She explained that she was working on an up-coming group exhibition plan related to religion. I thought through possible project proposals, based on my past work, and visited the museum.
This exhibition title is:
"'This Case of Conscience:' Spiritual Flushing and the remonstrance."
It does not make sense if you do not know what the Flushing Remonstrance is.
Yes, I did not know anything about that document at the time.
What is it?
As the QMA states in their summary of the exhibition:
"The Flushing Remonstrance is widely regarded as a precursor to the provision on religious freedom in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights. Signed on December 27, 1657, this document of protest was conceived by New Netherlands colonists who resided in Flushing and strenuously opposed the persecution of religions outside the established Reformed Dutch Church. Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherlands, had issued an edict prohibiting any colonist from entertaining Quakers or hosting Quaker meetings in his or her home. When eminent settler Henry Townsend held such a meeting and was subsequently punished with a fine and banishment, a group of thirty-odd Flushing citizens responded with the Flushing Remonstrance, which eloquently championed the cause of religious tolerance.
"David William Voorhees, Director of the Papers of Jacob Leisler Project at New York University, observes that the cause of freedom of conscience was well-entrenched in the Dutch Republic and in the sixteenth-century Dutch constitution “as a cornerstone in the foundation of their state.” Invoking the “freedom from molestation” clause of their 1645 town charter, the Remonstrance petitioners asserted that the “law of love, peace and liberty in the states extend[s] to Jews, Turks [Muslims] and Egyptians [Romany],” and that “our desire is not to offend one of his little ones, in whatsoever form, name or title hee [sic] appears in, whether Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or Quaker.” In terms that seem to presage modern-day concepts of pluralism and religious liberty, the signers of the Remonstrance argued unequivocally for the right of the individual to worship as he or she saw fit: “Wee [sic] desire therefore in this case not to judge least [sic] we be judged, neither to condemn least we be condemned, but rather let every man stand or fall to his own Master. Wee are bounde [sic] by the law to do good unto all men, especially to those of the household of faith. And though for the present we seem to be unsensible [sic] for the law and the Law giver, yet when death and the Law assault us, if wee have our advocate to seeke [sic], who shall plead for us in this case of conscience betwixt God and our own souls….”
"Stuyvesant ordered the arrest of four of the signers, including Remonstrance author and town clerk Edward Hart and sheriff Tobias Feake. Hart was later banished from the colony and Feake pardoned only after a formal apology. Additionally, the Flushing town government was dismantled and supplanted with Dutch appointments hand-picked by Stuyvesant. However, Quakerism continued to flourish throughout Long Island and the Hudson Valley, as did resistance to the persecution of its practitioners, culminating in the 1663 removal of the ban by the burghers back in Holland and simultaneous launch of religious freedom in the colony. With its galvanizing language and pivotal role in sparking such important reforms, the Flushing Remonstrance remains a powerful touchstone for current considerations of religious liberty and mutual respect."
Currently, Flushing, Queens has more than 300 religious organizations!
It's hard to believe, but I received a list of all of them, compiled by the NY City Hall. It's really amazing!
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