their sway, / While honour bids each generous heart obey, / Be our’s the task the ambitious to restrain, / And this great lesson teach – that kings are vain” (ll. 40- 44). Throughout the poem Freneau insinuates to the power England has over the colonies, that people are still abiding to the Church of Europe’s rules and religions as well as their government; but the colonist must start thinking for themselves to show England that the colonies do not need their support. Without the “King” people can think and grow through experience, education, and religion to better life this relates directly to the European Enlightenment thought of this time where a main component of thought was, “Human experience is the foundation of human understanding of truth; authority is not to be preferred over experience” (Hooker). A great resource that our universal translator directed me to for more depth on European Enlightenment was an article by a Richard Hooker, may help you understand better as well. Strangely enough this poem leads me to the works of another Enlightenment follower of the time, Thomas Paine (the man whom the poem gave a slight ‘shout out’ to). In the literature of Paine I found a plethora of Enlightenment ideas throughout his works. Paine's writings were filled with clever and knowledgeable Enlightenment ideas bringing ideas to his readers making them think for themselves.

     After experiencing the literature of Planet Earth’s 16^th and 17^th century I feel that the planet has grown exponentially; however its current day is still in need of religious clarification. They have grown in the idea that ‘maybe religious sovereignty may not exist,’ however it is still present just not as prominent. I took the liberty to also read up on some current Earthling’s thoughts and found a great example of just that. In a commentary “Or we shall be doomed to repeat” it was stated, “From the words and works of these men we must take with us the knowledge that sadly does not yet resonate through the   21^st century, that because a people look, pray or speak differently from us should not lead us to assume their ignorance but instead the intelligence that we may gain from them. Either this, or we are doomed to repeat the past” (Burns). This statement shows a lack of growth within the 21^st century, but a light of hope and a tinge of Enlightenment ideals since Burns used reason and a sense of worldly understanding to tell her audience of the education and acceptance people need to make these changes.

     In conclusion I Pip believe that the Planet Earth is not ready for succession into the Outer-Bounds of Council; due to their lack of religious tolerability. Yet, I will state that they are still an adolescent culture, nothing comparable to that of the knowledge SNOOK’s culture possesses. For the future I hold hope that the Earthlings will come to understand that it is not about religious sovereignty, but religious acceptance.

- Pip Reporting.