On Sunday September 21st, 2025 the Memorial Service for Charlie Kirk took place. His death was the boiled down, pure form version of Cancel Culture. His life was Cancelled for his Faith, Beliefs and Ideas. While many are saying his Beliefs and Ideas were Radical, his Beliefs and Ideas were almost 100% completely and entirely aligned with our Founding Fathers. One of those founders I think he most reflects is Roger Williams.
Roger Williams was the Founder of Rhode Island. Roger Williams was a Puritan, a Theologian and a Politician. Before founding Rhode Island, Williams came to the Americas from England and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with fellow Puritans. In Europe Christians were slaughtering Christians for how they believed in Christianity. While the Puritans escaped Religious Persecution in Europe they established the Massachusetts Bay Colony which was basically a Religious State enforcing Puritan Religious Uniformity. Think you’re staying home from Church on Sunday? Not in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. You’re a man who wants long hair? Not in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. There were laws regulating every aspect of ones life including Religious Affairs. These laws were enforced by whippings, cutting off of individuals ears, and banishment. Freedom of thought, expression and conscience were not allowed.
Roger Williams saw this Religious Uniformity being enforced by the Government as contrary to Scripture. He Believed in Soul Liberty. In Williams words, he believed “Enforced Uniformity of Religion by the Civil Government is the Greatest Occasion of Persecution of Christ Jesus and His Saints. That God requireth Not A Uniformity of Religion to be Enforced by A Civil State” He believed these whippings and persecutions were raping the souls of men. He argued and Preached against the authorities in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He believed you could not force people to be Christians, you could only convince through love and persuasion to be Christian. When the authorities got word of this they censored Williams. They said you can continue to think what you want but you just can’t preach it. But he continued to Preach.
So in response to Roger Williams defiance, the Massachusetts Bay Colony Authorities Banished Roger Williams. Cancel Culture, believe it or not, is not something new. The phrase may be, but the idea is as old as time. The plan was to ship Roger back to England where he’d be imprisoned and likely die in an English Prison. All because of a difference of view on Religious matters. Fortunately, Roger managed to escape the Authorities and would go on to found the state of Rhode Island which would establish the first Charter in world history to have Freedom of Religion.
Roger believed, as did Charlie Kirk, in Freedom of Conscience. Williams believed in Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech. He believed force was not the means by which to change a mans heart. It could change his behavior perhaps, but not his beliefs stored deep in the core of his heart. Williams believed debate and dialogue was the means by which a civil society ought to handle differences on matters of Religion and Politics. For this, he was banished, cancelled. By God’s Grace he managed to escape prison and an early death. Charlie Kirk did not have that same fate.
Charlie Kirk believed in the same principles as Roger Williams. He believed in Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Conscience. He never tried to force anybody to believe what he did, he tried to convince people through respectful and civil debate. But instead of being banished from a colony, he was banished from this planet. Assassinated by a person influenced and embracing a radical religious cult with the same mentality as the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. “Call me by my pronouns, accept my lifestyle or die!” A new Secular, even Satanic, Religious Uniformity has developed on the left. “Do as we say, or keep your mouth shut or we will cancel you or even kill you.”
In a time when the nation seems to have never been more divided, while some are calling for Political Violence, some are committing Political Violence and while some say we’re headed for Civil War… Charlie Kirk and Roger Williams would say the keys to living in a Civil Society is to debate and persuade your opponents to your way of thinking. Force and murder for Political or Religious disagreements is not the way by which any society can survive.
To learn more about Roger Williams, the Separation of Church and State, and Religious Freedom Watch the Documentary Church and State: Roger Williams and the Founding of Freedom of Religion